How often do you ride? Those who work full time or have babies!

Full time work, an 18 month old and a husband who works 7-7 as a minimum. Horse can't be ridden in the school due to ringbone. I ride 2-3 times a week but that will probably go down to 1-2 when the clocks change.

Once a week I leave her late at my parents or nursery so I can whizz round the block. Doesn't always happen. In theory can ride both weekend days but don't like to take the pee out of OH so it's usually once. Horse is out as long as possible so just poo picking most of the year to do.

Not as much as I'd like but c'est la vie!
 
Not enough at the moment! Mine will both get ridden on Saturday and Sunday, but I'm lucky if I get to lunge one once during the week.

I'm currently working late most evenings, until 7.30/8ish, by the time I've walked to my car and driven to the yard, it's too late to do anything with them before the yard closes. I just need to leave work on time and then I would be fine. I'm not a fair weather rider and we have lights so no excuses!
 
Hi, this is my post post responding to a thread so be kind (have lurked for awhile).

I have a 2.5 year old, work full time with a one hour commute each way and a demanding job. I keep my horse on part livery with a friend who also has children and she understands that I can't be there everyday.

I manage to go to yard between 3 and 5 times a week. I have to economical with time - quick brush, tack up and get on. I time my schooling for 30-45 mins depending on what I want to achieve then it's off unpack, quick brush and home. We always hack early on Sunday's so the remainder of the day can be spent with family.

I just have to grasp any opportunity to ride. It's getting easier as small person is getting bigger but it's taken a year or so to get here. I initially felt guilty about the time and money I was spending on a horse I could only ride at weekends but I'm glad I persevered. It can be done but I won't pretend it's easy.
 
Stockers said:
Hi, this is my post post responding to a thread so be kind (have lurked for awhile).

I have a 2.5 year old, work full time with a one hour commute each way and a demanding job. I keep my horse on part livery with a friend who also has children and she understands that I can't be there everyday.

I manage to go to yard between 3 and 5 times a week. I have to economical with time - quick brush, tack up and get on. I time my schooling for 30-45 mins depending on what I want to achieve then it's off unpack, quick brush and home. We always hack early on Sunday's so the remainder of the day can be spent with family.

I just have to grasp any opportunity to ride. It's getting easier as small person is getting bigger but it's taken a year or so to get here. I initially felt guilty about the time and money I was spending on a horse I could only ride at weekends but I'm glad I persevered. It can be done but I won't pretend it's easy.
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^^^^ well done you!

It's hard isn't it.

Babies are more difficult to fit in than full time work - both is even harder lol!

We have ours DIY and two young children. My riding is curtailed to maximum twice a week and competing has ceased for now. I have a brill husband who helps no end.

I feel less guilty as one horse is 21 years , and although fit and healthy, it's really no big deal if I ride him or not (much as I have distant plans to do BD with him) and other is a foal (no need to think about riding for a few years anyway lol!).

So I ride when I get the chance and my management has become much less 'pampering'!

Do the horses care ? Not a jot.

Do I? Yes of course, and I have to remind myself that children aren't young for long and it does get easier. Before you know it they will be getting older no not wanting to be with you all the time, so enjoy while it lasts.

Some people manage to compete etc all the time and they must have a super support network that can handle children being flung at them etc. I cannot do the stress/guilt or finances for this. Getting the horses done is challenge enough for me!

I am going to aim for BD when children are bit bigger as at least you get a 'time' and doesn't take All day. The days of hanging about all day waiting for a jumping class to start/finish are over for now.

At least my flat work is improving (and dare I say I'm converted to the bling side - gosh!)

ABOVE ALL. Don't beat yourself up or feel guilty. hard I know. You have a 5 year old horse, that is not as easy as me as I know you will want to get on and 'do' things. But don't worry about giving him a year or two of chill out, pottering work. Just think how low mileage he will be when you want to get going again. !!

I'm also starting to do some in hand work (doesn't matter is saddle area plastered in mud!!) and can do 15 mins then pop back in field.

