Looking to go back into horse riding

[sasha93]

Hello,

I am looking into to helping out at a local stables with a view of a part loan once I gain more experience. At a younger age I was going to shows and participating in Lead Reign events and had regular schooling. After about 7 or so years away from horse riding and events etc I now want to get back into the saddle.

I have little knowledge of stable duties, therefore not sure what duties I could do to begin with until I get further training, so I just wondered what duties those who started at a stables did? Also how others went about approaching local stables?

Any advice welcome, thanks for reading

 

[Redders]

What area are you in? Expect to do mucking out, poo picking, filling water buckets, learning how to make up the feeds, filling hay nets, changing rugs, and sweeping the yard A LOT! Which is actually really therapeutic! What they ask you to do will depend on how well you handle the horses and how confident you are with them. Good luck!

 

[Firefly9410]

Mucking out is quite hard at first and novices seem to take ages to do it! I think it is the fork feeling like a fork and not like an extension of your arm and hand which is eventually what it feels like. Tip - once you have taken out what mess you can see, throw clean bedding to the sides and discover the rest of the mess Leading horses, tying up, catching in and putting on a headcollar are things you can learn the theory from a book and on a quiet horse will be easy. If you are asked to groom remember field kept horses without rugs need their grease as waterproofer so avoid using a body brush (the soft one with a strap across the back) on them, except the face where most do not appreciate being scrubbed with anything hard. Tacking up and rugs you can read about but will need to be shown how several times probably. Mostly it will be yard work rather than handling horses though. It is tiring but good fun to work on a yard and you will learn loads and become really fast at it all.

Edit : just go to riding school reception desk and ask. Or you might find a part loan with someone willing to train you in stable duties at least, if they need someone to work alongside them and not do alternate days with them. Riding wise people usually want you to have experience before they will part loan to you but if you plan to have lessons and someone has a horse suitable for novices you might get lucky. See if there are any horse charities in your area where you could volunteer to gain experience too.