Horses & Kids!

PonyMum

Curious to know if anyone here is successfully managing to juggle having both horses and small children? I find it really hard to find time to ride. I don't work but I can't ride during the day because there's no-one to mind the children and by the time they go to bed I'm too tired. Has anyone found a solution or do I just need to suck it up and ride at night?
I know of a yard in the north that does parent mornings where people bring their kids and either take it in turns to watch the kids and ride or else they get a babysitter in and all go for a hack! Sounds like a great idea but haven't heard of anywhere else that does anything like this so I'm guessing there's not much call for it...

monflat

I successfully juggled it all and did some small bit of competition upon having second child. at the time they were one and 3
I always kept horses at home but I moved to livery and rode very late at night!! And like 7am Sunday mornings
I rode until I about 4 months pregnant on third child and then sold all my horses. It just proved too hard and costly to be feeding/ maintaining horses when you actually are not getting time to enjoy them and I mean not getting a chance to look out the window!
So I did make right decision and 3rd child is 13 months now.
I plan on getting a children's pony next summer he will be 2 and his older siblings will be 3 and 5

I had to go back to work and catch up on everything on my days off and go to hobbies with oldest girl so I would not have got a chance to do anything with horses or the energy.!!!

Possibly if they are interested in it il purchase again to hack along with them. I'd love one now but it's not realistic.

I have access to a friends horse to hack or go on charity rides etc if I feel like it.

However I feel in a way the older they get the harder it is to slip away!
When they younger it's easier.

However I think my confidence has changed I'mmomore cautious and safety conscious!!!!

Lucy21

its difficult - i work full-time and have a child.

I am lucky though in that I have the horse and pony at home. Child is also at an age that she is riding and starting to go alone now too. I don't bother trying to ride during the week at all during the winter and limit it to 3 times a week during summer/long daylight hours. During Winter I ride once a week, and the child rides twice a week. But obviously some weeks we don't ride at all - too tired, crap weather, other stuff to do. I also deep bed my stables so mucking out is really quick during the week (just poops) and at the weekend i attend to more detailed mucking out. Sometimes the child helps sometimes child doesn't !!

I don't think it would be possible for me to do any riding if i had to go to a yard to ride. It would take too much time. Especially after putting a child to bed that doesn't want to go to bed !!!! Grrrr !!! I am seriously exhausted post the bedtime routine/nightmare. So when I do ride I tend to do it immediately after work and only for about 30 minutes.

Thats just my circumstances. I don't beat myself up about not riding my horse more - my horse really is quite happy once she has food in her belly and plenty of turnout.

Lucy21

monflat wrote: »

However I feel in a way the older they get the harder it is to slip away!
When they younger it's easier.

However I think my confidence has changed I'mmomore cautious and safety conscious!!!!

Yes they get older and don't want to go to sleep so by the time the do go to sleep all your fit for is bed yourself. Plus they have hobbies, and friends, and homework etc to be attended to, also they create more mess and are less inclined to tidy up after themselves (exhausted just thinking of the mess thats currently in the childs room!!!!)

And definitely the older you get the more safety conscious you become!!!! Very easy to get your confidence knocked as you age.