Getting more hours in the saddle

[stangs]

I’m currently going through my regularly scheduled crisis about the fact I don’t ride enough.

I work part time at a yard alongside my 9-5, so get a 1-2 hours riding a week in that way; get as many riding lessons as I can afford (which is not as many as I’d like); and occasionally exercise a friend’s, but it’s not enough.

I’ve considered the usual options - share horse (keeping an eye out but nothing has come up within a reasonable distance from me); civvie riding for the cavalry (so far unable to find a way in); and riding out racehorses (not convinced I’m a strong enough rider, and also can’t see a way in). Horse is at a retirement livery so can’t ask other liveries if they need their horses worked. I’m trying to network with more horsey people, just through volunteering at events and the like, in the hopes that I may reap some benefits from that, but that won’t happen anytime soon.

So I thought I’d ask on here about other people’s stories, as a sort of brainstorming session, in the hopes that a new idea might come up.

Those of you’ve made a conscious effort to ride more, how have you gotten the opportunity? If you school RDA ponies, exercise hunters or polo ponies, or do anything else, how did you get into it? Any and all ideas, thoughts, and experiences appreciated.

 

[Abacus]

If you are paying for riding lessons (and are competent!) then I think you'd be snapped up as a sharer if you can commit regularly and are willing to contribute financially. This seems the obvious answer. Even if it's not totally regular there ARE horses out there whose owners wouldn't mind them ridden occasionally (I have exactly this arrangement with a lovely friend who sometimes rides my old boy, and it doesn't matter if she can't). I'd say there are probably 3 horses at my yard of 15 where the owners would consider a share to the right person.

You said you've kept an eye out but have you advertised yourself? Facebook posts are probably the easiest way to find something locally, or stick an ad in tackshops.

What area are you in? Someone here might have something for you.

 

[Waxwing]

I am not in exactly the same position, but I am not entirely sure I want to commit to buying a horse and I would like to ride a bit more than I currently do. I am paying for two lessons a week, one midweek and one at the weekend but I would also like to be able to hack once or twice a week. I would be happy with a horse that would be happy to go our for a walk and trot around the village (or equivalent), some cantering would be a bonus. I am not looking to do anything particularly adventurous. I have thought about a share but working full time with an on-call job on top of that and a neuro diverse daughter who still needs a lot of support I cannot commit to set days each week. I have thought about advertising locally for an occasional/ adhoc horse to hack. I am happy to make a financial contribution; its a lack of time rather than the lack of funds that is making me consider not buying another horse. I am currently enjoying spending the livery money on other things.

 

[rhino]

I help out at competitions, the centre has an attached riding school and I can ride (hack/school/jump) pretty much whenever I want. Mainly restricted to the summer as I’m too busy otherwise. Lovely safe horses with a nice level of schooling.

Until recently I also spent several years helping a local event pro, general yard help (there was always a groom too) and then plaited/groomed/helped at events (usually multiple horses). I could again ride as much as I wanted at home, anything from recent breakers onwards. I had the opportunity to ride some high class horses inc one who went on to be top 10 at Burghley this year. I also got to take a few to the beach or local small unaff comps, if they were destined to be nice allround types rather than eventers. I did only choose to ride the nicer/safer ones though; I know my limits!

Both of these have been fitted in around full time M to F work.

I have on occasion also offered to help out at local Trec/RC type events and been offered a horse to compete instead. I am in no way a great rider!

 

[IrishMilo]

Why don't you put an ad up on your local horsey page? Lots of people are probably looking for a sharer but don't necessarily want to advertise publicly.

 

[Fullers1845]

Why don't you put an ad up on your local horsey page? Lots of people are probably looking for a sharer but don't necessarily want to advertise publicly.

Definitely try this; probably a few locals that could do with a hand but don't want to be bombarded with enquiries.

 

[Widgeon]

Definitely try this; probably a few locals that could do with a hand but don't want to be bombarded with enquiries.

Yes....I'm sat here right now thinking about messaging a neighbour to ask if she'd like to ride my horse, but I wouldn't put a general advert out (he's a kind and mostly easy sort so I suspect I'd be bombarded with what my old boss used to call "numpties"). There are probably loads of us in the same boat.

 

[Polos Mum]

Yes....I'm sat here right now thinking about messaging a neighbour to ask if she'd like to ride my horse, but I wouldn't put a general advert out (he's a kind and mostly easy sort so I suspect I'd be bombarded with what my old boss used to call "numpties"). There are probably loads of us in the same boat.

