How do you do it with family/work etc

[Shesaidshelistened]

So have owned before but that was years ago when I had a great deal with full livery. Pony didn’t work out as was more a second pony and at the time dd needed a first pony.

Fast forward 4 years and DD is now older and bigger and we can get a mother/daughter share, however what with working, looking After other DC who don’t ride etc, how do people fit it in and make it work?

Simply. Full livery.
wouldn’t do it anymore if I couldnt afford full livery

I have two, my horse who's a field ornament and the kids pony. I work full time have two primary school children and am on diy. Only way I can do it is buddying up with a friend we take it in turns to go up after work to skip out hay etc and fetch in and the fact the yard is ten mins away. If I only had one I probably would have moved onto part livery. This winter has about finished me off

It is hard, looking after them and everything else and working means riding time is difficult to locate and if daughter is doing Pony Club etc that will take up much of your time. The way we have made it work is by having established well trained horses and ponies - doing this ourselves with help from senisible youngstock, this is not a time for high maintenance horses that need riding every day/ have behaviour issues to get over/ are hard to handle etc. Also we bought land so that they live out with shelter and we can arrange things to suit us, I would flexibly and part time though and it is a lot of responsibility and has cost quite a bit of money, we have 3 though. I think for 1 getting the Yard and horse right is essential and really accepting the level of commitment required. I am very careful about taking on any other responsibilities and whilst I do have a social life etc horses need to be fitted into every day, cosy hundreds a month even with unmortgaged land and I wouldn't be going to exercise classes etc there are a lot of outings other people do that I wouldn't due to the commitments and being tried as this winter has been very hard. I do love them though and having the horses in our lives is awesome.

Early mornings & later evenings, an understanding partner, a flexible working pattern and a lot of sacrifice of other things I would like to do. I am lucky that the yard is close and I have someone who does 2 afternoon/ evenings a week for me. Also I second the OP above. My horse is fairly low maintenance, doesn't require daily riding and can be quite happy as a field ornament on occasion. This winter has been awful though. Very hard work.

Only have 1xDD and 1x pony, but both DH and I work full time with some travel and unpredictable schedules etc. We have a reasonably workable schedule and a great livery yard that can do a mix of anything we need on a fairly 'on demand' basis.

So we do 1 day a week full livery so we don't go at all and everybody gets a day off, then I turn out 4 mornings, a friend brings in afternoons, and DD rides at about 6pm on about 3 evenings a week and we do jobs in the evening, and then weekends we DIY. It's a bit miserable in winter but doable.

It can be stressful at times, but I know I have the fallback of adding additional livery days when needed, and they can do extras like holding for farrier/vaccinations etc. if needed. We also live 5 mins from yard and DH works 2 mins from yard so we are close by.

Livery services, not necessarily full livery but having the horse fed and turned out in the morning so you only have to go up once makes a massive difference.

If you struggle to find that you might be able to find someone to share jobs with to get the same result.

I part loan my fiends horse and pony.
I do 4 days a week and she does 3.
We pay for turn out most mornings and do the jobs / ride in an evening.

It's a win win for both of us.

Either pay for full livery or do what I do: DIY and up at 5.30am to do horse then back to sort DD out for school and sort myself for work. Finish work then run back up to yard for evening stables, rush home to sort tea etc.
Remember most livery yards don't cover Xmas day/boxing day so you need to factor these in.
It is bloody tough!