Suggestions for balancing life and working two horses?

[the_rook]

Hello! I am vetting a horse tomorrow (eee!) that I am hoping to bring home in the next week or so if everything goes well. I have been looking to bring on a second horse for the last couple years but never found anything I REALLY liked (I mean I had one already so I wasn’t desperate and I’ll admit sometimes I was lazy at looking). The reason I want to bring on a second horse is that my mare is turning 17 next week and she has some age and conformational related arthritis which limits how much I can do. I am still mostly happy with her level of work and I am treating her with Pentosan, and possibly soon Equioxx, but I figure I will probably have to retire her mostly from jumping in the next few years. So enter new pony - 7 years old, green with a good base, started over jumps. I really like her movement, build, and she’s super cute to boot. I also had a great test ride with her. But I haven’t bought a horse in almost 10 years (my current mare) so I am kind of running an emotional gambit – super excited, nervous, wondering if I am insane for having two horses… haha. I looked through some of the threads on owning two horses and read a few horror stories of people really regretting it - and now I’m a little worried (but still excited)!

So I am hoping you COTHers with 2+ horses and a full time job (I wish I could skip that part, then I would have plenty of time to ride!!) can give me some of your best practices and insight on how you manage training time with them. Luckily neither horse is a must ride every day type, so I feel a little better there. However, I keep my horse at home, and haul out to an arena/trails to ride/condition so there will be more time involved overall. Do I bring both with me, or alternate? Ride one and pony the other if not arena riding? They are both at really different levels in their training but they will both benefit from trail conditioning at least. Do you have any favorite arena exercises/pole work that would work for both a greenie but not be too boring for my older mare so I only have to set one thing up? Or any amazing time saving tips? I know there is no one hard fast answer and obviously things are always situational, but I would love some hints and encouragement that it is possible to enjoy training both horses and that I will somehow fit them both into my life

Thank you all in advance!!

[DiamondJubilee]

First of all, congrats!! I’m excited for you and totally get why you would want to purchase a second pony now

I have 5 ponies that I’m currently working with, have my own farm (with my husband) and have a full time job as well. 2 of my medium ponies are sales ponies, 1 is my pony and 2 are mostly my husbands that he drives but I do ride them as well. So its quite the juggling to get all 5 worked, but it can be done!

I tend to keep my guys on a rotation, so I’ll ride 1 to 2 a day. On weekends I can get more done since I don’t work on weekends. So I can work 4-5 of them each day if the weather co-operates.

Just set up a schedule that works for you. You may want to ride both in one day if you notice the weather is going to be bad the next day, or spread it out and only ride 1 a day if weather is going to be nice for the week. I don’t like to burn myself out as then I find riding no fun. I would rather just ride 1-2 a day to keep it enjoyable for myself. All of my ponies are at different levels and range from the ages of 3-11 so I do different things with each of them.

I also haul out for lessons/jumping with my older ponies and show my younger guys at line shows/schooling shows to get them used to going off property and the idea of showing.

I don’t like to bring more than one pony off property at at time as I want them to get used to going alone and I hate it when I bring 2, take one to school and the other just gets upset on being alone. I would rather spend 1 on 1 time with the pony that I bring, but thats just me.

I will set jumps up at home and trot poles around the ring. I will school the older ponies over fences, and the younger guys over the poles. If I ride 2 in a day, I tend to split them up with riding an older pony, then riding a green pony so again I don’t get bored and its good for my green guys to see the jumps and flowers/fillers etc. My young guys both had a heart attack the first time they saw flowers and jumps! So we learned to work around them and now its no big deal. Same with trot poles. My green guys were so confused with them at first, but now, no big deal. I also would move my flowers around the ring and make the young guys walk up to them and walk over them so when I start over fences training, it will be ho hum…

Have fun and enjoy your new pony!! Let us all know how it goes

[ClassyJumper]

Do you have additional horses at home, or neighboring properties? I can leave my oldie “home alone” and he gets upset but not any worse for the wear when we get back. I don’t think leaving my young mare alone would fly.

[Snugglerug]

Find another rider who is currently horseless who would be willing to help with the trail conditioning just for the opportunity to ride. Both horses get worked in half the time and it’s much safer than trying to pony one or leave one alone at the trailer, especially one that you don’t know yet.

[Willesdon]

Ride and lead

[rhymeswithfizz]

I have a herd of three that I ride, plus three more that live here (two ponies and one boarder), three human kids + husband, and a very-full-time job with employees to manage. Luckily I work at home AND have the horses at home.

My personal herd consists of a big 18 yo warmblood schoolmaster, a little 11 yo TB foxhunter/eventer, and my newest addition, a 4 yo TB just figuring things out.

Biggest thing that makes this possible for me – I have help! I half-lease out the lovely old schoolmaster to a pony clubber who rides dressage – she helps keep him fit and limber with 3 dressage rides a week AND she helps with barn chores, so I ride him 2x a week, usually one jump day and one conditioning day. I have my trainer do one ride a week on the baby horse to keep us both in check, and I put 3 or so light rides a week on him. The 11 yo TB is my primary horse in the winter so he got 4-5 rides a week (including at least one 2-3 hour hunt a week) up until april, and then my teenage daughter mostly took him over for the summer, so now I just give him 1-2 rides a week. All written out, it’s pretty manageable.

