Is being a medical professional and riding/competing do-able?

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Ellevis

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Looking for any nurses, radiographers, doctors etc. who do shift work and balance riding and competing their horse. Is it doable/ how do you manage your time?
 
I am a nurse and work 13 hour shifts. It is hard work but doable. I do my horse before work in a morning and pay for him to be done at night. When on night shifts I go in morning after work and then pay at night. Luckily I only work 3-4 shifts a week so get a lot of days off. Do work a lot of weekends which makes it harder to compete as either have to be super organised fitting in events or just hope there is something on when I am off. My horse is semi retired so only lightly hacks which makes it easier as only ride him on days off and he is happy in this routine. I compete another horse on years and try and ride him as much as possible. Depending on my shifts I tend to ride him 4-6 times a week so it is doable. You just have to be organised x
 
I was a nurse and found it really hard to get days off for competitions and sometimes they were changed at the last minute and I found it totally disheartening. I left and got a 9-5 job still in nursing. i also relied heavily on hlp from my mum and a friend to cover horse care.
 
I'm a student nurse (mature student) but have always worked shifts. I don't find it particularly tricky. Several friends at work have horses. My friend is a doctor and manages to compete.
 
My wife is a nurse and now a manager of several nursing teams and still manages to ride, help muck out our (my) horses.
 
Give a shout to Glamourpuss - she's a radiographer and manages 4 horses, one of which she competes BE, very well. A girl on my yard works shifts - she always comes to the yard before going home to bed when she's on nights - otherwise she fears she'll go home and fall asleep.
 
Yes, absolutely. I know two Consultants and two nurses who all ride and own horses. The Consultants keep theirs on full livery but the nurses are DIY and manage just fine (I'd want to be reincarnated as one of their horses).
 
I'm a junior doctor, and at the minute I can't manage it. :( I'm 5 years post university, and have another 7 years of moving hospitals ever six months. I had a horse on part loan which worked well (until he moved). Plan now is to save like mad and try to buy a small place in the country- hoping that if they're at home I can find time.

That said, if I was willing to do nothing but horses, and could afford full livery, I could still make it work now.
 
My friend is a nurse, she has her horse on assisted livery so just picks what she needs done on what days. She competes in dressage. She actually manages to do more with hers than in do with mine and I work set hours :p
 
Yes it's very doable but you have to be organised. Plan your competition calender in January, then sort out the necessary days of with the rota master, at the earliest possibility.
If you have your horses at home/close to home you'll manage with less help. Otherwise you'll need your parents/YO/yard workers to do jobs for you. Just accept there'll be days you can ride or are too exhausted to ride.
Also organise your exams, and rota study sessions, to work well with competing.
Good luck and it can be done!! X
 
It totally depends on your job. I'm a junior dr and have found that it all depends on the job/team/rota. Some jobs make it really tough. Short notice rotas, lots of last min changes, exhausted etc. Some are fine. My issue is my hospitals also change so commute alters etc. I'm on DIY but to be able to do my job, house bits, sleep, study, live a bit I have needed to get someone to assist (honestly saved my sanity) and I have a fabulous sharer who does 3d per week. I haven't been able to compete much as booking things in is difficult when shifts change (I really couldn't event - horse not fit enough and no way could I book well enough in advance). People in other jobs are probably fine!
 
I'm a student nurse. My job will be 3-4 12 hour shifts a week, and without help from family on those days it will be very very hard to keep my horses. They are already kept pretty basically, out 24 hours. I hope that once I'm working I will still have the drive and time to keep them fir and competing, albeit at a local level.
 
I knew an ambulance person who used to do the horses on the way home from a night shift at livery yard had enough time off to compete at weekends when she wanted to. Another nurse who does lots of night work and rode when getting home before sleeping and does endurance at weekends. Has to juggle shifts and the horses basically live out and are fed only in the morning when brought in to feed, poo pick field, groom and ride and then turned out.
 
the girl that rides my ponies is a nurse and although we work round her she manages to ride several times a week. But they're my ponies so I do their day to day care
 
As Hereshoping told you, I'm a radiographer. I have 4 horses at home, 2 children & we're building a house & yard....yeah so a full life 😂
Working shifts can work in your favour, with juggling I can be there for farrier, vet, weekday competing & lessons 👍
It can also mean very early mornings & late nights. I do often have to rely on a completely non horsey husband to chuck in feeds & hay if the horses are in & I'm working a shift.
I often go XC schooling after a night shift in fact tonight I'm working a 13 hour night, I'm going SJ tomorrow.

Easter Saturday I'm competing BE, Easter Sunday is a 12 hour shift, Easter Monday is our family Easter egg hunt.

Having 4 is a real strain on my time (& finances) but it is very satisfying...plus I sleep VERY well at night (when I'm not working 😜)
 
I work in the nhs and do 13 hour shifts. I find it quite hard when I work but I do one side and another girl does the other side mainly I do mornings so the horses get turned out very early on. But then I have 4 days off!
 
One of my friends used to be a paramedic and she managed it fine - she did four 12 hour shifts a week. She was very organised and booked her leave in advance - often booking leave on days she had to do night shifts.

I also had a friend who was a GP and she worked 4 days a week and it was fine as well.

But both of them had assistance so they did not have to manage a 12 hour shift and commute with doing the basic care for horses.

Doctors salaries are obviously much higher than nurses but they tend to have more debt to pay for the time they have spent studying. I work with doctor and know the pressure a lot of them are under especially the Junior doctors so I would say it would be possible but you would need to be on at least part or full livery as you would not always be able to guarantee you would be able to leave work at the time you planned to. The imposed changes in Junior doctors contracts would also have an impact too.

The numbers of doctors working less than full time is increasing and once qualified or if you are near the end of training the part time salaries are very good. However it is unlikely that you would be able to get part time now unless you have children, due to the increase of women working in medicine there is a high demand for flexible working now.
 
I'm a nurse. I left my current post and now just do agency night shifts so that I can enjoy my horses. I work 3 (12.5 hours a shift) nights a week and have 2 horses on a yard I rent. I purposefully left my permanent post because I was exhausted doing my shifts and wasn't enjoying my horses, now I can choose which shifts I work I can really do what I want riding and competing wise. I am not at all career minded, and altho I love my job (I work in A&E), I love my life outside work more and I had no doubts about changing my job to fit in with my lifestyle!
 
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