Read 'maternaventing' blog for a funny view of an eventers world with young children in tow (she is super woman!) I could never accomplish why she does!!

Good luck!

Ps. Anyone have any tips I will follow with interest !!!

Managing to get horses done without children getting bitten/squashed/trampled/wet/electrocuted on fence/falling into a slurry pit/bored to tears is challenge enough for anyone! :excuse typing errors, it's my stupid auto correct. Please ignore!
 
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I like this read - it's encouraging to know it can be done!

As for me, I work full time, pony is on full livery and I manage to go to the yard 5/6 days a week (depending on how busy we are socially). Hubby is supportive in the sense that he understands riding is my 'thing', though sadly try as I might I cannot get him to come to the yard with me and as such I'm quite sure he will never offer to help.
With my job I work 9-5.30pm, with a 25-30 min drive to the yard from work. Currently get there at 6 and pony is waiting for me so quick brush, warm up on long lines, then pop on for quick mini-hack. He's a 5 year old and is learning the way of the world so consistency at this stage is key. This will be my first winter with a pony in a few years, so unsure how it will go in terms of riding at the short days.

Children, or mostly likely child singular, is on the cards for us, but not just yet, especially as I want to get my pony going before he then inevitably has a bit of time off. Also, I want to get him to the stage where he's got a bit of experience and is a bombproof hack (I am confident he will be) so I can continue to ride whilst pregnant.
 
No kids but work full time which includes 2 hours of commuting every day if I'm in the office (and horse is another 15 - 20 mins drive in the opposite direction) and a fair amount of European travel (50 - 75% in a bad week). yard has no lights in arena which I do miss but tbh if I did have them although I'd ride more, I'd never see the OH!

I ride 4-5x week in summer when not travelling. In winter it's 3 and possibly one more if I can wangle a day working from home. sometimes pay YO to school once and also have someone who hacks out once or twice a week during uni term time.
 
2-4 times a week depending on how busy I am at weekend's doing family stuff!
I work 3 days a week with a 45 min commute either way, and before/after work time is consumed with kid care (they are 7, 3 & 3). My instructor is fab and her groom looks after the 2 youngest so I can have a lesson in the week! Preschool/school is a God send, and September (when the youngest start f/t school) is not a million miles away.
I plan to turn away december and january as I have no arena and hate hacking on icy hills!
It is hard hard work with little people, but by the time they get to 3/4 you are over the worst of it!
 
No babies, but I work full time 8:30-5pm, have 1 horse (5yr old) and OH to fit in there too!
At the moment I'm riding 5 days a week, 2 days in the school and 3 days hacking. It's becoming a push now to get back from a hack in daylight. By the time I'm tacked up it's about 6pm, so I can't do longer hacks during the week now.
Once the dark evenings loom in though I do think I'll struggle with 5 days a week as it's becoming difficult to get into our school after work, and hacking is out of the question, so I may have to drop it down to 4 days. Less than ideal with an excitable 5yr old mare who needs as much work as I can give her, but I'm going to try my best to do something 4/5 days a week!
 
I'm apparently one of the lazy ones! I often work late. I have to box if I'm going to ride in the winter, which realistically means adding at least an hour to any time. Hacking in the winter is only possible before dark (forestry), and for schooling I have to hire a school if my paddock is wet. So if I'm doing well, I can manage 3-4 times in a week, but if it's a week where I have concerts, I might not manage to ride at all. Fortunately, my pony is now so fit that he's just fine if I haul him out of the field every few weeks for an endurance ride, and in a while he'll have a few months off, so I can concentrate on the mare when I do have time.
 
I've not got a child, but I work full time with a 25 mile commute (horse is kept mid-way on assisted DIY livery) and often do 1 day in London. I'm lucky that I have a gym at work, so I can do that on my lunch break a few times a week, which frees up time in the evening.

The summer I can ride 4-6 times a week, as the daylight is kind so assuming the BF is either working, has a social event event his own or is happy to watch football on TV etc, as long as it's light I'm happy to ride even if it's late.

