I find it very difficult, and I work from home a lot. My draft cross needs a lot of riding to stay fit, so he is usually my top priority. But my young horse is now 6, so I don’t really have that baby excuse anymore. Most weeks he gets 2 training rides, so that really helps.
When my 21 YO died, I got a companion pony so I would only have one horse in work. But that didn’t work out (he was the world’s worst companion pony). My husband said “why don’t you get another horse to ride and compete?” I mean, how can you say no when your husband says buy another horse?:lol:
But in retrospect I wish I had found another (better) companion pony. Not that I don’t love horse #2, he’s a fabulous horse and I would never sell him. But it would probably be better if I had never met him!
Can’t seem to quote but like slp my ideal is to ride two on each weekend day then try to alternate weekdays. Unfortunately that doesn’t work so well for one current horse, who does better working Mon-Wed, off Thur, working Fri-Sat, then off Sun (this fits around lessons, which are always Tuesdays). So the other horse works Thur and Sun plus two other days, whenever makes the most sense with my schedule and any lessons or shows that are planned. He’s only 4 so it never bothers me when he gets extra days off for some reason but I try very hard to stay consistent with the older horse (weather can be an issue since I don’t have an indoor).
I keep them plus a third horse and a donkey at home so it is definitely a challenge to fit it all in, plus work. It was much easier with just one to ride. My life revolves around the horses. I don’t know if I’ll want it that way forever but for now I feel lucky to have two very special horses to ride and a wonderful husband who supports me (and sometimes even mows the pasture or drags the arena!).
Buying a schoolmaster was the single best thing I’ve done to improve my riding. Yes, it was hard and expensive having two horses but my riding improved by leaps and bounds riding 2 instead of just 1. I work full time and board so only get to ride 3 days a weeks max anyway. I was fortunate that my trainer let me do a reduced training program for the schoolmaster in addition to the full training for the younger horse. See previous comment about it being expensive.
I tried to save even more by doing a partial lease several times with different people. Each and every time I would spend my first ride back fixing what the other riders had undone. It gave me a great appreciation for what my trainer must feel after I ride my horse. I figured it was cheaper in the long run to just pay the trainer to get on the schoolmaster a couple times during the week so my lessons would be more productive.
If your main issue is just your husband’s concern about social events, that seems easy enough to work around! Work out a schedule with him, for instance you have Friday nights off for date night or friends, and if you don’t already have a shared online calendar you can put important social events, as well as your shows/clinics etc on.
If you have the opportunity to get a schoolmaster I say definitely go for it!! It will help your progress so much.
(This coming from someone who has only 1 horse and not much social life)
Technically, I could ride two horses in 1.5 hours, and I am sure in past lives I did this many times. But because I am me, and I have the horse I have now, and a lot more experience with lameness issues, I wouldn’t.
It takes me at least two hours to ride one horse (I keep three at home but am riding only one regularly). This includes about 30 minutes of grooming and tacking up. My horse is accident prone and very large, and has a lot of issues, so there’s a lot of ground to cover. He also has a lot of itchy spots that need scratching and muscles that need massaging. This is a horse that really gets into his grooming and thrives on the attention and, er, “foreplay”. Add at least an hour, usually a bit longer, to cover warming up, riding and cooling down. I do a lot of walking and almost always include some hill work with trot and canter sets, in addition to ring work. Also frequent longeing over poles, so add time to set them up, fiddle with the longeing gear, etc.
Post-ride care involves grooming and sweat removal (toweling or hosing), icing legs and/or rubbing down with liniment, going over him with the Thumper, wiping down tack, etc. In cold weather I use a heated throw blanket before and after riding.
I could just knock the dirt off, throw on the tack and ride. Occasionally I do this, but I always feel guilty for skipping this important part of my horse’s care. For me, it’s all part of the relationship, and that is what I value more than just the riding and training.
I did a conference call last week while soaking my mare’s hoof abscess. She snorted a couple of times as we were wrapping up the call and one of my co-workers noted that it was his first time hearing a horse on a Slack meeting. I also did a conference call (muted) while dragging my arena.
