How do I find people to do exercise or catch rides for? I’m still a junior and very petite (could ride a small) so can definitely do the pony route. I’ve tried emailing barns in the area as well as Facebook, but so far no takers. I don’t have very many connections, but I’m a decent rider and willing to ride anything. Where do I go from here?
I feel like this is the kind of task that goes to people who the trainer already knows. It’s not a very big demand anyhow as there are owners, leasers, trainers, assistant trainers and working students around most barns with priority in the cue to ride any given horse that isn’t a complete nightmare.
I’d suggest making connections with a promising barn either by paid lessons or working as a groom or working student first.
Of course there is an employment category called exercise rider at TB race tracks, but I don’t think that’s what you want.
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Do you have a good video of your riding when you post? References? Are you targeting realistic barns? If you don’t have elite showing experience, don’t expect a top barn to look twice at you. Be realistic about your experience (I didn’t say skill, I said experience) and aim for a barn where you would be one of the better riders. You don’t have to stay there, but you’re much more likely to get saddle time at first at a place that caters to casual ammies and/or kids that doesn’t focus on showing.
If you’re starting from total scratch, find a barn, visit in person and make yourself indispensable in some way. If you’re not a strong enough rider to exercise/catch ride because trainers/owners don’t see the utility in letting you ride their horse unsupervised, then make your “thing” cleaning tack. Or clipping. Or wrapping legs. Or just mucking stalls well.
Offer that service for X hours for a lesson or supervised trail ride. If you stick around for more than a few weeks, and you’re even half competent a rider, you’ll get rides.
But don’t expect strangers to just trust you with their expensive, fragile animals because you say you’re a “decent” rider.
Oh and don’t offer to “ride anything”. No reputable barn would put a minor in danger by expecting said minor to ride dangerous rearers/bolters/mystery pain cases.
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I will be blunt, advertising on Facebook that you will ride anything anywhere is probably making you someone they do not want to deal with instead of someone they do want to deal with.
A good catch rider is like a good lesson pony, they do not have to beg for a job.
It sounds like you are stuck at the point where you just want to get a foot in the door, which is tough. Do you take lessons somewhere? Are you part of a pony club?
The best way to get this job is to do as suggested above, work hard and make yourself valuable. Once you have rides don’t forget that it is no your horse, follow the rules, do as you are asked and before you know it, you will have more rides than you know what to do with.
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If it is saddle time that you are interested in look beyond HJ barns. My experience is fox hunting barns. Many fox hunters just show up to ride for hunts, and depend on the barn manager to arrange to have their horses kept fit. My daughter and her pack of barn rats were paid a small sum to ride such horses every day. And typically on trail rides for around an hour per horse.
So if you want saddle hours, think outside the arena.
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As someone who has had strangers offer to “help” me by riding my horses I will say that this can be quite off putting. I spend a ton of financial and sweat equity to be able to have my nice horses to ride. For a stranger to expect to ride them for free is pretty ridiculous. OP–make yourself helpful and useful in ways beyond riding to a barn or barns. Develop your horsemanship and knowledge. Let people get to know you. Take lessons from a good trainer with connections and nice horses. If you ride well they will see it. The owners will see it too, and if they see you have something to offer their horses they will be happy to let you ride to exercise I would think. Be humble and don’t be afraid to do work other than riding.
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I agree that the best thing to do is to take a few lessons at a barn you’d like to work at, show you’re competent, and then offer your availability to ride. If you’re lucky and good, this might also result in rides at barns the trainer knows. (Assuming you pick a good trainer with a good reputation.)
Occasionally on my FB horse pages, I’ll see someone offering free rides on their horse has been sitting at home or at a non-training barn, because they are sick/busy, or because it’s a second horse they don’t have time for–there’s always the question of if they are “asking” for free training in those situations, of course, although not inherently always a bad situation. But for a true pipeline of pony jock rides, I think you need to attach yourself to a barn or barns.
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Do you have transportation to barns?
That’s a priority, you have to be available when needed, not on your schedule.
I agree with taking several lessons at a barn that interests you.
Be upfront with the trainer about why you’re riding there.
If you prove useful to a trainer, are you available to catchride at shows?
Warmup ponies/horses for owners?
Both can get you more opportunities.
Where I have seen this work out very successfully is posting in a local facebook group "Hi My name is ____ and I am looking for any additional riding opportunities you may have. I have experience with green horses, showing in ____ discipline up to ____ level, and have trained with ______ (people who will vouch for you when someone asks). I am available these days of the week and can come to your farm. At least around here, there are a lot of small farm owners who would be happy to have help keeping their horses exercised. Being able to go to them and having people able to vouch that you’re not a lunatic are going to be the key factors at play. Professional programs will have someone on staff keeping horses ridden who they are billing clients for, so that won’t be a great venue for you.