At the moment - I'm managing to ride or exercise 3-4 times a week on average, but I'm limited more to school work. I tend to lunge one evening a, do some in-hand work on another (as these take less time!) and ride on one. Then, I'll try to ride both days at the weekend.

In a few weeks, I'll probably drop the riding in the week and just ride at weekends and aim to keep him ticking over 1-2 nights a week with lunging/ground work.

If we get a bad run of weather this winter, I'll probably just give him a few months off.

I'm lucky that I'm not competitive - so, I've not got to keep him a level of fitness. He's a low maintanence chap - so as long as he's fed and gets cuddles and fuss, he couldn't give two hoots if he's ridden or not.

I think anyone that manages full time work, DIY livery and either competing and/or children ... well, my hat goes off to you!
 
I work 8.30-6/6.30. I have a 45/60 min commute each way (depending on the weather as sometimes I skip the tube and walk the last bit). I have two horses on DIY and manage to ride one 4 x a week and lunge one day. I don't get home until 9/9.30pm from my stables. It's exhausting and I have absolutely zero social life other than seeing my partner at the weekends. I'm looking forward to putting one horse onto livery over the winter so I can focus on riding/mucking out the easiest one and having a bit more of a life. Can't imagine factoring in a child!
 
I work full time in London although it's for a big company with flexible working hours so I start at 7 and finish at 3. My commute is around 1 hour 10 mins each way although can be less or more by a few mins here and there as I rely on trains! I usually ride 5-6 days a week as I'm really working on getting my mare fit and giving her a few more miles under her belt. I'm also extremely lucky to have an indoor school at my yard which will be an absolute godsend in the winter. I don't have children but when I do, I will probably put the horse onto full livery so I can still (Hopefully) ride on such a regular basis.
 
.... To add...

I do have 'moments' when I think what is the point in keeping horses as most of he spare time I do have I spend doing the 'chores' which of course there are hundreds of, leaving an even smaller window of opportunity to ride. BUT I still enjoy it in a mad-stressful kind of way! In an ideal world, I would have them on some form of part livery to let me do more of the fun stuff whilst my time is limited. But I cannot justify it financially right now!

I do actually enjoy mucking out etc, it's just the time factor.

It will get a bit easier for me when the smallest child stops breastfeeding. !
 
I work Mon - Thurs 8.45 a.m - 5.15 p.m and from home on a Friday. I also have a nearly 4 year old child and OH is an agricultural contractor who works from 7.30 a.m - 6 p.m.

There is no way I would be able to ride if I didn't have the horse at home. I do ride every day before work and horse generally gets anything from 45 mins - 1 1/2 hours exercise hacking out. I ride in the dark with a head torch and totally hi viz'ed up. We are lucky that there is very little, if any, traffic on our roads and you can see the cars for miles before they get to you giving you plenty of time to get in a gateway.

It will become a little easier after the clocks change as OH will take daughter to nursery so I don't have to be back home until 8.30 a.m to leave for work at 8.40 a.m but this is the first year that we will have done this. It also makes it easier in the depths of winter when I hunt every weekend and every other Tuesday. Horse has 2 days off after each hunting day so I don't have to ride as much!! Horse is also turned out every day from 8.30 a.m - 6 p.m so plenty of mooching about time.

There is no way that i could do this if the horse wasn't at home - it just wouldn't work. It is pretty hard going fitting everything in but you can't beat that feeling when you are riding and the sun is rising and its just you and the horse. Great way to start the day!!!

I have had to learn to accept that some days I just can't ride i.e. too icy. I can either come home at lunchtime and have a quick ride or just accept that the horse won't be ridden that day and leave him in the field.
 
