Working at local riding stables in 80s/90s, anyone remember this?

[Carrotsgrowintheground]

May just have been my local stables and possibly others were more moral and fair but does anyone else remember this? We were allowed to just hang around all day, walking horses on lead reins for little children, saddling up, mucking out, feeding, in return for free rides.

The women who worked there were really bad tempered. Kids who owned their own ponies and kept them at the stables were the envy of us all!

Best way to learn imo. I had my own ponies but also helped to get free lessons on school masters. Learnt so much & made me a better rider.

Yes, I did this. Many happy memories of hanging out in the hay loft where there were some battered old sofas. We'd go to the corner shop at lunch time for sweets. I rode some wild things- an ex-racehorse with many problems and something that had just come off the boat from Ireland and had to be sent back as it was definitely not riding school material. I don't think ANY of the ponies were suitable TBH. We would ride them down to the beach and go in the sea. Learned to take a saddle off without getting off so we could dump them up the beach so the leather didn't get salty.

Are you me?! 😂 I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately in my nearly-middle aged 90’s nostalgia. It was basically slave labour in some respects - no insurance, no liability, no pay. We were at the mercy of the owner’s whim in terms of actually getting a free ride or not. It rarely happened and when it did we were ecstatic.

I don’t think this would be allowed to happen nowadays which is probably a good thing. I’d be happy for my daughter to get outside in the fresh air and experience what hard work is, but defo wouldn’t be happy with the lack of supervision and safety. Also the exploitation 😂 Still I have some fond memories of a time long past.

It was exactly like this in the 80s except mine had a grumpy male owner who appeared to hate children and horses.

Eventually after too many tears my DM insisted I went to another yard where I was amazed to discover the owner was lovely, and it was possible to teach kids to ride without shouting at them and making them feel inadequate.

I also look back on how some of the horses were treated at yard 1, especially with whipping, and think it should have been shut down by the RSPCA.

This kind of thing is still going strong now.

Neither DH or I are horsey, I learned to ride as a kid but was always a bit wary of them, but DD2 has always been utterly horse obsessed.

Her riding school offered kids the chance to help out in exchange for lessons and hacks.

They did do a proper programme though, where they were taught how to tie up a haynet properly, how to muck out, tacking up, cleaning tack, etc.

Its where she learned how to use a nappy and gaffer tape to poultice an abscess, how to treat mud fever and that Sudocream works just as well as the £££ creams from the vet, how recognise the signs of colic, to warm your feet up in the muck heap on a cold day, how to soak hay without soaking yourself, she is that small and light teen who got roped in with backing or sorting out the mental shitland and learned the importance of an “oh shit” strap 😂 and how to sit a rear or when the little sod broncs off with you.

She loved every single second of it, and the experience was invaluable when she got her first share, then loan, and then when we were lucky enough to be able to buy her her own pony.

I acquired a lot of grey hair.

There’s a literary character I cannot stand.

Late 60s early 70s for me and loved every minute. I didn’t even have wellies. And we mucked out with a sack. The brown liquid would seep down your back as you trudged to the muck heap.

Happy happy days.

It was my favourite day of the week. There were Saturday girls who were a bit mean and Sunday girls who were lovely. There were very few boys but I did meet my first boyfriend there.

I would happily clean tack, sweep yards and fill manure bags in return for just spending time with the horses. I ended up teaching beginner half hour lessons and taking out group hacks. Lovely memories

@Bloodybridget it was the Christine Pullein-Thompson books I loved the most. My favourite was "Goodbye to Hounds", the unlikely story of a group of children who buy a pack of foxhounds and take over the hunt.

My daughters did this from 2010-2014 & a friend’s daughter is doing it now.

Only later did I realise that the nice lady with the ultra-smart accent was broke. All her money went on the horses and tack. She was strong and thin, stringy, with a weather-beaten face. Her Father was titled, she was the 'Hon' but never used it. She was Trixie to everyone. Long gone
Referred to us as her 'gels'. You read in novels about 'genteel poverty', I met a real example. I am sure I am better for knowing her.

Me! The lady who owned it was a bit of a dragon but I worked my arse for her from being 10. Proved I was willing to work and was given more and more rides. By the time I was 14 I was riding 6 days a week, sometimes 2 or 3 times exercising the liveries as well as riding the breakers/schoolers she had in, and when I was 16 I was taking hacks out.

She gave me a pony as well, and I literally lived at her house from being 14. Her dd was same age as me and we were at the same school and just easier to stay at theirs to get to yard first thing. She was a second mum to me (mine was a bit shit and homelife not great). She is still one of my friends now 30 odd years later and I have the utmost respect for her.

