eventing fit - riders in full time work

[OliveOyl]

Are there some of you here who keep your horses properly eventing fit and are in full time work??

If so, how do you manage it and what would a usual weekly routine be for you? Do you have good hacking available for fast work, or do you box up to gallops and the like?

 

[H-J]

I have and will be in a few weeks keeping two horses event fit, one at Intro and the other at Novice level.

And I work 9-5. I have a very kind mum who does my mucking out for me when i have 2 horses!! When I have the one I do it but mum does them when I have two. I get to the farm around 6pm and get my head down excerising them, usually have a jump lesson on each once a week and a dressage lesson on them once a week and event every 1-2weeks. It is hard work but I wouldnt have it any other way. I love it.

 

[H-J]

And I luckily have an all weather surface all the way around the 100 acre farm for fittening, only thing is there is no hills really, we have to box up to get to hills.

 

[OliveOyl]

Oh wow!! A 100 acre fittening area - can I come live with you!!

 

[H-J]

It is great, forget how lucky we are really as it is all weather

 

[LEC]

I work full time - I ride as often as I can every night after work. I am lucky have some very good local trainers who let me use there all weather tracks. Mind you my horse is only at PN so do not worry about it too much. I also have to drive to use a school but have a indoor arena 10 mins away. In winter I only ride twice a week and that is plenty to keep them ticking over but I am not eventing then.

 

[Nickymac]

I've had two in work since March, one intermediate and one 4yr old BYEH. I'm lucky that I don't start work till 10 so I don't have to sit in the rush hour traffic too much. I keep them at Keysoe (College EC) so have fantastic facilities there. I do all my interval training on the huge outdoor arena, and can use the intro/PN/novice cross country courses for schooling. It still means I have to get up at 5.15 most mornings but I save a fortune in diesel by not having to use my lorry to go schooling/galloping/training.

 

[sea_view]

I work full time have two horses one of which is eventing fit. I'm up super early before work to muck out and get organised, I ride as many times as I can in the evenings after work and in the winter months trailer him to lessons/clinics/ etc. I have a great friend who helps with my pony but its a lot of hard work, early rises and getting wet riding in most terrains!

Wouldn't change it though and it is my choice!

 

[Sarah_Jane]

It's hard work. I have two eventing one at Intermediate level and one at Intro. I work full time although my hours are usually 7-3 however work is nearly an hours drive away.

To be honest I don't worry about the Intro horse much. He lives out and gets ridden about 5 times a week on average for an hour usually hacking. I have no facilities where I am so if possible box him up once a week to school somewhere. I don't see the need to do much canter work at Intro or PN.

The Intermediate horse is hard work. In the summer the ground is too hard to do any canter work locally so I box up every 4/5 days to gallops. The nearest gallops are an hours drive away! I don't do much jumping in between events but if the field is hard have to box up to go to an arena and and do flatwork as often as possible.

The horses are on DIY livery and done totally by me hence no time for a social life, other half etc. It is worth it when the results come but not easy particularly in Cornwall! I could not imagine not doing it.

 

[meganograph]

We've had part liveries at our yard who have been kept (Novice level) eventing fit by their owners. Most come very early in the morning, then ride both weekend days. We are lucky in the fact we have around a two mile "gallops" (I believe it used to be Tarporley race course) directly behind our yard, so that's good for a ten minute pipe opener if there's no time for anything else. Also, being a full livery yard, if for some reason the owner couldn't come, we would always take it on exercise.

It can be done! Just takes hard work. Lucky eventing season has longer days

 

[Saf]

Hi
I work shifts and have one event fit at novice level, if I am days she is done after work and if on lates ride before work.
Lucky to have 200 acre farm to ride round plus jumping paddock and menage but do have to keep her part livery incase kept on at work but always ride whatever

I do not have a partner and there is no way at the moment he would fit in with my schedule

, days off are competing or fitting in lessons or fast work etc
Would not change anything in my routine, oh except would like a bit of extra cash for me

Saf has it all

 

[jennystreek]

Its so good to hear of other "normal" people out there!! I work as a pharmaceutical rep full time, although there is a degree of flexibilty in the hours......so i can get away with getting on patch after 9 (probably more like 10am!), and getting home 3ish!!

I have just bought another event horse (although they are no higher than PN level), so will have two to do this winter on DIY. My plan is to try and ride one before work, and one after work, and to aim for 4 times a week and weekends competing. Will hopefully get a bit of help from my sister with hacking, so should give me a bit of time off.

What i find most difficult though is trying to fit the boyfriend in to my plans....by the time i get to see him all i want to do is go to sleep in preparation for my 5.30am start the next day....poor sod!!!

 

[mandy4727]

Our YO has 3 horses. Only 2 event fit but the other is ridden every day. And she works full time aswell. We don't know how she manages it. Not being nasty to her, but still lives at home with mum and day - so no house work and shopping to do. She runs the yard but her mum and dad actually own it. But she does really well and puts the hours in with her horses.

 

[mrussell]

We have one track for cantering on (no galloping) that is roughly 5 minutes long with turns round the headlands. We use it about 3 times a week from March to Nov but only once at weekends in the winter. We school daily too in our mneage (in the dark mostly).

That got us fit enough to do up to Novice.

 

[Petrie]

I think it's the canter work that's the hardest thing to do for working riders, unless you've got an all-weather surface on site. I have a field to canter round, but of course it's weather dependent. I do a bit of cantering on the school, but it's not great.

To be honest, I never do any proper canter work for novice horses, apart from a good canter on a hack. Mine stays plenty fit enough from hacking, schooling, lessons and competing and has been successful at Novice level. For Intermediate, I did do some proper interval training.

My routine would be to ride him 6 days a week which would include 3 or 4 sessions in the school for an hour and 2 -3 hacks for an hour to an hour and a half, bit of trotting and cantering, ground permitting. Or a jumping or flat work lesson in place of one of those. he also gets turned out a lot, and I evented him all summer on 24 hr turnout. Then he would event once a fortnight, with plenty of go in him for Novice.

I think it does depend on the type of horse too - if it's mostly TB and an older horse, it will keep pretty fit.

The other thing is to give them short rest periods too. Mone gets the odd fortnight off here and there, and possibly a 4 week rest at the end of the season or after a 3 day. That way, you don't have to start the road work again from scratch. A 2 hr hack on the roads every day before work would be a killer!

It can be done, and you can still sort of have a life, but really, the horse and eventing becomes your life during the season!

 

[SpruceRI]

I have two horses, one doing Intro and one PN. They both live out and to be honest my fields could do with weeding and the yard with sweeping, but I just haven't got time.

I exercise them both 4-5 times per week from April to October, and they both get lunged at least once each. Rock hard ground this summer has been a real problem. There's a school I can hire but it's a 3 mile hack away - so not a quick ride. Hacking round here is also pretty crap although I can ride on the stubble fields at the mo, though again, ground unsuitable for anything faster than trot.

Have little facilities apart from a hay field to ride on after last cut (can put my jumps and dressage markers out on it), but have transport, so box to decent schools and hacking whenever I have time. Don't worry too much about fast work, for saving their legs do more of the long slow stuff, though finding the time always a problem.

Could do with someone to mend my fences, poo pick, creosote stables, lug hay to field, hoover out car, clip, plait...... blah blah blah