Mucking out

[mummac4]

My daughter has been riding for 18 months. She 12 years old. She's doing great. She gets a weekly hour lesson 30 riding the other 30 are learning general health, mucking out, or tacking up. I asked for it this way we tried a pony club due to her autism she didn't like the fact there was 7 or 8 others there. My daughter has said she would like more time with horses. I was wondering if i contact local farm would they let her help out a few hours each week. She will need guidance from the owner . Its not something she can do on her own at this time. The stable where she gets her lesson is out of the question as we can only afford to go once a week due to fuel cost. There's no where local that does lesson. I would be willing to stay with her but i will be hands off due to my disabilities. If this was possible i would like to know what i ask i know nothing of horses. I'm willing to take my daughter stand in the cold rain for a few hours for her to help out. Any advice would be grateful.

Most livery yards (which is what I assume you mean by farm) wouldn’t as it’s an insurance nightmare. And they look after other peoples horses not their own like a riding stable, I’d (with no disprespect to your daughter) be absolutely furious if my horse which I pay several hundreds of pounds a month to live on a livery yard was being looked after by a beginner 12 year old.

Your best bet would be to put an advert on a local FB page if someone would be happy to have your daughter for an hour or two a week for some grooming and mucking out. She might even get the odd big of extra riding for it.

I've not been around horses so i appreciate you getting back to me and explaining things i would never thought of. Thank you

I agree with the previous poster. I have a small companion pony that I hardly ever get to spend any time with as I am so busy with my other one so I'd be delighted if someone wanted to cone up and just groom, give him a bit of fuss etc without the worry of someone wanting to ride. if you are on Facebook it would be worth putting an ad on the local horsey page.

You're probably best putting an advert on a local horsie page on fb and finding someone with a few horses that would like some attention. As mentioned above a livery yard probably is not the best place due to insurance and people paying a lot of money for their horses to be looked after professionally

Hope you manage to find something x

One of the reasons I left my previous yard was because they increased their ad-hoc weekend full livery price to £50 a day. The mucking out was done by teens who helped out on the riding school. The next day my horse’s bed was an absolute state and I would have to pay a fortune to restart the bed

Thank you everyone. I'll have a look on fb

At 12 yrs old your daughter will need constant supervision by an adult wherever she goes so it is a big ask for anyone. Be careful to really vet anyone who offers her the opportunity ie are they competent themselves to show her how to do everything safely and properly? Will they always be around to supervise her?
I appreciate how hard it is for anyone who isn't horsey to get into but your best bet is Pony Club, my daughter attends a PC centre ie riding school which is also a PC so they don't need their own horses. They are incredibly strict on safety and I'm happy that she is being taught how to act around horses in a safe manner and how to do stable chores correctly. I know you've mentioned you don't have the money for fuel to do this but horse riding is one of the most expensive hobbies and if she wants to progress then it will undoubtedly end up costing more money on lessons/equipment etc. There is just no getting away from that fact.

The place she has her lessons is autism friendly and she loves it there. They do teach her all aspects of safety as well as lessons. She dose work sheets on grooming and feeding. We tried a pony club she didn't like the group setting she better 1 to 1.

Do the Horse Rangers still exist? It was like scouts on horseback. There weren’t many groups but worth a Google.

Never heard of them. I'll Google it. Thanks

Most shares / helping out for rides type arrangements will want her to be able to groom, muck out etc unsupervised. It sounds like you might be better sticking with the current place for another 6 or 12 months while she learns more, before she can be ready to help out elsewhere safely.

Thank you everyone. We'll will leave things as they are with her weekly lessons for now

Our stables offer a non riding/in hand and stable management sessions starting at £19.

Some stables gave ‘Saddle Club’ but she would be in a group.

Thank you I'll look in to both

It is probably very hard for her to be patient, OP, but as she gets older and more experienced, more opportunities will come along. I think you are wise to leave it at her riding lessons for now.

As she’s autistic she may be able to go to riding for the disabled (RDA) and help out there too ??