For trailering out – If you are lucky enough to have at least one that is trustworthy enough that you can put a friend on, you can ALWAYS find someone who will be glad to ride with you! When I take the baby horse places for trail rides etc, I like to bring the old schoolmaster to babysit us, and I can always find someone who wants to ride him with me because he is such a dreamboat. Then everybody wins. We are also involved with the pony club so there are almost always kids looking for rides. I love popping an extra horse into the trailer for folks.

One more thing – Always ride first, do chores second. Horses don’t care if the aisle isn’t swept.

I love having a diverse herd – each one makes me better for the other. You will have fun with yours too!

[B-burg_Dressage]

It’s a lot easier in the summer when the days are longer and the weather is more cooperative!

I have one show horse and one pleasure horse. But the pleasure horse is such an easy keeper that he NEEDS exercise.
The pleasure one gets ridden/lunged 3+ times a week. My show horse I try to get worked 4+ times a week. I also run 3-4 times a week. So if you figure out how to do the no work thing, let me know! Keeping my horses at home saves the boarding commute which I find helps a lot since I used to drive 45 minutes to get to the barn. My guys are basically on 24/7 turnout so that saves a lot of time and energy on barn chores!

My “typical” week looks something like this (keeping in mind something almost always has to be changed because life/weather/work gets in the way).

Mondays: Wake up at 5:45 and feed the horses. I go to work 7:00-3:30. (Finding a semi-flexible job is great if you can swing it.) After work, I go for a 5-7 mile run which takes about an hour. I ride show horse after my run (but it’s our hack day). Sometimes I’ll even lunge pleasure horse or hop on bareback after dinner.

Wednesdays/Fridays: Wake up at 5:30 and feed the horses. On these days I do shorter runs while they eat (something that only takes about a half hour). Work 8-4:30. Wednesdays I ride pleasure horse. Fridays I ride show horse.

Tuesdays/Thursdays: Wake up at 6:15 and feed the horses. I’ll try to get to work early and bank some credit time to take off on other days, so I typically work 7:30-4:30. Show horse gets ridden in the evenings. I don’t workout on these days.

Saturdays/Sundays: Wake up sometime before 7:00 and feed the horses. Typically on Saturdays I’ll do a long run and ride show horse mid-morning or evening depending on how hot it is. Depending on whether pleasure horse got worked Monday and how tired I am he’ll get worked too. Sundays I ride both and don’t run.

Show horse: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday (usually something gets in the way to make one or two of these days not work)
Pleasure horse: Sometimes Monday, Wednesday, Sometimes Saturday, Sunday

As far as hauling out, I usually just take show horse. Pleasure horse is smart and calm enough to be left alone at home. Show horse would lose his marbles. If it’s winter and I’m just hauling out to an indoor for exercise, I could take both. But it’s a real hassle to have both if you’re alone sometimes.

If it makes you feel any better, I would definitely get a second horse if I were in your shoes! I was also worried about it, but it hasn’t been too awful to keep up with. But I have no kids, a supportive husband, and a fairly flexible job. I fully plan on getting a young horse someday when my show horse gets a few more years on him. He’ll simply get bumped down to about 3-4 rides a week and pleasure horse will be pretty old by then as well.

[vali]

It’s definitely possible with two and a job, as long as you don’t add in kids. Then sleep really suffers but if you are lucky you eventually have a riding buddy. It helps if you can find a part-lessor or riding buddy, but it’s not essential. It also helps if you teach them to pony, then you can ride one and pony the other. I used to trailer both but it worked better if I could stick one in a stall because they often buddy up (and then you need three). Definitely ride first, and realize tack cleaning may suffer.

[the_rook]

@vali

It’s definitely possible with two and a job, as long as you don’t add in kids. Then sleep really suffers but if you are lucky you eventually have a riding buddy. It helps if you can find a part-lessor or riding buddy, but it’s not essential. It also helps if you teach them to pony, then you can ride one and pony the other. I used to trailer both but it worked better if I could stick one in a stall because they often buddy up (and then you need three). Definitely ride first, and realize tack cleaning may suffer.

No kids here… thankfully (for me). I would love to find a part lessor for my older mare, but because she lives at home it would be hard for anyone else to ride her unless I hauled her for them. I do think after reading the comments I would like to teach them to pony together but not rely on that being a regular occurrence. I’ve ponied off my mare, and the new mare has packing experience so I think it would be relatively easy to pony the new one. Not sure about the other way around! I might be able to find a riding buddy who wants to go out occasionally though - that’s a good idea.

[the_rook]

@ClassyJumper

Do you have additional horses at home, or neighboring properties? I can leave my oldie “home alone” and he gets upset but not any worse for the wear when we get back. I don’t think leaving my young mare alone would fly.

