Horses at home and riding alone

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Crazylittlemaisey

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How do people cope? My opportunity to ride is during the week when the kids are in childcare but I’m struggling to ride as much as I’d like as my horse is a youngster kept at home. Need inspiration as to how other people manage safely to still ride in this situation. I can afford lessons twice a month so that accounts for something! Thanks for reading!
 
Do you just have one horse at home? I only ask as I have 2 horses at home and I just advertise for someone to hack with no money involved but it gets them both out and it's company to ride with and I have actually made some really nice friends like this.
 
I just do, albeit I take certain safely precautions such as carrying my phone, only doing flatwork and polework rather than jumping etc....

Fiona
 
mine are at home and i ride alone. Not sure which bit is causing a problem. If I have a youngster at the time I long rein him out alone, lead him out alone etc to get him used to going out alone. Then I ride on the parts he copes with and if necessary lead and train him on parts he has a problem with until he learns to do it all ridden.
 
I don't have my horse at home, but always ride alone currently due to yard dynamics (I'm on a small yard and 2 horses are semi retired & owners havk during the day, anohavk owner rides early afternoon and I work 9-5.30pm with no-one else riding after work. None of them ride when I do at weekends).

To be honest, I find you've just got self-motivate yourself - at this time of year, it's dark & cold but you've just got to crack on and do it :)

I find having a few plans help. I roughly try to do 2-3 rides in the week. Roughly organised into one flat, one polework or jump and a groundwork session a week. I know my focus for flatwork is improving suppleness and my way of going, my focus for jumping is rhythm and balance & groundwork session tries to incorporate a bit of it all and keep it interesting!

We both love hacking so weekends are easy :) In the summer, it's much easier as we just hack out 9 times out of 10.
 
I find that if you get into a set routine it helps a lot. My horses are at home, only one is currently in work and I have a rule that he has to do something every weekday. Then weekends (when I work more) are a bonus if I can manage something.
Once I'm on a roll it's easy but I do find if I miss a day it's easy to slip out of it.
Do you have any friends who could box over or that you could box too?
Have a plan, say schooling on certain days, roadwork on a day and a good cantering hack one day.
 
I ride alone all the time. On my iPhone I can share my location. Both my parents and one friend can access that all the time. Only had disasters while with other folk tbh!
 
If your worried about falling off and no one finding you for hours if your injured then do you have someone you can text, like your mum etc., and say if you don't hear from my by x time then give me a ring, if I don't answer come looking for me?
 
Sorry may have misread the problem! I thought it was motivation 😉
As above make sure you have a phone. Isn't there actually an app. Something you can set for a certain time that auto calls a set person if you haven't stopped it?! I can't think of the name but someone else might know it.
 
Hmm. I am in the same boat; the big man is 6 going on 4 due to having had baby NB just after I backed him and not having time since to keep him in enough work. All I can do is make sure I take my phone, wear a BP and hi viz, and ride confidently but cautiously. I've thought about trying to find a part time rider so he can go out every day but I think it'd be more hassle than it's worth. I have to admit, having a little one changes your mindset with regard to taking risks. With a 17.2 who is both clumsy and capable of 6ft sideways spooks, I do think about safety a lot more than I used to. I'll get off and lead if there's something truly terrifying, which has been maybe 3 times in 2 years and it's not had a negative impact. Better safe than sorry.

ETS BHS mag this month has an ad for a new device called the Equisure. Slightly vague info but seems to alert someone in case of a fall. Looks like a bracelet. Without knowing more it's hard to say how useful it is but, it's on special offer as it's a crowdfunded campaign at the current stage.
 
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I hack alone in a pretty isolated area - one horse is more sensible in a crisis than I am, the other an opinionated youngster, so it depends who I'm on as to what precautions I take. Usually I text my mother to say how long I'll be and if she hasn't heard by then, she uses Find My IPhone to make sure I'm still moving. There's a service called Kitestring that's free and uses SMS so it works regardless of what phone you have - it texts you at a certain time and if you don't reply, it informs a set list of people. It doesn't give a location though, so you'd need to be mindful of that if you're hacking out.
 