Lucky7 - you have a lot on! It all comes down to priorities. If you want to spend time doing something, it needs to be moved to the top of the priority list. I find that changes with the seasons and as the children grow up. Eg. in the summer the horse is on the back burner. Autumn is full on as I have to get the riding in to get them fit for hunting, so work gets pushed down the priority list and I do fewer hours of that and ride most days. After christmas they are fully fit so I ride a bit less and work a bit more. I sometimes try to ride with the children after school, or get up early and ride, but I often find that that is not satisfactory at all as I can't do the work I want when the children are also on board with constant requirements to do up girths, put up jumps, open gates, arguing with each other. And in the morning I have sometimes come back at 7.30ish to find husband still in bed or on his rowing machine and all hell breaking loose in the kitchen, so I try to be there in the mornings and use them to get chores done.

If you love your job, need the money and need to keep it going then you have to prioritise work. If you want to spend maximum time with the kiddiwinks then you need to prioritise being there during the after school time too. Which does mean that you have to accept only riding when your OH or someone else is around to look after the children. If you want to ride more than anything then do less work and ride during the school/nursery hours and find someone to babysit the baby. Or put them in after school clubs a few days a week for a longer school day. My friends with children and jobs who fit in riding all have lots of help, either in the form of childcare, weekly boarding, cleaner for lots of hours and/or someone to help with the horses. It's really hard to do it all on your own! You also need a supportive OH. Mine is not around much because of work and doesn't do much domestic but he is v happy to book in a Tuesday morning school run regularly so that I can go hunting, so I do manage to get in a bit of horsey fun.

I think you should banish the guilt and just accept what you can get - you have a helluva lot to do and guilt does not help you get it done!
 
I work from 7.30am - 4pm although will often work over as I am a temp so like to get more hours under my belt = more money!
I ride six days a week, although in the winter will probably only ride four or five, or ride four and lunge once, he always gets one day off per week anyway.

I normally get to the yard for 4.45pm so could be on for 5pm and often have been when the nights have been coming in and I am too much of a stooge to muck out first and ride later and then pay for the menage lights.
 
No babies but I would full time and probably ride or work him on the lunge 5 times a week, trying to do as much as poss at the mo as he's carrying a bit too much weight!!
 
I have just moved my horse from our 24/7 at mums to a livery yard where she is in at night, at the moment I'm going to the yard around 6am to turn out and muck out. Working 8-4:30 (with occasional overtime) then straight to the yard to groom, bring in and ride if I am. I normally get home around 7pm if I'm riding or 6ish if I'm not. Then I have kittens, rabbit and house work to sort out haha. It's only been a week so far but it is draining me... hoping my body will get into a routine soon but it doesn't help I had to do a lot of overtime with work last week. I'm aiming to ride 4 times a week Tues, Thurs, Sat and Sun but nothing too demanding as my girl is also a youngster and still learning :)

Good luck balancing things out but I'm sure he won't mind a few days off until the baby is in nursey :)
 
I work FT and have 2 children under 8, weather permitting in winter i ride 3-5 times a week (4-6 during summer), i go up once the kids are in bed during the week. I'm fortunate that we have school with lights and apart from a lesson once a week for an hour i can make a 30 min session productive for both me and horse. i do like to hack out at weekends if i can. I do find J tends to have 2/3 weeks off over xmas due to snow/ice and family commitments, being a youngster it does both of us good to have a re-charge.
 
I work FT but no children. I'm an IT Project Manager and work from home therefore I do all my yard jobs and ride before work. I'm sitting at my desk by 9am although still in my jods. Someone brings my horse in and feeds in the evening for me in return for me turning out for her in the morning (horses in the same field). Therefore I can work late if necessary as I don't have to go back to the yard.

Working from home is great and I know lots of people who do it. I know it doesn't work for all types of job but if you're sitting in an office on the phone and looking at a screen all day you can do your job at home. I manage a team of people who all work from home too and are based all over the UK some of which I've never met and most haven't met each other.
 
I work 35 hours a week in one job (but in 4 days rather than 5) and up to 15 hours a week in another plus often take overtime. Horse is on grass livery which makes a huge difference and I work flexi-hours/condensed hours in my main job which helps. I've just changed jobs and although I've kept the same hours I've lost on-site parking so now have to allow just under 2 hours rather than 1 hour to get to work. Before the job change I could ride 6 days a week as I start late so had time in the morning but with the extra travel time I'm so pooped getting up earlier to ride isn't happening so only managing 3 days a week on my own horse and 2 days on my share horse (also out on grass livery and at the same yard thankfully). I'm hoping I'll get back in a routine soon and get back in the saddle a bit more!
I used to ride out at 6am off-road with the old boy, can see I'm going to have to get the pony (and me!) used to this again.
 
