A day in the life of your horse at AP Equestrian
Ever wondered what your horse is doing when you’re not there. Well, here is a glimpse of what daily life is like for the happy equines at Ford Farm:
6:30am Breakfast time!
The first thing we do is to take round the morning feeds, and whilst the horses are busy eating, we check texts and messages to see if there are any special requests from owners. We’ll then run through the plan for the day, including who is being exercised, groomed, lunged, ridden etc.
7am All Change:
After the horses have eaten we start to muck out, checking there are healthy droppings, changing rugs depending on the temperature and start putting horses out into the paddocks or on the walker. As they are going out we check feet and legs making sure there are no issues.
8.00am - 11am Rush Hour!
Alice will normally start riding at 8am, so horses need to be tacked up and ready. The yard jobs are done, skips emptied, and the cross-ties, walker, and yard swept. Feeds are made up for each of the horses.
11am - 4pm - Work time:
We continue to tack up horses ready for Alice to ride. Often the team will warm up the horses before they are schooled and walk them off when they finish.
We will also exercise the horses not being schooled that day - some will hack them round the field together or into the village, while others are lunged. After work all the horses are bathed and groomed. It’s time to clean the tack and do all the general yard duties.
Skips emptied, and the cross-ties, walker, and yard swept. Feeds are made up individually each of the horses.
4pm - 5.00 pm – Trolley Time:
We call this ‘Hay Trolley’ time... after which we start the final tidy of the wash-box, cross-ties and tack room, skip out, sweep the yard, and finally evening feeds. Afterwards, the feed buckets are collected in, making sure everyone has eaten up. The following morning’s feeds are then prepared to go out on the trolley next day.
9.00pm. Late night checks
Each stable is checked to check all our guests are comfortable and well. And finally, a last security check of the tack rooms, facilities and alarms.
Overnight
We have staff based on site overnight in the case of emergencies.