Is it normal for teenage stable hands to work for free?

[Bellaisoneluckywoman]

Hi there. DD is about to turn 15. She helping out last weekend at our local stables (where she has always ridden - as a paying client), working from 7am to 3pm. She had assumed she'd get a tenner or similar, but was told it was entirely voluntary. Just wondering if that is normal practice. Seems a bit of a cheek to have free child labour, but maybe it's all just supply and demand and there are enough horse-mad teenagers happy to do it. Keen to hear whether this is standard stuff or a bit of a chutzpah.

If it was described as "helping out" and no payment was discussed in advanced I can see why the stables think she was happy to volunteer her time.

It's a bit shit but I agree it's a supply and demand thing. I imagine some teenagers are willing to do it for the experience to go on their CVs/UCAS/DofE etc.

I'd say so, in return for time with the horses.

Usually it's in return for an hours riding, at £30 an hour to ride, it not too bad a hourly rate

Depends on the area. In many, including mine, locals aren’t horse-mad at all, and so stables have to pay at least minimum wage to get trustworthy teens. In other areas working for free at the local stables is a rite of passage and there’s no need to pay.

Only thing I’d say is, if she’s not doing it because of fun (and wants experience) then it may be better for her to try and approach them with a paid job offer in-hand—basically she can tell them that she either gets paid or leaves.

Yep, normal. Did she get to ride? If she was expecting payment she really should have discussed it first but there will be other horse mad teens who would happily give up their time for free.

As part of my job I get people voluntary work and stables is one of the most popular requests.

What happens insurance wise if she had an accident whilst working there?
Working for free for a charitable organisation is one thing but for a commercial business, I'd call it exploitation.

DD (15yo) does a similar amount of time but gets a free riding lesson during her 'working' day. The upside is that she does not have to arrange cover for her holidays, whereas the older stable hand who does get paid has to do this as part of her responsibilities (and DD often does her cover, and gets paid for that!).

It's awful but unfortunately normal. Round us it's even worse. There's a stable who let's teens work for free for "credit" towards horse-riding (which is pitiful - takes about a year to get enough for an hour's ride). Then they insist on "training" every few months, which costs £50 a go. Total exploitation but they get away with it somehow.

Yes. In turn for riding

At the stables where dd rides, older kids pay £5 for the privilege of spending the day helping out!

Depends really - DD (12) helps out all day whenever she can and gets nothing for it. Her friend is 14 and is asked to help on Sundays, and gets either an hours free riding (cost would be £20) or £20 cash.

Sometimes my DD is asked to help for the day, and will get a free lesson as a thank you.

Always been in exchange for a ride as far as I know. I worked as a stable hand for a summer after I finished GCSE’s. I did 10 hour days but generally 2 of that was accompanying riders on a hack and then I’d get an hours lesson a day. Never paid but they’d always give me a hot lunch

Occasionally they’ll put one of the more experienced, committed kids who come every week on a new horse to test it out, or on a horse which has been playing up. But otherwise no free rides, and they have to buy their own snacks and drinks from the cafe.

Thank you all for your replies. Seems it is the standard way of things! It's true that DD should have asked, but she was just embarrassed about raising the issue of money. She got an hour's ride one day, but nothing the second day. She isn't hugely bothered about it - it was more me thinking what a cheek given what hard work it is. Quite a punchy business model to rely so heavily on free child labour!

Dd worked every Saturday for two years at her old riding school from the age of 12 to 14 and didn’t get paid anything or get a free ride - she didn’t even get a discount on lessons. However, she did get a lot of experience so when she moved to another riding school she was a very useful extra pair of hands on the yard. She worked for a few days over the holidays and got to ride every day. Once she’d shown she was committed, she started to get paid and now gets pretty well-paid. One of her friends doesn’t get paid but gets free weekly lessons. She’s got so much out of it beyond the money - she’s learned lots about stable management which has come in very handy now she’s got her own horse. She’s also learned how to deal with small children and their parents and developed a fantastic work ethic

At the stables I currently ride at you have to pay to join either the senior or junior club to be able to help on the yard . It’s a once yearly charge but covers the owners insurance for helpers and then both clubs have their own events that you can join in with , some free and some paid . You need to have regular lessons and be of a certain standard to join either club . Quite honestly riding schools can be overwhelmed with children / teens that want to help and IME ( 40 yrs of horse ownership) most of the time it would be easier for the normal staff if they were not there .

