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!

Yes! I used to love this on a Saturday. It was the 00's for me, such happy memories. I'd have my lesson for an hour at 9am and then go and ask the owner what she wanted me to do , there was quite a few other girls who did the same. I don't recall ever getting my lessons for free but most of the instructors kept their own horses at the stables and would often ask me to exercise them. I remember being shocked at how different the privately owned horses were to ride compared to the school ponies! I was also allowed to ride their horses for my lessons as well so that really helped me develop my riding skills further.

Yes I remember this and doing all the “Stable Management” certificates as well!

I did those then ‘graduated’ aged c.12 to a local successful show yard and stud, spent all my weekends there and school holidays for almost 3yr until discovering partying and boys.

It was a relatively small yard, but the owner was so rude and outrageous that she could barely retain full time grooms for longer than a month or two, so it was often solely down to me (with help from for her only at feeding due to the complex diets) to muck out about 15 stables and an American barn, sweep two large yards, muck heap control, turning out & bringing in, rugging up, grooming, tack cleaning, feeding, bandaging, plaiting, checking at night etc. At any time there were a mix of around 15-20 brood mares in foal or with foal, yearlings, show ponies, ponies she bred and was selling, a few retired ponies and a couple of in house stallions… Definitely slave labour!!!

All I got in return aside from the satisfaction of looking after the horses and being horse-mad generally was a random pair of leopard print flares she bought for me once 😅

She was also 99.9% of the time fully naked except for an old too-small ragged dressing gown tied with bailing twine with tits flopping around hither and thither and arse flashing as she hauled a bale etc.

The young hot farrier used to stay minimal time as she’d hang out her window naked shouting commands at him from the bath 😂

I’d say she was in her 60s, loud, eccentric with highly clipped accent; she was a model in the 60s but a lot larger when I knew her and extremely confident and rude. Wtf when I look back lol I should have stayed at the local stables!

I know this character! In fact, over the years I’ve known a few of them.

One lady bought far too many ponies at the sales, kept them in her riding school then sold them on once they were at the best age in order to make a profit. She knew the queen in some vague distant way and was part of one of the big pageants held at Windsor. I discovered after knowing her for a while that she was Lady Xxx. She would race over hedges side saddle and I bought some of the most fabulous ponies for my children from her. I still recommend her to friends looking for ponies, she is just lovely.

Another one became a very good friend. Due to being a daughter, not a son, she lived in the little cottage on the estate while her younger brother inherited the Big House. She never had any heating on, and once when I went round for supper she only served me white wine and cigarettes, I don’t smoke. She died prematurely, but lived fast and ran the local foxhound pack.

I have such fond memories of riding school growing up. I was the crash test dummy at the local school, my mother would stick me on anything to get free lessons. She wouldn’t let me hang around at the weekends though, that was not riding and she only wanted me to go there for riding. So I got the maddest, meanest ponies going. The owner was a school teacher by day and fierce. Her husband ran a weddings and funerals carriage business. He would often buy in smart matching ponies and if they did not suit driving they would go into the riding school, where I would ride them for a few weeks to see if they killed me. If I survived, they were sold on if they were nice ponies, stayed in the riding school if they weren’t. Eventually my mum bought one of the ponies good for nothing and got him for pennies. He had jumped at Wembley in his youth and was quite mad. I would either win jumping classes on him, or crash and burn.

I still ride now, nearly 40 years later. And I am reasonably good at it, having made the national team for my chosen discipline. I never forget where I started out though. Happy days at the riding school!😁

This was the soundtrack of my teen years! Weekends and every single day of the school holidays I used to finish my paper round and cycle three miles, rain or shine to the stables and spend all day there. My friends and I took our Pot Noodles and used to huddle together in the tack room for warmth 😂 I would cycle home and return freezing cold, soaking wet and stinking but worth it for the free ride.

The owner eventually started paying us £3 a day in addition to the free ride - in the 80s that was a lot of money! My parents loved it (except for the stinkiness) as they didn't have to worry about me sneaking off and meeting boys as my peers did 😲

I loved those books, it was a trilogy wasn't it?
Recently re-read the Jill books too as an adult. They're so dated and would have been when I read them as a child too.

Yep and it didn't put me off! Was still riding until 2019 when I lost my horse

I'm immunocompromised and my consultant has gone from "you do wash bagged salad? to "please bite the apple before your horse does and try to wash the mugs" he actually said I have a stomach of steel considering my condition and I'm putting that down to stable life!

Yes .... loved every every minute of it!
Then I got my own pony (who I still dream about😢)

Still very much like this today at most of the stables I know 🤣

I live in Ireland and it still happens here, but hopefully with a little bit more H&S! I don't know though, some of the girls look barely out of nappies! Definitely not teenagers.

Yep, I did it in the 80's and my sister before me. Learnt a lot, which stood me in good stead when I got my own pony, but my god the woman that ran the yard was the most massive bitch who shouldn't have been anywhere near children or ponies. I was absolutely terrified of her and her foul temper. I only kept going because I adored the ponies, (and because I was too terrified to tell her I didn't want to come any more!)

