Hiya!

[char_f94]

Hello!

I'm a final year university student studying Tax and recently got back into riding after 10 years off. As soon as I finish uni and move back home to Surrey I'm looking to secure a share! I've got very little stable management experience so any advice would be very welcome.

I've been a frequent lurker of these forums for a while so I'm looking forward to actually getting stuck in

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Most people will be happy to show you how they want things done regarding stable management. Try to establish whether the owner is the picky "everything must be perfect" sort, eg no bits of hay in the bed, spotlessly swept yard etc, or whether they're more interested in economy and would have a fit if you threw out a fork load of bedding because there were 2 nuggets of poo and a strand of hay in there.

The horse handling side of things is trickier, if you've only ever ridden at a riding school and are not familiar with even leading to the field etc then ensure you have a quiet natured, reasonably well behaved horse for your first share horse. You won't be experienced enough to correct something with very bad manners at this stage of your learning.

If in doubt about anything, ask the horses owner/the YO/apply common sense, and practice things like bandaging *before* the day arrives when the horse comes in from the field with a wound that needs poulticing. If you've never so much as picked up a mucking out fork before, a good horse care book will explain the basics. An understanding of equine first aid is useful, especially the ability to recognise common and potentially serious medical conditions in their early stages. It's annoying for the horse's owner to receive constant texts about eg what weight rug to use, but to not be told eg there were only 3 poos in the bed instead of the usual 10 and the horse has been grumpy and sniffing at it's belly all the time (mild colic).

 

[char_f94]

Thanks for the advice! I've already got a few books that I'm going to have a look through once the mad rush of exams and hand ins are over. Luckily I've also got my Mum who had a horse in the past so I'd probably be bugging her with all my silly questions before I hassle the owner!

I'm hoping to maybe help out with a riding school/RDA group over the summer just to get that ground work experience. I have helped out with a herd of shetlands so have mucked out, poo picked fields, lunged and done a bit of leading but just not with something that isn't waist height!