Agree with others that it's very standard, I'm not sure there is a yard in the country which could afford to pay minimum wage plus NI contributions etc. for their helpers without going bust so it's a bit of a quid pro quo for being able to ride at a school at all, unfair as that sounds. As you say the system is open to exploitation and I have heard of some situations although of course it is also the time honoured way for kids to learn stable management, a rite of passage for any horsey person really!

At my current yard which has a riding school attached the teenage helpers get an hours free lesson for every full day they help (the better riders sometimes also accompany hacks or school the newer or naughtier ponies), plus generous Xmas and Birthday presents from the owner (usually £100 voucher for the on-site tack shop) plus a 50% discount in the little on site cafe. This is one of the more generous compensations I've seen, although still not equivalent to minimum wage if you add up the hours they put in. She has a waiting list of kids wanting to do it though! They also don't do the really heavy lifting/hard tasks, mainly they help with the little kids who are on lead rein and do 'lighter' yard duties like grooming, tacking up, sweeping and tidying up, skipping out and topping up haynets and water buckets etc., and they spend a fair amount of time larking about and cuddling the ponies too, which is how it should be If your DD is literally being used as hard labour mucking out or carting water buckets around for 8 hours a day then that is definitely going a bit beyond what's fair IMO and she should look for another stable!

The riding school my daughter learned to ride at offered a club whereby the kids helped out and got a hack or a lesson in return

For DD it worked both ways - yes, the riding school got free help, but DD got to learn stable management/horse care, etc for free

Neither DH or I are horsey so it was a fantastic way for her to learn

There’s always a waiting list of willing helpers at most riding schools round here

It's not really normal where I'm at but I'm not in the UK.

However 'helping out' does sound like a friendly / voluntary thing (to me). Ive recently helped our (elderly and crotchety as heck) neighbour with her dish washer and I wouldn't have expected any kind of payment either... Because helping out sounds like doing someone a favour (at least to me).

Hashing these things out beforehand would be a better idea (imo). Maybe a good lesson for your daughter? Idk.

Definitely a good learning experience on many levels. It was a good deal of hard, physical labour (not just cuddling ponies), but DD quite enjoyed the challenge. In the end, we've decided to chuck her a tenner each day she 'works' there. I am all in favour of her having to be professional, get up early, put her back into it etc. But I do think that some sort of payback is fair so we've decided to sub it from home. Maybe not what everyone would do, but I think it's fair given the hours of work. There is no way that stable would function without the labour of these kids...... Not mentioning it to the woman who runs the place - just between us at home.

How do you think she manages all week when the ‘helpers ‘ are at school ?

No idea! She does have one 'grown up' stable hand, although I know she has another job during the week.

Dd was a volunteer helper from the age of 13, along with a horde of other similarly aged girls.
The yard had a few girls 16+ as paid weekend staff, and two adults who did the paid work during the week.
Now dd is 16 and is one of the paid girls.

The volunteering gave her valuable yard work experience, she got to handle horses which she ordinarily would not be able to, she was allowed to ride those ponies in need of exercise, she was taught to lunge, wound care, she was allowed to watch the saddler when she came to fit a saddle to a horse, etc etc, she learnt a lot. Plus, she loved it.
So that made up for lack of payment.

She now uses those skills as a paid member of the team, and it was good preparation for getting a share pony, and then her own dpony.

It is normal, and i think if you get a good hours ride its ok, but with no ride and no money it's pretty morally crap. But that's horses and horse people for you!