Children.....

....this morning just took the two little ones to check horses.

Smallest strapped into carrier (limits your ability to do anything, and God forbid you get your welly stuck in mud)!!!

Older one (4) managed to grab electric fence (luckily it was off by chance) and it's a proper one , not a battery job (cue getting shouted at by me!). Also had to do 3 stops to take her wellies off (3 times!) to empty out a stone.

Yapped repeatedly about being cold initially (but was then fine).

Then needed a wee.

Give me strength....
 
GemG said:
Children.....

....this morning just took the two little ones to check horses.

Smallest strapped into carrier (limits your ability to do anything, and God forbid you get your welly stuck in mud)!!!

Older one (4) managed to grab electric fence (luckily it was off by chance) and it's a proper one , not a battery job (cue getting shouted at by me!). Also had to do 3 stops to take her wellies off (3 times!) to empty out a stone.

Yapped repeatedly about being cold initially (but was then fine).

Then needed a wee.

Give me strength....
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I know this feeling so well and I only have 1. Every day when we get home from work & nursery, I ask 3 year old if she wants to come and get horse in and poo pick,small child screaming my name. I shout back at her that I'm in the field, she continues to sob all the way down the drive to the field (it is only a matter of time before the neighbours call the social services I fear), I go and open the gate so she can come in, she follows me round finding the poo (great game) then complains her legs are tired (this is a 1.5 acre flat field). Chances are she will trip over a piece of grass cue more sobbing (getting wet knees is possibly the worst thing that could ever happen to her and requires a pretty much immediate change of clothes and a flood of tears). She will then run to the gate and no doubt pull it open and hit herself with it... more tears. Then I manage to get horse and wheelbarrow out of the field and start walking up the drive whereupon she will try and race us/the dog up the drive, fall flat on her face again and the world will pretty much end. It is possibly the most stressful part of my day.
 
As a twenty-something who (I fear) is fast approaching motherhood, these stories don't do much to encourage me to venture down that path! :D sadly hubby doesn't seem to be satisfied with 'let just have dogs'!
You are all superwomen!
 
MEANT TO SAY... I know this feeling so well and I only have 1. Every day when we get home from work & nursery, I ask 3 year old if she wants to come and get horse in and poo pick,she says no so I leave her in front of CBeebies with a sandwich. I get half way round field before I hear small child screaming my name.

I shout back at her that I'm in the field, she continues to sob all the way down the drive to the field (it is only a matter of time before the neighbours call the social services I fear), I go and open the gate so she can come in, she follows me round finding the poo (great game) then complains her legs are tired (this is a 1.5 acre flat field). Chances are she will trip over a piece of grass cue more sobbing (getting wet knees is possibly the worst thing that could ever happen to her and requires a pretty much immediate change of clothes and a flood of tears). She will then run to the gate and no doubt pull it open and hit herself with it... more tears. Then I manage to get horse and wheelbarrow out of the field and start walking up the drive whereupon she will try and race us/the dog up the drive, fall flat on her face again and the world will pretty much end. It is possibly the most stressful part of my day.
 
No children here, I used to ride 4 days a week in winter and my sharers had 2 days. Before I had sharers I rode 5 days a week.
 
lucky7 said:
I have a horsey friend who has offered to look after the baby whilst i ride, says she will come down the yard with me as she only works 2 days a week (shes not at my yard but lives very close to me) Its a great offer but i feel a bit cheeky on taking her up on it especially as i have not known her for too long, shes my daughters friends mum :) I may wait to see if she offers again and take her up on it once a week
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I'd take her up on it, she gets a horsey fix and you might get a new friend out of it as well :)
 
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