Ah this is a trip down memory lane! Back in the late 80s/early 90s I spent every Saturday possible at the local stables, mucking out, grooming, cleaning tack, you name it. I had [paid] lessons there too but I can count on one hand the number of free rides I got. Run by a miserable woman with all the aforementioned bitchy teenagers hanging around and telling us what to do. The horses were treated well though.

I wonder how many of us worked in the same stables in the 80s? We had such a mix of posh girls whose fathers paid for full livery and plebs like me who were happy to work for peanuts, just to be with the horses. I wouldn't have changed anything though 🐴

Same for me in the 80’s. Right down to the pot noodle.

It seemed I learned positive things from the adults and some other habits from some of the older girls.

I did get proficient at swearing and learned to smoke. One 14?yr old girl took it as her job to explain to younger ones about periods and sex. Always emphasis on the blood and mess.

Somehow, we survived without being mentally scarred. I enjoyed it all including the Aertex shirts with washed-out colours. It was as if we never had new ones in fresh bright colours.

Oh @LoveMyPiano wild horses couldn't keep me away (Pun absolutely intended!).

This! When no-one gave a shit what trainers you wore or what your hair was like! Happy days😀

The smell of saddle soap and hoof oil absolutely zooms me back to my childhood/teens. I miss it so much!

That still happens now. My 8 year old does it and a bit of everything else in the yard too so he gets riding time coz he’s too big for our pony now and my horse is a bad tempered auld bugger. It works pretty well when you consider it’s £25 for a half hour lesson or £20 for a half hour hack. A lot of kids here don’t have any money. They get to do things they wouldn’t normally afford. It’s no different than our green keepers or the pro at the club getting the kids to collect the golf balls in off the driving range for a few shots and tips from the pro before closing. Builds relationships in the community too because the kids don’t feel like “that’s just for them in the big houses”.

My mum let me go on Sundays but insisted I went to church and sung in the choir so I’d cycle off to church mid morning and stick a cassock over my jodhpurs before heading back to the stables.

We had a 15 year old mentor too, she was very beautiful and we all idolised her 😅 We were gawky kids and in awe of her beauty and confidence 😕

The couple who ran ours didn’t hate kids, they had 8 or 9 of their own. They were quite nice but totally disorganised. You’d tack up a pony for the 12 o’clock lesson and three folk would arrive coz she’d booked on the phone and not put it in the diary then someone else would have booked a 12 in too

Those books (The eventers trilogy?) Are one of my favourite ever books, alongside The Ponies of Cukoo Mill Farm, I bought them both again recently!
I was one of these kids, escorting rides from about 12 on the ponies that had got a bit cheeky and needed a few rides with an experienced and brave rider.
Started by mucking out and filling nets and waters, graduated to grooming and tacking up, then leading, then escorting rides and teaching the younger kids the basics.
Spent every spare minute there, learned what not to do (with hindsight) as much as what to do. We'd get a lesson and a hack out usually, and were in groups according to ability and so got some jumping, x country and rather crazy rides across the Moors as we got older, riding the bigger and more advanced horses.
It was bloody hard work, cold in winter, hot in summer, long days and often in the holidays we went at least 3/4 days without a shower, slept in the living part of the horsebox, or a caravan in the field, a huge bare attic with only sleeping bags....... We got fed where I went, mostly chips.
Loved it, was taught by the horses themselves how to behave around them and ride them and sometimes the hard way, but I'm sure it made me not only a better rider but a better horse person all round.
'Unless you're going to hospital, you're getting back on' is pretty much how I've lived my life really, horses are a great leveller.

Me too! What a lot of horsey girls we were. I was so jealous of anyone with a pony.

I used to go to a ‘pony club’ at the stables every Saturday and they would spend 20 minutes telling us about food or grooming in return for us mucking out and cleaning all day. I would hang around as much as I could. They put me with the ‘dangerous’ bay horse who would kick out. And I didn’t care just as long as I got to groom her! Oh the days…

I really hoped to be able to ride now and then but the women running it never let us. So sometimes when they weren’t around I’d just go in the field and ride one of the ponies bare back.

I was also incredibly jealous of my friend who had a pony that she rode around the streets sometimes. Looking back I think she was a traveller. She lived in a house but had a caravan too. I was never let ride her pony though.

Now I can’t believe how brave I was back then as I’m a bit scared of horses now!

Looking back I think she was a traveller. She lived in a house but had a caravan too.

I live in a house and have a caravan a horse and a pony too. Not a traveller 😆

This is a lovely thread 🥰 I literally spent six years of my life mucking out, tacking up and brushing horses. My parents were poor and we could NEVER afford a horse. Twist in the tale - my dad was relocated to Scotland and I asked my mum 'If I save up enough money, can I buy a horse?' Well, I saved up £1000 and bought a horse...