I did exactly this a while ago. The problem I ended up with was a complete lack of time. What I did learn was well worth what I gave up, but I’m not married or anything like that so the time I took with simply my own. I had an older Schoolmaster I leased. He did take a while to warm up and cool down.
Now I’m in the boat of keeping my horse for and training a new Green Off Track. My time has pretty much been devoured by them. Taking care of them at home is awesome but again takes more time.
I work 12 hours a day with another 2 hours commute time. I spend 3+ hours when I ride them both. That doesn’t leave me much time for sleep or a social life.
What you will learn is immeasurable, but you need to work out how the costs in time will affect your life and that of your family.
Thanks for all the input! Mr. Neon and I talked about it again last night. Either I’m missing his point or he’s not being clear with what his true concern is. I think its a bit of both and we acknowledged that last night.
A few things I got out of our discussion last night:
Mr. Neon doesn’t care what time we eat dinner during the week.
I need to keep going to core class on Tuesdays and Thursdays because it helps my riding (he thinks so too).
He’s not sure how it would work on Fridays and the weekends when our mutual friends tend to schedule social events.
He’s worried that if I don’t ride the schoolmaster enough, its training would fall off and I’d lose the whole reason why I bought it in the first place.
He’s also concerned that the skills I’d gain by riding the schoolmaster wouldn’t transfer over to riding Criss.
Both my mom and his mom are concerned that I won’t have the time to successfully ride two horses. I’ve had everyone but a select few people tell me that I can’t do this. And I’m stubborn enough to want to prove them wrong.
#2 - DEFINITELY. Outside exercise helps your riding, particularly if it focuses on your core. #3 - Depending on what else you normally do on weekends, it’s workable. Ride only one horse Friday, and ride in the mornings on the weekends (assuming afternoon or evening plans). Vice versa if its brunch type plans. #4 - Valid point. I mentioned having your trainer ride the schoolmaster, as that would keep his skills intact the best (someone posted that horses revert to the skills of their rider… better that he reverts to the skills of your trainer!). Say trainer rides 2-3 days a week, and you do lessons on the schoolmaster the other 2-3 days. This keeps the schoolmaster a valuable asset to you, and frees up some of your time. #5 - Oh they would definitely transfer over! If you say you’re riding training/first, then you haven’t worked on mediums or really any lateral work. Riding those on a schoolmaster will teach you how to do them, so that you can teach Criss. It’s hard to teach you and Criss at the same time, though it is possible.
It sounds like you’re jumping in. Congratulations! Enjoy the journey!
Just throwing this out there… but what about spending the money on more training on horse #1 to get him past the training/1st level hump? My trainer kept my horse a level or two above my riding with her on him roughly 2-3x’s per week, which drastically improved my riding.
Well for the past two years I was in and out of sort of PT for myself so I was limited in what I could do without exacerbating a hip problem. In order to protect an injury and work progressively, I’d only ride for 30 minutes or so. One of my horses was just getting started under saddle, so it was no problem to have a nice 15-minute ride working on steering or going forward or getting out on the trails or whatever. The other is happy to mosey down the trail and not actually “work” so that worked out fine.
Used to be when I had a work schedule where I had to be there early and I’d get out early, I had time in the afternoon and at one point I had three to ride, but one was Mr. PoPo’s horse that I’d keep tuned up a couple times a week, and the other was green. Now I can’t even imagine that!
As I’ve been working through hip issues this spring I’ve only been doing 30-minute rides again, so I can get two of those in, plus grooming, turning out, and feeding, in a 2-hour period.
I had just about solved my hip issue and was starting to step it up for more work (45 minute rides) and would then alternate days with the horses (two on the weekends), but an accident has sidelined me and now I’m out of the saddle for probably a month! GAH!!!
There was about 6 months when I rode 2 horses and worked (not quite full time, but close, plus barn was 1 hour away so essentially full time). However, the second horse wasn’t mine, and the owner had full service, so I didn’t have to spend the time before and after. Essentially it was an extra hour 5× a week. I was totally maxed out, maybe a little more than maxed out.
More recently, for a short time I had my two horses together. The mare was almost retired and I only worked her very little and concentrated on my boy. Even then, i felt like i neglected the mare a bit, in terms of working her.