I have mine at home. I hack alone in a very isolated area. I let someone know when I leave and when I return. I have my phone. And I found the more I did it, the more relaxed and confident we both got. Not sure exactly what you are having difficulties with... time constraints, confidence? I found a routine and repetition worked wonders.
 
When I ride alone at home I ring either my Oh or a friend as I get on and ring them back when I get off they know that after an hour or so they need to begin to worry .
I no longer jump when I am alone but lunge do flat work and work in jumping position and pole work when I hack alone I always tell someone where I am planning to go.
 
Originally I said I wouldn’t ride if there wasn’t anyone on the yard with me (horses are at home) but that doesn’t always work when there’s five horses needing worked five/six days a week.

I’ll text one of the parentals to let them know when I’m getting on/off and we have cctv in the arena and barn so they can check everything’s ok if they don’t hear from me. I stick to flatwork and tend to get off rather than pushing the issue if the spooky one is having a particularly bad day.

It can be done. You just need to be sensible.
 
I do 99.9% of riding on my own. I make sure I have my phone, text my OH when I leave with where I'm going and then text him when I'm back. I've had confidence issues the kast few years after a bad fall and find the more I ride the better it is. I also tend to wear a body protector and have recently invested in an air jacket.
 
I always let my husband know when I'm about to set off and that I will text him within an hour.
I will either be around the farm land or on the common. More likely to have an accident on the busy common, but it will mean dog walkers would see!

Personally I have ridden alone lots in the last 5 years as I am renting land and the other owners rarely ride or do at different times.

I am a bit more cautious now I have a little one (14 month old)
 
When I had two rideable horses at home I used to have a couple of friends who would hack out with me but although I prefer to have someone around in the house when I school, I will school alone. I do not like hacking on my own although the horse is excellent in traffic and very sensible, I just feel that car drivers are more likely to see and slow down for two horses so I box or ride to meet a friend, so the majority of the hack is in company. It means I have to be organised but for me it's a small price to pay for feeling safer.
 
I used to ride alone before I retired and go back far enough for there to be no mobile phone!!!! We had a white board in the tack room and on it i would write the time I left and how long I intended to be also a note of the route I was taking so if the horse turned up at the stables alone or neither of us came back people would have a rough idea of where to start looking. Even with mobile phones still leave a note of where I am going and roughly how long i will be.
 
I have ridden a lot alone since I was a teenager. We had the "white board system" as well and nowadays I always take my phone with me. I also let someone know that I've gone riding and where. It has worked for me throughout the years and have never had any serious accident.
I've recently bought a young ex-racehorse though an until I know her better we will stick to groundwork when no one else is home.

So no reason not to ride, just take reasonable precautions, and stick to what you feel is safe.
 
I'm in the same boat too, green pony and struggling to find time to ride with a young child and work. I've spent a lot of time beating myself up mentally that I'm not spending enough time on him but you can only do what you can do. On a good week, I get in two short rides and one longer hack but that's the maximum I can do and other stuff has to suffer as a result! I've considered trying to find a sharer but we live in a remote area and I think it will be easier said than done.

safety wise, same too, have to go out alone and no mobile phone coverage round here. as others have said, its just about being sensible and know your limitations (and wear as much safety gear as you can!). we tend to stick to quiet lanes as it's better underfoot for him (he still trips a lot) and if I fell off and injured myself, eventually a car or a walker would probably find me, if my other half hadn't noticed I was missing (and since he's usually at work, he probably wouldn't be around to know).
we give the fields a wide berth for now- firstly because he can nap terribly and starts broncing, and secondly because he's highly likely to face plant from being silly then tripping. Instead, we too have lessons twice a month. Lessons give me confidence as there is someone there to scrape me up if something goes wrong. Hopefully I can eventually drag an instructor up here and we can crack the field issue with someone on hand to help.

It's frustrating as I know he's taking the p in the field but it's not worth taking the risk. If I came off badly in the field god knows when someone would eventually find me!
 