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Find people like me that travel but have nice horses that I keep at home that still need to be in work.
Facebook and ask local trainers specially if they do lessons offsite.
Post an ISO ad in your local HJ FB groups. Include photos of you on other horses, at shows, and a little about yourself, your level of experience, and your general person. You likely won’t attract big programs as another poster said, they already have a person on payroll to exercise their horses – but you may attract the interest of parties who keep their horses at home and find they just don’t have the time to keep all horses in work.
I’ve found its a good way to get catch rides, but remember there are as many crazy riders out there as there are crazy owners. It can be really hard to find the right fit for both parties, and owners have a lot more to lose than exercise riders do if things go south.
Network and get yourself known by lots of people in the local horse community. Just spamming ads everywhere doesn’t work well and will be mostly overlooked by strangers. I’m an adult, but every time I’ve been offered a horse to ride, for free or paid (I don’t show so amateur rules don’t matter) it’s been through my trainer/friends/acquaintances/people I know. Most of these cases were short term and have been when someone went on an extended vacation or was super busy for a while and couldn’t ride as many days as they wanted. For the most part, I didn’t ask for these opportunities… they were presented to me.
One thing to look into might be if there are rescues or therapeutic barns in your area that need horses exercised. Places like that might be more welcome to a random volunteer.
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Ask trainers around you if they know any independent amateur types. Those are often times the people who are busy working and need help more often than not.
That’s what I am. I have a bunch of horses and a daughter to help me ride, but we’re always looking for extra people to put butts in saddles.
Then once you find somebody…show up when you say you’re going to be there, and make yourself an asset (sweep the aisle or clean the tack…even if no one asks you to, for example). I’m sure I’ve told this story here before over the years, but I had a neighbor who wanted to ride. I gave her some rides on my small pony, really just to decide whether she was serious or not. I had taken that approach with many riders before (and after), who would often decide that if they couldn’t ride my big fancy imports, they didn’t want to come out to ride my dumb little pony. But this kid embraced every single opportunity to sit on a horse, and treated that pony like the fanciest horse on the grounds.
On top of that, she was positive, kind, willing to learn, and a hard worker. Even more importantly (or maybe just as importantly), she cleaned things AND swept the aisle every single time she came over. That meant that even when I didn’t want the hassle of another person coming over, I would still let her because I knew it meant things would wind up cleaner without me having to do it.
I’ve had lots of riders come my way over the years, but this gal had a horse to ride every single time no matter how busy things were. And she also found herself being sought out by a lot of other local people because her reputation quickly spread. She was also the only person who ever got to ride and jump every single horse on my property, despite being far from the best rider to come out.
The kids who only want to ride are a dime a dozen. The ones who go the extra mile are a different story.
Also, there used to be a thread here for riderless horses and horseless riders. Might be worth checking in to see if that’s still around?
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Good idea about the riderless horse/horseless rider thread @PNWjumper.
Here is the thread @Amelia.643.
Good advice above. IMO the best way to catch rides on ponies (which is the easiest way to accidentally end up in the show ring, if that’s interesting to you), is to get connected with a show barn. Not a high end one that has riders on the payroll, but a good quality middle of the road place that does local stuff.
These programs tend to have greenies or sale horses (not many of these clients can afford to buy or lease that year’s Pony Finals winner) and thus more opportunities to ride. Take some lessons, and plan to continue taking them - not many people are going to let a junior who isn’t taking regular instruction get on their horses. Therefore it’s good to pick a place you like and that has quality instruction.
Finding these barns is easiest to do by going to your local shows and watching - who has 6 kids in Schooling Pony? Who has a handful of horses going in the morning with someone and then later in crossrails or long stirrup with someone else? Watch the warmup and the pony ring and see who has nice, decently behaved horses and looks to teach well. Avoid anyone with most of their riders a little scary or with a ton of extra equipment on in the schooling ring, and especially the ones that hold up every ring or walk into the warmup and suddenly everyone else leaves.
Write down barn or trainer names and then go do some research - don’t approach anyone at the show at first. See who is in driving distance and reach out about lessons. Then go make yourself useful (but be careful not to overstep). Be observant, listen carefully, and always leave the barn cleaner than it was when you got there.
