Hi everyone, as a trainer, how many horses can you comfortably ride in one day without feeling crunched for time? This summer will be the first time that I will be training full-time. Up until this point I have had my personal horse and 1-2 horses in training. I plan to have 8-9 hour days (I have a toddler and a husband that need me too 
I will be working out of a boarding barn so no need to factor in chore time. However catching, saddling, warm up/cool down, and unsaddling will be a factor.
If you only have to groom, saddle, warm-up, ride, cool off, bathe, dry and put away, 8-10 a day is all you may have time for, assuming you don’t have to give lessons, or those mostly later in the day, in the evenings.
A walker helps to warm up and cool down.
I was doing it all, from feeding, cleaning to just everything and could fit 6-7 a day in that.
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I top out at 6. Sometimes I have to water the indoor or adjust feeding schedules or tend to injuries and clean tack. Furthermore, most days I have owners stopping to watch and chat or lessons scheduled. 6 horses, for me on my own, brings me 8-12 hour days.
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If you switch them over to night time turnout you won’t have to go catch them. Since they are going out at night, it’s cooler and they can stay in a light turnout well into spring and that will cut down on grooming time.
If you have enough saddles, tack up a few at a time and take then all down to the ring together.
I’ve never trained but for 1 crazy year I had 3 kids plus myself riding.
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I used to ride 8. To do it properly you only ride the horse to work. Soneone else does the feeding, cleaning, tacking and untacking and warming up and down. That way you can ride a lot of horses a day.
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Our trainer in Texas would do 8-10 a day. She had help grooming and tacking and untacking. I think doing 8-10 without help would be a lot to do.
With chores and all that, I could do 4 plus my personal mare in a 10-14 hour day (depended on vet/farrier/lesson schedule). Once I get everything set up where I am now, I could probably do 7 daily with no other obligations for the day, chores included (no stalls, just paddocks that are picked 2-3 times per week).
Why don’t you start with, say, 4 horses, see how that goes, then add to that one at the time, until you hit your limit?
Remember, you don’t have to ride every horse every day, that helps some.
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The most I ever had in-training at one time I believe was 4, but then I also had my own 4 horses to ride and take care of. Most days, I rode every one every day.
Agree with Bluey’s suggestion. If you’ve done 1 or 2 in the past, start with that and slowly add one at a time so you see how much time you have.
Keep in mind that some horses will need an hour a ride, some will need 15 or 20 min a ride. You can figure accordingly.
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