Working livery good or bad experience ?

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savannahcat

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Hi I am thinking about putting my horse on working livery in a riding school. They would use the horse up to fifteen hours a week. I am hoping that i would be able to have the horse used in medium and experienced lessons only no novice lessons. I would want to ride probably around four times a week during the day . I am a little worried about if the horse would be too tired for me to ride, can anyone give any experiences of working livery good or bad. How many hours do most people ride their horses during the week, the horse would get fitter with more work i imagine but i would not want to feel guilty riding my own horse because it had a lesson later that day etc.
 
I think that they will want to use the horse more at the weekends, so I would want it limited to a max of three hours at weekend but only if you did not want to ride.
If the horse was asked to work twenty hours per week he would need extra food, I would ask about that.
A lot depends on the standard of riding, a few beginners lessons could equate to one advanced lesson.
 
Not personally but a friend of mine had her horse on working livery and it was awful! She rarely got to ride him as he was either being used in the riding school or too tired to do anything, she also found his behaviour when riding went down hill and her very well schooled horse started plodding along like a typical riding school pony. However it made it difficult for her when she moved to diy as her horse was fit from being ridden a lot and became very hyper when ever she rode, i think it took her a good year or so to get her horse back to normal, so i personally would never do it
 
Do make very sure that you have some level of control over exactly how he is used and when. I don't have a horse on working livery - but I have freinds who do. From what I've seen I certainly would not choose it - but there may well be riding schools who allow you a greater level of autonomy over what riders / tack etc. It would worry me too much that the horse was being used badly - and I've seen them pick up some very annoying riding school habits!
 
I sed to keep my pony on a yard which was mainly livery, with a bit of riding school. They asked meif he could do some working livery things, I thought as he worked at elementry, that they wantedhim for some of there more advanced pupils, but they mainly used him for little kids learning as he was so safe. It suited him, and worked for us,as he is completly different with kids anyway. I think you would need to be very clear about what you want, but it can work well.
 
I would not recommend it unless you are down daily to ensure how much he is being used and at what level. It is great as a temp measure in the right place. However if you intend to compete your horse in anything I think you will find preparing and keeping him going the way you want difficult. There are, I am sure, some good riding schools that stick to what they say but many don't. Even the good ones are there to make a profit (nothing wrong in that of course)so your horse will be there to earn his keep - and they will probably be tougher on him than you would be in terms of working him when he is tired/a bit footy etc.
 
Had mine on working livery. There can be times when you wish certain riders werent on your horse, however generally was ok. Also helps to keep them fit if you do not have time/cannot afford full livery.

Few gripes I had that once I went down to the yard one evening to clean tack for next day's show, and horse was being used in a lesson, meaning I couldnt clean the tack.
Horse being taken out for a hack in the winter, and saddle left with mud from rider slormed all over the saddle seat.

However these are minor issues, and whilst annoying, not much could be done about them. Put horse on full livery after he was used for a jumping lesson after two days being back in work after being off lame for a few weeks.
 
I personally wouldn't, I mean for the actual time you spend with your horse and the level of control you have you'd be better off part loaning or sharing a horse!!
And at least when you loan/share you won't be getting back a tired, dead to aid's horse with bad habits which you then have to try and either solve or sell.
 
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