So i couldnt do it, unless i worked part time, or had grooms to assist me.
if money isn’t an problem for you, then maybe you can do full service for one or both horses. Then if you do have a few minutes extra, you can spend it grazing them, or on extra grooming.
I’ve actually been wanting to do this for about 6 months, but the trainer I want to send Criss to hasn’t had time and probably won’t for at least a few more months. The only thing I seem to be able to fit in both our schedules is an occasional lesson.
I’ve had at least two most of my life, but as I get older, one of those two needs to NOT be in any kind of training program. Retired or hop on and ride but not in a fitness program. That said I also have to feed and clean the barn and so on, so 2 horses ALSO doubles the non riding workload. But if you are on your own program, it is easy enough to ride 2 in 1.5 hours. You set up all your tack for both rides, brush both, tack up the first one, ride for 30+ minutes, pull tack off, put him in a stall/paddock, tack up the next one, ride, then rinse both off.
You need to get a bit assembly line about it, but no horse ever minded a good post ride roll before his bath.
And typically when I did have 2 in work, they got a day off, I didn’t. The schedule would go a bit like this:
Mon - Ride A (probably a light hack)
Tues - Ride B (probably a light hack)
Wed - Ride A
Thurs - Ride A & B
Fri - ride whoever needed the extra ride the most or whoever I needed to ride the most
Sat - Ride A & B
Sun - Ride A & B
When I had two and did lessons on both, the days I was at the barn went somewhat as follows:
Sometime before 0700: Arrive at barn, groom and tack up schoolmaster
0710: Get on schoolmaster, start 20 minute walk warm up
0730 - 0815: Lesson on schoolmaster
0815 - 0900: Cool down schoolmaster and put him in turn out or shower and put in stall
0900 - 0915: Groom and tack up young horse
0915 - 0930: 10 min walk, 5 min trot warmup
0930 - 1015: Lesson on young horse
1015 - 1030: Cool down young horse
1030 - 1130ish: Shower young horse, retrieve schoolmaster (shower if he was in turn out), hand graze the two together (love the geldings)
1130ish Call husband, eat lunch without me
1145ish: Put horses up, clean tack, visit, and then head home
I’ve been a multiple-horse owner for most of my horse owning life. Usually two, but there was a 16 month period I had three. Despite one being largely retired and one being a foal-yearling I found three to be too much. With two it is definitely easier if one is fine with fewer rides.
I have had many combinations of horses and by far the easiest were when one needed significantly less riding. For the last couple of years I have had two that require five and six days a week of work. One for his health issues, the other for his brain. I can ride both in two hours if I only ride each for 30min and take a few shortcuts in prep. I get some overlap as I can start the second horse while the first is drying/eating in a stall. When they are in two places it takes more than just the drive time extra as clean up and putting stuff away and waiting for the first horse to be dry enough to turn out (winter) has to be done at both places.
I find it hard sometimes as I would like to go for longer rides, or help someone out by riding their horse, or spend three hours clipping a horse.
But I also find it rewarding to have two horses in different stages of development. The older horse keeps me tuned, sane, and reminds me of what I working towards.with the younger one. Each horse has also helped me out by ponying the next. When one is injured the other keeps me riding. And when one is euthanized the other brings me back to the barn.
There are stilI days I feel one of them is getting cheated. But I am still happy to have them. And quite honestly I always felt I was forgetting something when I left the barn during the nine months between horse one and horse three. It was the lack of the second horse, and I didn’t get past it before horse three arrived.
As others have also said, I, too, feel that both horses get a bit neglected in the grooming, spending time, ground work area. It is a bit of an assembly line.
Have you thought about what you could do to save time? Mixing feeds ahead of time. I mix a bunch of horse’s feeds at the same time and keep them in buckets with lids. Don’t dampen the feed until it’s fed. My horse has constant access to meadow hay. A large slow feeding haynet will hold an entire small bale. Giving your horses turnout time is a sanity saver for you and them. Two days off per week with both horses having different days off. On their days off, you don’t need to do a full groom. Become time efficient with mucking out the stables. Maybe sawdust and one of those stall sifters? Even if you don’t get a second horse, time saving ideas will let you have more quality time with your current horse.