I'm another horse owner in this camp. I keep an eye out for sharer wanted adverts and have replied to a few. My horse is lovely and I want him to stay that way so no chance I'm putting an advert up for him and having 97 people ask if their 12 y/o can ride him (they couldn't but not what I want for him) or 78 people ask how high he can jump - (plenty but it's not his favorite thing).

Try and open and honest wanted ad and see what happens

 

[stangs]

You said you've kept an eye out but have you advertised yourself? Facebook posts are probably the easiest way to find something locally, or stick an ad in tackshops.

Why don't you put an ad up on your local horsey page? Lots of people are probably looking for a sharer but don't necessarily want to advertise publicly.

Definitely try this; probably a few locals that could do with a hand but don't want to be bombarded with enquiries.

I did an FB ad in the past and got no useful replies, either people way out of my area or paying £30 for the privilege of helping rehab a horse.

Problem with being in London is that there are far fewer people looking for sharers than there are people looking for share horses. And not many people looking for 1 day a week, which is all I could do reliably these days.

Having said that, as we're now the period where most horses in the area will be stuck in stables, I'm wondering whether to put up another ad offering to help exercise horses over winter instead of a longer term share? But not sure if that's something owners are interested in.

 

[ihatework]

Round my way I could probably do a fb ad, along the lines of ‘free exercise rider’ and be inundated with hunt/polo horses.

As an experienced rider with a cv, I could probably also pitch to the RC market as free schooling.

But I’m not in London!

That said, if you ride well enough then any full time working horse owner might well take you up on mid week exercising if it means they don’t have to pay someone. It’ll be about how you pitch it.

 

[stangs]

Round my way I could probably do a fb ad, along the lines of ‘free exercise rider’ and be inundated with hunt/polo horses.

As an experienced rider with a cv, I could probably also pitch to the RC market as free schooling.

But I’m not in London!

That said, if you ride well enough then any full time working horse owner might well take you up on mid week exercising if it means they don’t have to pay someone. It’ll be about how you pitch it.

I'll put my hands up and say my riding CV looks like sh*t. Helped back youngsters with a dealer, had a variety of horses, played some polo, worked taking rides out, but I've rarely had the chance to compete and pretty much all my professional experience with horses is at riding schools so no one respects it. If I were looking for someone to exercise a horse, I wouldn't ask me.

Will admit I'm wondering whether to just give up and accept being a mediocre hour-a-week rider, or just give up riding completely. Seems a bit hopeless spending so much time and mental energy over an inaccessible sport I'll never really get the opportunity to improve at.

 

[teapot]

Does wherever you have lessons offer anything like riding in staff training, loaning one of the RS horses, supervised schooling type sessions?

 

[stangs]

Does wherever you have lessons offer anything like riding in staff training, loaning one of the RS horses, supervised schooling type sessions?

Yard 1, no.

Yard 2's also no but it's effectively unsupervised schooling because I usually do my own thing in the background of a group lesson. I've received multiple comments from my instructor along the lines of "I've never seen [horse] go so well before, even in staff lessons" "never seen [horse] not start bucking with someone" etc. But when I offered to come more often to help school - effectively just get the greener ones used to being in the 'advanced' lessons - I got told I'd have to pay full price. And, funnily enough, I don't fancy paying full group lesson price to be the only person schooling lead rein ponies to get off the lead. But the management value money over schooling help.

 

[Foxford]

Bit of an outside the box comment, but what exercise do you do? I'm a one horse owner and in the early stages of backing my 3yo. A lovely lady at my yard is letting me ride her mare when I get the chance. But I also do reformer pilates twice a week, which I have found to be the most "riding-like" exercise and can be squeezed in before or after work. I also run for general cardio fitness.

 

[KikiDee]

Wish you were local to me, I'd bite the hand off a quiet & competent rider to exercise mine for me a couple of times a week and take the pressure off me. He's too quirky and sharp for most people looking for a stress-free part loan to have easy fun on as they are paying for the pleasure, and I can't afford to pay a pro to ride him regularly for me. I'd imagine there are plenty of people in my position - have you considered advertising in local FB groups?

*Edited as read comments above that this has already been suggested* - I would definitely consider advertising yourself for exercising rather than a specific long-term share. I'm not sure I would want to jump straight into a share agreement with my horse, but if a decent rider offered to exercise him on a casual basis for me I'd definitely be interested.

 

[Cadbury]

I wanted to say that I’m in pretty much the exact same boat, right down to the bit about considering giving up altogether because like you I’m sick of not having the chance to even ride regularly let alone improve! I’ve done horse shares in the past and thought I’d found the perfect one earlier this year but after only a month the owner sold him and since then I haven’t been able to find anything. Good shares are like gold dust! Sorry I can’t add anything other than things that have already been mentioned but I wanted to say I totally sympathise because it’s really quite demoralising.

