Experience with Horses

I’ve been around and ridden horses since I was a child (aged 4 to be exact!) as I was lucky enough to grow up around friesian horses, owned by a friend of my mums. My childhood consisted of spending every weekend religiously helping out on the yard and in doing so, slowly building up my ability to look after, understand and work with horses. Preparing me to take on an equine apprenticeship at aged 16 with warmbloods on a dressage yard, where I got a distinction on my level 2 diploma in horse care. Following this at aged 17, I returned to the friesians – working with them full time, which was a dream come true!

My role was diverse, which I loved because there was never a dull moment and always new skills to be developed! I was doing everything from –

• Day to day yard duties – mucking out, feeding, turning out, preparing for exercise, bathing & trimming, filling haynets, rugging, tack cleaning, washing ect.
• Turning out horses to a high standard for special occasions & photo-shoots,
• Taking out our ‘meet the horses’ tours (an hour experience for visitors where by I took them on a tour of the farm and introduced them to all the horses whilst explaining about their unique personalities and the breed in general) and checking visitors in to our unique accommodation- a sleepover with a horse!,
• Getting involved with the training of the horses – I had 3 ‘project’ horses of my own of whom I mainly hacked and did groundwork (lunging & trt method) with. For me when working with a horse I think of myself as their personal trainer, the goal is to help them to help themselves to become a stronger, fitter, free-er version of themselves in a way which delivers them a positive experience.
• Assisting with creating videos for our you-tube channel or informative posts for our other social media channels.
• Being left in sole charge of the yard.

For me my no 1 priority when it comes to horses, is their well being and happiness. I aspire to give any horse in my care the best care possible as it’s what they deserve! I see horses as ‘people’ in their own way…with huge personalities and I love getting to know them inside out, whilst adapting myself to meet their needs. I’m not an expert when it comes to training them but I know what I know and I’m confident applying that knowledge whilst expanding it, because our horses always have something new to teach us – Working with and understanding horses are definitely areas I am keen to develop.

I’ve never been shy of hard work, I’m happy to get stuck in doing whatever needs to be done as I enjoy every aspect of working with horses not just the ‘nice parts’.