Mine are at home but haven't ridden for over a year but used to ride on my own all the time without giving it a thought but as I have got older I am more aware of the dangers. Have you anyone close with horses you could arrange to hack with?
 
When I used to ride on the deserted Yard in the evening I used to text a friend at the start and finish of riding so that if anything happened she could raise the alarm.

Always make sure I have phone with me even if just doing jobs as accidents can happen anytime like turning out or bringing in, in fact the worst accidents that my friends have had have mostly been in the ground. I don’t take unnecessary risks.
 
I don't see the problem. You don't work, don't have to travel to the horse and have 5 days a week when you can ride?!

People who work and commute are often on a yard alone in the evenings in the dark after an 8/9/10 hr day and a train journey and a car drive to the yard. We just suck it up and get on with it

Text someone before and after you ride so they know you are safe. You have daylight to ride in.

Honestly some people have it so easy.
 
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Thanks for replies and ideas everyone!

So I’d ride multiple times a day if I could but only have Mondays and Thursdays without my kids (1 and 2 yo). My husband works in London which is 2 hours away from home (Kent) and my family are Guildford and Birmingham. So... we’ve got find my iPhone which is great for hacking and I’m at the stage of walking out with her in her own, she’s lost some confidence hacking so I tend to go with a friend/neighbour.

The school I use (neighbours) is set at his house and he works long hours too so if I came off no one would find me. I can’t check in with my husband reliably as his job doesn’t necessarily allow him to check his phone.

So to date I’ve been having a weekly lesson and when I can riding when my friend is around at the school. I was braver before having kids and would have just ridden and risked it(!) but it changes you. Don’t think there is an easy answer. I’ve got another (albeit geriatric copd!) horse so could get a hacking buddy and go for a little plod.

My mare is pretty good for a 5 yo chestnut warmblood lol but she still has the odd paddy and loves a buck.

I guess it’s a case of minimising risks as you’ve all said with contact etc, doing groundwork on windy days for example when there’s no one around and finding others to ride with if poss. Oh and having a couple of lessons a month.

Was doing weekly lessons but it got too expensive!
 
[deleted user] let me correct you. I have two children under three, I am a limited business owner, I run a small holding of animals which is incorporated into my business which incidentally I set up over the last two years myself and solely, my husband works very hard in the city which means I’m basically a single parent for 5 days a week, I have a reasonable sized property with grounds that I run. I’m one of the hardest working people I know. Ontop of all of this I have RA which can be crippling and I carry on without people even knowing. I patch myself up with steroid and codiene! I had a brain haemorrhage 5 years ago and had a series of big seizures afterwards which left me feeling more vulnerable riding wise/generally. I had brain surgery with the haemorrhage and now a sizeable part of my skull is a metal plate. That’s all though.

I’m massively proud of the person I am, my achievements are incredible. I am spirited and ambitious and refuse to stop doing the thing in life I love. I havent had it easy, have I?

Perhaps you need to work on your social skills? You didn’t realise all of that and why would you buy you should never assume anything.
 
I have always done most of my riding alone - both at livery yards and now at home, and for years had to fit it in around nursery/pre-school/school run. However, now the children go to school on the bus - hooray! It is difficult if you only have set times to ride, and have to ride even if it's pouring with rain or blowing a gale, otherwise the horse doesn't get ridden for a week. Is getting a little paid help an option? Just to top up the workload and keep to a routine? Good luck - it's never easy juggling children and horses and even more difficult going into winter with less turnout, dark nights, bad weather, etc.
 
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Crazylittlemaisey said:
How do people cope? My opportunity to ride is during the week when the kids are in childcare but I’m struggling to ride as much as I’d like as my horse is a youngster kept at home. Need inspiration as to how other people manage safely to still ride in this situation. I can afford lessons twice a month so that accounts for something! Thanks for reading!
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Join a riding group. There might be one in your area on facebook (that's where I found mine, didn't even know we had one :D ) I can totally understand where you are coming from but have a look for a group. :)
 
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