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IME spamming to strangers looking for a horse to ride doesn’t work, and there’s often a much higher number of horseless riders than riderless horses. None of this is a stab at you, OP, but anyone can market themselves as a “decent rider” but that doesn’t make it so. There are also plenty of decent riders who are chronically late, who don’t put tack away, who are rude, who lack basic horsemanship skills etc. The reality is that people in need of exercise riders don’t have time to babysit a new rider the first few weeks while they make sure they’re competent enough to ride and care for their very expensive horses, especially if they only need a rider for a short period of time.
I’ll echo the sentiment of making yourself invaluable to a barn. And be patient - it will likely take time to develop a reputation as a reliable rider. I always tell young riders, especially the ones trying to find ride time, to make themselves a pleasure to have at the barn. Take care of the tack you use, make sure you’re always thoroughly grooming and pay attention to the details, sweep the aisles after you tack up and again after you ride. Don’t make people tell you something twice like what tack each horse uses, or how much feed they get, etc. Write it down if you must. And for all that is good in this world, take initiative! Don’t stand around while other people are working. Either jump in to help, or leave - both are acceptable, but dawdling about will only make you look lazy.
I’ve yet to be at a barn where extra riding opportunities didn’t appear for people who were decent riders (honestly, even this one is negotiable), were reliable and worked hard. I have, however, definitely seen riders not given extra rides because they leave tack out, constantly have to be babysat and reminded to do things multiple times, are distracted and dawdle around completely unaware of what’s going on around them, or for some other reason were otherwise frustrating to have in the barn.
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Lots of good advice so far, and I agree its hard to get a barn to take a chance on a stranger. My recommendation would be to reach out to any local breeders and see if they have any that need saddle time or need a brave and teachable person to sit on them for the first time. Another good suggestion I saw above was contacting any local hunts. Once you get a rep as a good rider who can and will ride a variety of horses, word will spread.
More ways to hedge your bets:
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have reliable transportation. A license and your own car is best, but a willing parent or guardian that can haul you around can also work.
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if you have a flexible school schedule (or can do hybrid/online), arranging mornings off can help get you rides. Plenty of people are available after school/work, but those are also prime lesson times and the ring might be too full for hacking.
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Offer to come help groom at local shows once you’re associated with a barn and know the trainer. If you can help set up, pack up, or even just come feed in the mornings, that’ll get your foot in the door. Be proactive - I’ve gotten some great gigs by just making sure water buckets are full and hay nets stuffed, picking through stalls so they’re not disgusting at the end of the day, and keeping a ring schedule in my pocket. Having my boots and helmet in the car and showing up in breeches and a polo didn’t hurt either
. Learn how to lunge if you don’t already, and offer to hose off horses or hold ponies while people run to grab something.
This all assumes you know how to ride at least wtc in traffic and don’t need constant supervision to catch and tack up horses. You’ll get saddle time if you become dependable and easy to live with.
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So much good advice here. I’ve been on both sides of this sort of arrangement, so I just wanted to echo a few smart points that others have made:
-Your human social network is your best way to find opportunities. Make sure you are asking all your riding friends (and especially any trainers you’ve worked with) if they have ideas or referrals for you. Thank them for any opportunity they suggest that works out.
-Be respectful and responsible any time you are offered an opportunity. Clean up after yourself, treat the animal with kindness, honor your commitments, and say thank you.
When I had a horse in need of rides, I would always text the kid who always showed up and always cleaned the tack over the unreliable kid who was a “better” rider.
When I was the catch rider, I made a point of never cancelling at the last minute and always cleaning up after myself. Regular thank yous and occasional small gifts show you appreciate the opportunity.
-One last suggestion which connects both points: Don’t gossip. If a horse isn’t your favorite, or a horse owner is a little weird, keep it to yourself. You don’t want anyone in your precious social network thinking you are ungrateful. It is totally fine to politely end an arrangement if it doesn’t work for you. But don’t badmouth the person or the equine. This community is small.
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I’ll add to the suggestion to look beyond the h/j arena. If you’re up for trail riding, seek out the endurance riders in your area. Many have multiple horses to keep fitted up, and are happy to find balanced competent riders to help them get the whole crew out at once. Guts and a sticky butt are more important than perfect riding form. And no whining, no matter how hot/cold/wet/long your ride turns out to be.
Look at the calendar on AERC.org for rides you can get to. Volunteering is a great way to meet people and build a reputation as reliable help, in addition to learning a lot about horse care and management. Endurance grooms are called crew, and offering to crew for a rider or group of riders that don’t have help is another good way to make connections that will lead to riding opportunities.
