what would a general day at the stable be for a working pupil?

Question

I'm thinking of doing a working pupil course at a place like Trent Park Equestrian center. What would a general day be like? Also is there a certain standard of knowledge and ability that you need before they would consider taking you on? Is there anybody out there who has done a working pupil course and would you recommend anything or anywhere to train?

cla ro · Accepted Answer

haha.  back in my working pupil days it my routine consisted of feeding about 60 horses,  then mucking out 20,  tacking up and lunging horses,  hacking out the young horses,  checkig the mares and foals, putting horses in and out of feilds and the horse walker,  checking the fences,  cleaning the feeders and water drinkers,  grooming ,  trimming, bandaging and breaking.

and then i was expected,  after a 12 hour day,  to do foal watch when it was my turn.  this meant staying up all night watching the mares and being able to assist in the birthing if there was any problems.

generally when people take you on as a working pupil they expect you to have a good foundation knowledge,  be able to muck out,  groom,  fit tack,  plait and turnout,  lunge, handle a mix of horses, including stallions and foals, and most places will expect you to be able to ride to a standard equal to your stage two.  infact alot of places ask that you have your stage 2,  both parts,  before they will take you on.



*********edit:  a stage two is athe second of the bhs exams,  below is the link to the syllabus this should help a little:

http://www.bhs.org.uk/DocFrame/DocView.asp?id=1220

Bella_Boyzie_92 · Answer

I think the stage two she is talking about is the BHS stage 2 qualification. This is the syllabus http://www.bhs.org.uk/DocFrame/DocView.asp?id=1220 it explains what you have to be able to do in order to pass the exam.

To be able to take this exam you have to have passed the stage 1 exam first. Weve just had ours in college, it isnt too bad but you have to talk about a lot of stuff.

The syllabus for stage 1 http://www.bhs.org.uk/DocFrame/DocView.asp?id=1219

musicismyboyfriend · Answer

I did this last summer, and i have never been so exhausted every day !!
My schedule went something like this.
1. 7:30- feed and groom horses (I luckily only had to care for 8)
2. 7:40- fill their waters & hay
3. 7:50- pick out stalls (they have to be perfect for my trainer or she FLIPS) 
4. 8:20- sweep ailes 
5. 8:30- ride with trainer on one of her horses
6. 10:30- pick out stalls
6. 10:40- go to her horses' paddocks and pick out the paddocks
7. 12:00- tack up one of your trainer's horses for her to ride
8. 12:20- pick out stalls AGAIN ; )
9. 12:30- quick break for lunch
10. 12:40- graze horses
11. 2:00- hack remaining horses
12. 3:30- pick out stalls
13. 3:40- dump muck buckets (we had to drive ours about a half mile to the pile)
14. 4:00- jump crew for trainer
15. 4:30- prepare horses for turn out (flymasks, blankets/sheets if necessary)
16. 4:40- feed!
17. 4:50- turn horses out in respective paddocks
18. 5:00- someone drives out in kubota to give hay to horses in paddocks. the others muck out for tomorrow morning when the horses come in, this includes scrubbing water buckets and putting hay in the stalls
19. 6:00- sweep aisles
20. 6:15- we had to rinse the muck buckets and stack them a certain way (my trainer was a little...strict?)
21. 6:20- go home and sleep! then wake up and repeat!

what would a general day at the stable be for a working pupil?

3 Answers