Payment for handwalking

[SO1]

I think age is not the issue it is competance and someone having the experience and knowledge to know what to do if something goes wrong. An 18 who has grown up with horses and has handled horses on box rest before might be better than a less experienced older adult.

It is winter, could be cold, rainy, windy, icey, slippery. How would you feel if your horse got loose as the teenager was not experienced or strong enough to manage if your horse got tricky.

I livery on a rehab yard so when my pony needed box rest and rehab walking when injured just before the start of lockdown 1 he went on the horse walker when I didn't come to the yard for 1st month of lockdown and then at 30 minutes walking I started riding him again. Vet had said I could ride him from 5 minutes but most people don't bother tacking up and riding for just 5 minutes but I did do that before lockdown just to keep him used to being ridden and for a bit of variety. He even did some 10 minutes hacks before lockdown 1.

He then had to start doing walk hacks whilst still on box rest and a staff member helped with that as well as me doing it it. She was 21 so quite young but already was an AI. I think she may have done her AI qualication whilst still a teenager and far better rider than me.

£10 for an hour was what I paid including tacking up though sometimes she would take him out a bit longer if she went out with a friend and they were having a nice time or if she was escorting another person who was having a hacking lesson.

Pony normally good boy and weather was good so fairly nice job. She was already working on the yard and helping looking after him as he is part livery so knew him well. She is still helping me with exercise now he is fully recovered as I am not going to yard so much as I normally would due to lockdown and but she not need to ride him if bad weather.

She is great and I feel lucky to have her help. I think she is still at the stage in her career where she enjoys riding the horses.

 

[Merry neddy man]

The morning walk is easy, you get up an hour earlier, the evening one means you get home a little later surely if you was riding that hour would easily be found. And if you was riding the hour would be a lot longer tacking up etc.

 

[Keith_Beef]

With respect Keith, I know you are a great help to the yard where you ride, but this is a prime example of someone trying to be helpful, yet potentially causing a big problem due to their lack of experience. A horse on box rest who is being hand walked should be walked, and walked only, to avoid aggravating the injury/issue that has the horse on box rest in the first place, and "jogging to get him into trot" is pretty much guaranteed to set off a horse who isn't getting turnout/proper exercise, as well as potentially adversely affecting its recovery. They really shouldn't have assumed that you'd know that, and issued instructions accordingly

It did however occur to me that you aren't aware of the meaning of "box rest", as opposed to "stabled 24/7". The term box rest is used for a horse who is injured/ill and cannot be turned out/exercised on veterinary advice, whereas a horse who is ft and healthy, but isn't getting turnout is simply stabled 24/7, and in the second example, I could see why you'd think it was ok to play around getting it to trot (and subsequently learning that it's not always wise with a horse that's been cooped up!)

At the risk of dragging the thread further off-topic, I'll take a dew minutes to reply.

I appreciate your advice, and agree that in hindsight I should have been given better guidance on what to do with the bay gelding. This was not my regular instructor who asked me to exercise him, so really she should have realised that she was not a good judge of my ability to lead a horse in hand. Although she had taught my group's lesson perhaps four times over the past three years, so she has seen me ride, she doesn't have a good sense of what else I have learnt or done. I could also have refused to take out this horse, or I could have stayed at a walk (though there was no instruction to limit the speed to a walk)... but

It was, however, my regular instructor who asked me to walk the grey mare. He knows me much better (we talk a lot while I'm helping to take out feed, I describe how horses behave when I'm grooming and alert him to any small injuries I spot while doing that), and he was more precise in his instruction to only walk and to stay on the hard concrete.

Both these horses were definitely on box rest, though, and I certainly understand the difference between that and "stabled 24/7". I've also on several occasions led a horse that hadn't worked out to the arena or the manège to let it run loose and burn off energy, and then catch it to bring it back in again. I'm not an absolute numpty; I understand that I have an enormous amount to learn, that my instructor is certainly a better judge of my competence than I am, and that the only way I'm going to improve is by listening, reading and especially by doing.

Leading horses in hand is something that I have done in TREC training (with a private instructor, including jogging while the horse trots), and I think it is something that should be taught in our regular classes, but unfortunately it isn't (I managed to get our regular instructor to do ten or fifteen minutes at the end of a class, one week).

 

[scruffyponies]

I have only ever had one on an extended period of rest. He's a complete sweetie, but when I took him out for his first walk he flew me like a kite, and he's only 14hh.

 

[windand rain]

When a pony was on box rest she needed walkng in hand after about 8 months of not being allowed to move. She was like a kite doing airs above the ground so we sat a very small child on her for her walkng exercise as she is always super careful with a child on board. It certainly made it all a lot easier