Yep I did this in the 90s. There were a few of us 'helpers'. It was slave labour and the staff were horrible. We shouted at and called idiots. I went every saturday and sunday, rain, hail or shine. There were no facilities except a toilet and a kettle, took a pot noodle for lunch and that was it. I loved it!

I used to work a Saturday and a Sunday, from 7am to 6pm and got 1 free ride a day. It gave me a lot of horse and stable management experience. Enough to be employed the minute I left school and to do my BHS exams. I ended up as Head Girl/Lad and loved every moment.

Me too! Late 70’s/early 80’s. Owners were okay but it was slave labour. The worst job was digging a hole, in winter, so we could empty the portable toilet…happy days!

Me too! The riding school I went to was the same, the woman who ran it was literally terrifying. I remember falling off once and the pony trod on me, I didn't dare cry as she would have shouted at me.

She treated the horses amazingly though, luckily!

Dd who’s now 19 did this when she was 11/12 or so, so not long ago!

Yes in the early 90s. I loved it but it was seriously hard work.
Worked 8:30-5 every Saturday and got a free ride at the end of the day in return if we were lucky and if there were enough ponies to go round.
At least half of the day was spent picking up sh1t in the field or leading smaller kids round the ménage or field knee deep in mud. Going to the loo in the stables 🤮 as no other facilities and making pot noodles using the 1 filthy kettle.

I did it, and learnt so much! A whole group of us would work for this chain-smoking, suntanned older lady, just for the sheer love of it.
Staring as a paying customer, my first lesson cost 75p. I fell off when she made me trot without stirrups after10 minutes. The pony was called Biscuit, a proper dun with a dorsal stripe and a hogged mane, nice and round, but I still bit the dust.
After a while I graduated to "working" - aged probably 12/13, which the highlight was riding and leading bareback, right through the village and up to the Moors, where they were turned out - unless riding Queenie, who was old, and went up another hill to a private address, and we used a saddle for her. I would ride and lead my two favourite mares, and when the verge was wide enough, we would have a canter; they were always still up for it even after a day in the School.
Another of my lovely mares slipped and fell into s small gorge on the Moors, and was found alive but with a broken back the next morning. They brought her down in a lorry but i was not allowed to assist with her. She had been a great teacher to me, even though I made a bad job in the Working Hunter class with her at my first show.

In the end though, everyone was better off than me, and they all one way or another, ended up with their own ponies or horses - and the feeling of being a Hanger-On and not being able to progress (I was 14!) and I regretfully "quit".

Of course, so many years later, and I have had such varied and valuable experience, including my own horses, and responsibility for all types, from rescue Shetlands and Dartmoor, to fantastic racehorses, and one or two Grand Prix dressage. I ran a yard for a while, where my own and daughter's horses were, and ended up in the position of my old role model with the pony-mad girls wanting to hang out and learn what they could (nothing for them to ride though - full of big hunters and ex-racers....)..... BUT I could see so many dangers, and knew that the parents of my little fan club would come after me if anything happened. I tried to encourage insurance, but most of them were too young anyway, or parents didn't want to pay out.

And of course, when younger, I imagined myself to be Dora from Follyfoot (I was certainly moody enough).

I did this in the 60s. We used to stack hay bales too. I remember enjoying the work but looking back it was very dangerous.

The smell of fresh hay sends me straight back! Of course, I don't think we realised the dangers, and the adults around didn't seem to care....
At my first riding school the hay was a proper hay loft above the bigger stables - we would sit up there to fill the haynets and then throw them down (door just opened straight out) onto the yard. The other entrance to the loft was from the upstairs feed room, and we would run the length of the loft to the haynet area. Due to the low height of the ceiling, we would run at a crouch, except on one occasion, I must have not crouched low enough between the beams and smacked right into one and knocked myself out.

I did it in the 1970s. We had such rich childhoods.

I bet it still happens now.
Pony mad children will do anything to be around horses and ponies.
Riding School’s rely on this sort of free labour to run at all.
Parents like it because it gives teens a sense of purpose rather than hanging around potentially getting into trouble.
It's win win really.
Admittedly there are a lot of horse people who can be grumpy and lack "people" skills but for the most part kids go there to be around horses and to be with their horsey friends. The grumpiness of the owner largely goes over their heads!

Happy days. Child slave Labour -10 hours hard graft for a 30 minute 'ride' up to the field to put them out for the night! Loved every exploitative minute!

My DD did this a couple of years ago and now has a proper job on an equestrian evening yard