My neighbors have two horses (one that my older mare is very attached to) so I am not too worried about leaving one at home alone. I think my older mare will have more of an issue with being attached to the younger horse than vice versa, but I could be proven wrong!

[ABookworm]

I have two horses in full work, keep them at home, and also have a full time job. My large pony is my eventer in training and does best if she has work every other day or every day. My saddlebred is mainly my trail or pleasure horse but does best with consistent work due to her arthritis. Our arena is a mile away and we also frequently go to a friends house 2.5 miles away for jump schools. We do have the advantage of hilly trails right outside my property.

Monday through Friday I rotate who gets worked so I’m only focusing on one horse each day. So for this week it’s M/W/F work the pony either on the trails for conditioning or ride to the arena for a flat work session, then T/Th the ASB gets to work on the trails or go to the arena. If I have time after the “horse of the day” then the other horse will get worked in their paddock or in my yard. Saturdays and Sundays are a free for all and I pretty much work both horses daily unless something comes up.

When I had just the two mares it was a nightmare and I couldn’t split them up without the other one having a dramatic meltdown. I reached out to the local riding school I had been boarding at and offered a home to any of their retired small ponies. Since bringing home the small retired pony things have been a lot better in terms of splitting up my mares. He acts as a babysitter for the horse left behind and doesn’t add a huge expense to my bills. Just a word of caution for this one, make sure you know the pony you’re getting and how much would go into it medically. My guy is old, arthritic, and missing teeth but none of that causes any major expenses to me. He is thankfully maintained with the same things my mares receive for preventative maintenance.

In terms of pole exercises, I follow equinepolework on Instagram and they post several interesting setups that keeps both the large pony (experienced with poles) and the ASB (green over poles) engaged. If I need more of a challenge for the pony then I’ll just pop the exercise up into raised poles and it helps work her a bit harder.

[the_rook]

Thank you all for taking the time to comment and sorry for the delay in responding - Some of you have many more ponies and a much busier schedule so that is great to hear that you can make it work!!

Everything went well during the vetting and I brought her home on Sunday after a mad dash to get everything ready!

@ABookworm I am already beginning to understand the pain that is my decision in having two mares haha - I’ve had so much drama from my original mare already. She is basically out of her gourd any time I try and catch her in the pasture or do something with the new mare that she can’t see or be right there to supervise. New mare is being pretty calm other than this morning when I went to catch my original mare (who was being a butt and running around) decided to jump out of her hot tape paddock and join in on the fun. But otherwise she has not been overly attached so here’s hoping at least one of them stays that way.

I did manage to ride both of them on Monday at my neighbor’s place so I wouldn’t have to haul anywhere, and it definitely took some getting used to the “which thing for what horse” and how to bring each of them in and out of the pasture/paddock since I don’t really have a separate tacking up area outside the pasture. I did ride the new mare first, but I think if I ride both on the same day again I’ll ride my older mare first so she hopefully has spent some energy and isn’t turning up a dust tornado and screaming the whole time (also she is physically more work to ride).

I think rotating like some of you do will also be really helpful, and for now I am going to haul them separately so I can just focus on one at a time while being somewhere else, and to hopefully get them used to being “left”.

Attached some photos so you could see the new pony - the ones outside from a trail ride we went on before I took her home, arena is at the neighbor’s, and the two together when she got out this morning
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Edited to say … Yes I have a thing for bay mares :D”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹

[ABookworm]

You’re mares are so pretty! You’ll figure this whole thing out quickly! Once you get your routine down it’ll go smoothly and you’ll wonder how you ever did without multiple horses!

[the_rook]

@ABookworm Thank you! I hope so!

[GoodTimes]

You can definitely make it work. And if you get to the point where you just need a break? Don’t sweat it. A week off won’t hurt them. They won’t lose fitness in that short a period and they won’t forget their jobs.

I’ve got one horse myself. My mom has a horse who I ride when my parents go south for the winter. And we co-own a coming 3yo.
I’m also a runner and work full time.

I’m usually up at 5am to run, work 8-4:30 with a 30 minute commute each way. Then I ride after work. I usually only ride one day on the weekend and reserve the other day for quality time with SO. However, if he’s busy or away than I take full advantage and get everyone ridden and any mane pulling, clipping, etc that needs done.

I find it difficult to ride two in one evening in the winter. In the summer it’s easier.
In the winter I’ll often ride one and lunge one. I keep the lunge sessions short and incorporate cavalletti or poles. Some times I’ll long line to do some lateral work. I rotate through the horses so in general they each get worked 3-4 times per week, no one gets lunged more than 1x/wk.

I have ponied in the past when I had two coming back into work at the same time. It’s good for general cardio, but isn’t great for “training” anything, or for building strength. Unless you have a hill that you could pony trot sets on.

I tend to stick to pretty basic exercises when I’m on my own, and try to do them perfectly. Be nit picky about the little things like straightness, etc when you’re on the more experienced horse. Circle of death, adding and leaving out strides in a line, simple gymnastics, They work for a large variety of horses.
I let my trainer choose and set up more challenging ones so that I get instant feedback.