Riding in the morning...

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Mlini

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So, I am the unlucky one that turns up to the yard last on a night and has to wait in the queue for the arena! Every damn day! None of the other liveries are happy with the suggestion to share the arena... Seems like 20 x 40 apparantly isn't big enough for two horses!! :rolleyes:

So rather than waiting til the middle of the evening to ride or lunge and getting annoyed with the slow incompetant people that take hours to get their horse tacked up and in the arena, never mind actually finish riding and get out of the arena... I may start riding in the morning instead. Noone rides in the morning at my yard so I think it may work out better for us until summer when we can go on hacks or ride in the field after work instead of fighting for the arena.

Do any of you have the same problems with arena useage?

Do any of you ride in the morning before work?

Just a little concerned as to how my horse will react with having to work so early. As his normal routine would be breakfast at 7am and then turned out. Surely it won't do him any harm working for 30mins, then breakfast, then turnout? :confused:
 
I ride whenever, people are only allowed to book the school for lessons, they can't tell anyone not to come in, if they don't want to share they can get out. Ours is 20 x 40 too.

In the summer I either ride at 5/6am or after 7pm at night, it always seems to be the nicest time to ride out of the heat.

Oh edited to add, I find mine go better first thing on a morning before they've been turned out, they seem to turn into hooligans if I ride after they've been turned out! Strange things.
 
I do pretty much every morning. It started as a need to whilst husband was on call but now I love it!

I usually get to the yard around 5.30 am. I fill haynets, fill water buckets, get hay ready for the field and change the rug of my 2nd horse (if he's not being ridden as well), I then wash out all my feed buckets and make up the next lot of feeds.
I then tack up and I'm on my 1st horse about 6.00 am. I ride for about 45 mins and I haven't had to share the arena once....in fact I'm the only person who really rides in the morning.

I'm lucky as my YO feeds the horses at 5am, but you could get around this by giving a handful of chaff before you ride - this is good practise as it stops stomach acid from splashing up and causing ulcers.

There would be no reason why your horse would suffer waiting until after being ridden for their proper breakfast.
It's also a lovely feeling being at work after having a fab ride in the morning :)
 
When I was working I always rode in the morning I would ride straight away then muck out and sort out while horse was having breakfast and then turnout go home and go to work it was a pain getting up early every day but I preferred it because it was done then sometimes I would do a bit pm as well if I had time.
 
As for not sharing the arena it sounds like some people on your yard need to get a reality check. What do they do when they go to a competition and have to warm up with.....[gasp] several horses!!

On our yard we can book the arena exclusively but that incurs a £2 fine. On the whole most of us don't bother and we've ridden with 4 of us in a 20x40 and lived to tell the take :D
 
LouS said:
I ride whenever, people are only allowed to book the school for lessons, they can't tell anyone not to come in, if they don't want to share they can get out. Ours is 20 x 40 too.
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Ours is supposed to be like that but its a small DIY yard and I don't want to go round upsetting everyone.. Maybe i'm too nice??
 
I used to, the horses got used to it. Only tried once with my last share - we were going to hack but the fog came in, so then we went in the school... And got kicked out after 10 mins so the YO could harrow it! :D Poor horse was horrified to be woken so early too :D
 
cholopoll said:
As for not sharing the arena it sounds like some people on your yard need to get a reality check. What do they do when they go to a competition and have to warm up with.....[gasp] several horses!!
Click to expand...

That is exactly my view on the matter! I had to practically bribe another girl to let me lunge for 10 mins when she was lungeing hers. She seemed to think it was highly dangerous to have them both in there together! :rolleyes: Completely nuts.
 
Rosie041390 said:
Ours is supposed to be like that but its a small DIY yard and I don't want to go round upsetting everyone.. Maybe i'm too nice??
Click to expand...

I don't have that problem :D. You have just as much right as everyone else to be in there. We don't even ask, we just go in and get on, obviously try not to open the gate as someone is careering towards it haha. But its just something people have to deal with, if someone was having trouble and politely asked me I wouldn't mind waiting but I wouldn't just because they wanted the school to themselves.

I have a very green horse who I'm not comfortable riding with others just yet and if someone comes in the school while I'm riding him I'll just walk him off then leave, its my problem not theirs.

The only rule we have is riding takes priority over lunging, but we have a small lunge pen so its not much of a problem. There's also some rules about jumping but I don't know what they are off the top of my head, nobody is ever bothered as long as the jumps aren't on the track.
 
I used to have the same problems at a previous yard and I done the same thing, rode in the morning because no one else did. Much better all round, its horrible waiting to ride and then you aren't in the right frame of mind so it never goes as well as it should anyway.
 
My YO regularly rides hers first thing. she feeds everyone except for him, pops on his tack and goes before he can even think about whether he's had breakfast or not! she feeds him when she returns and he has cooled down.

as for your arena, ask your YO or YM what the policy is. i don't think it should be a problem to share it sometimes.
 
I love riding in the mornings, really sets me up for the day ahead!

Don't worry your horse will get used to the new routine very quickly
 
Although retired now, I always used to ride in the mornings before work. Gave horse a bit of hay to keep him happy while mucked out, he always seemed to go better possibly because I wasn't tired after a day at work!
 
Ours are out 24/7 but as they still get fed morn and eve i just give a small scoop of chaff , which i believe is ok to do then groom , tack up and either school or hack , my friend, who keeps her horse with me, and i always share my school also 20 x 40 and when i was at livery we would think nothing of lunging two horses on a 20m circle at the same time.
 
I always ride in the mornings now - much more productive as time constraints mean you both have to be much more workmanlike and faff a lot less! My horse has ad lib haylage and is always munching on it when I arrive in the morning. This winter I've actually dropped his breakfast feed to avoid feeding then schooling or feeding when too hot after schooling. He's not a good doer either, (he's a TB prone to skinnyness!) but dropping his morning feed has not had any effect on his weight whatsoever! (I also agree, that if this is not feasible, then a handful of chaff and a couple of carrots is a good substitute!) Mine gets carrots and Dodson and Horrell's Just Grass for lunch instead, whilst there's nothing nutritious in the winter grazing, and then his usual feed in the evening. Only downside to morning riding is sometimes you can't when the school has frozen overnight...but then its usually refrozen by the evening again too! Still, not long now until we can hack out first thing in the morning - riding whilst the world is still sleeping - nothing and no other time beats that feeling!
 
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