 

[Cadbury]

Wish you were local to me, I'd bite the hand off a quiet & competent rider to exercise mine for me a couple of times a week and take the pressure off me. He's too quirky and sharp for most people looking for a stress-free part loan to have easy fun on as they are paying for the pleasure, and I can't afford to pay a pro to ride him regularly for me. I'd imagine there are plenty of people in my position - have you considered advertising in local FB groups?

*Edited as read comments above that this has already been suggested* - I would definitely consider advertising yourself for exercising rather than a specific long-term share. I'm not sure I would want to jump straight into a share agreement with my horse, but if a decent rider offered to exercise him on a casual basis for me I'd definitely be interested.

I think your point about advertising for exercising a horse rather than looking for a share is a really good one - as a non-owner I’ve only looked for share arrangements because I thought it seemed cheeky to say I just wanted to ride without doing the other bits. I’d never really considered that for the owner a more casual arrangement of the odd ride might sometimes be better than committing to sharing their horse. Makes perfect sense though now you’ve said it!

 

[KikiDee]

I think your point about advertising for exercising a horse rather than looking for a share is a really good one - as a non-owner I’ve only looked for share arrangements because I thought it seemed cheeky to say I just wanted to ride without doing the other bits. I’d never really considered that for the owner a more casual arrangement of the odd ride might sometimes be better than committing to sharing their horse. Makes perfect sense though now you’ve said it!

I think if you’re a reasonably competent adult rider there’s likely lots of people in my shoes who’d love somebody to pop over and give their horse a quick school or a hack a couple of times a week, especially if you can do weekdays in winter! I know several of my friends alone who are always complaining alongside me that we just don’t have time to ride but selfishly we don’t want to ‘give up’ half our horse to a share agreement or be tied into something if it didn’t work out or our plans change, most of them on full livery like me so not a whole lot to be gained from a traditional share.

 

[Annagain]

Volunteer at your local riding club - it's a brilliant way to get to know fellow horsey people (and suss out the horses!) and you can then drop into conversation that you'd like to do a bit more riding. Most of my sharers have been through word of mouth - friends of friends etc.

 

[Cadbury]

I think if you’re a reasonably competent adult rider there’s likely lots of people in my shoes who’d love somebody to pop over and give their horse a quick school or a hack a couple of times a week, especially if you can do weekdays in winter! I know several of my friends alone who are always complaining alongside me that we just don’t have time to ride but selfishly we don’t want to ‘give up’ half our horse to a share agreement or be tied into something if it didn’t work out or our plans change, most of them on full livery like me so not a whole lot to be gained from a traditional

I think if you’re a reasonably competent adult rider there’s likely lots of people in my shoes who’d love somebody to pop over and give their horse a quick school or a hack a couple of times a week, especially if you can do weekdays in winter! I know several of my friends alone who are always complaining alongside me that we just don’t have time to ride but selfishly we don’t want to ‘give up’ half our horse to a share agreement or be tied into something if it didn’t work out or our plans change, most of them on full livery like me so not a whole lot to be gained from a traditional share.

I can understand why as an owner you wouldn’t want to give up regular time with your horse to someone you barely know! I can see now that it would be better in a lot of cases having an ‘as and when’ arrangement with no commitment either way. I’d honestly just not looked at it that way until now!

 

[Cadbury]

I'm another horse owner in this camp. I keep an eye out for sharer wanted adverts and have replied to a few. My horse is lovely and I want him to stay that way so no chance I'm putting an advert up for him and having 97 people ask if their 12 y/o can ride him (they couldn't but not what I want for him) or 78 people ask how high he can jump - (plenty but it's not his favorite thing).

Try and open and honest wanted ad and see what happens

The funny thing is that as someone who looks for shares I’m sort of doing the same thing as you; I look at the adverts for people wanting sharers but don’t put my own post up because I don’t want to open myself up to responses from people with lunatic horses that are too scared to get on board but are more than happy for a stranger to have a go so they can see what happens!

Maybe this is why it’s hard to find shares for both the horse owner and the potential sharer - because we’re all looking for the adverts but not posting our own!

 

[pistolpete]

Finding a share is like going on blind dates! It’s quite tricky and I have had quite a bit of experience. You kiss a few frogs along the way. I now have two brilliant share horses. One is quite a drive but so nice it’s worth it and the other is close by and very nice. Good luck. It’s worth the effort.