Those who work multiple horses each morning - a timeline?

[kalidascope]

There must be a bunch of us trying to fit in several horses each morning. I know some riders do half a dozen or more in the morning, then teach in the afternoon.

How? Is it down to having good help to deal with the finished horse and prepare the next? Are the horses only getting 30-45 minutes solid schooling rather than the hour plus rides I default to?

If there’s anyone successfully doing it on their own I’d love to see a breakdown of what the riding portion of your day looks like. I’m sure there’s room for improvement in my routine :).

[Chase23]

It’s been a while since I had more then one. I always found keeping 1.5 in work easy (leased for the .5 but 2 was hard with work, home life, family.

First, it took a lot of planning - I had to plan out my week and stick with it. If grey horse was a mess I had to ride a dirty horse or bath her, not both. I had no help,it was all me. I tried to alternate the length of rides - one horse would get a longer, harder ride and the other would get lunged or a short ride. At one point I had a young horse and a semi-retired so this worked well.

Also, I gave some things up like cleaning tack after rides. I made one weekend day the cleaning day and caught up on horse laundry, cleaning tack, bathing horses.

I watch at my barn and the trainers easier ride 6+ horses a day. I’ve seen my trainer ride 10 in a day! But they have professional grooms who clean, tack up, hand walk, then cool out, untack, bath and in general do all the horse care. It is fun to watch a well run program - everyone knows what to do, the horses receive so much attention and the trainers ride all day.

[SaturdayNightLive]

I don’t know about doing 6+, but I can do 4-5 in the morning without additional help. It’s kind of a PITA, though.

I catch everything I’m planning to ride and bring them all up to the barn (this obviously takes a few trips). I groom all of them and put them all in stalls - usually with some breakfast since I’ve probably removed them from theirs’.
I tack up the first horse and go and ride. I only ride each for 45 minutes to an hour. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the need to be on anything for more than that…

After each horse, I pull the tack off, spray them off with cold water, and put them in a stall. Then I pull the next one out, throw tack on, and go ride.

After I’m done with all of them, I groom all of them and turn them back out. Then I pick out the stalls they were in, because after that long, they’re usually a mess.

Like I said - it’s a PITA. Life would be much easier if someone tacked up and cooled out for me. As it is, I really don’t like to do more than three each morning unless I can get there around 5 or 5:30…

[Angelico]

Wake up earlier.

[fordtraktor]

I don’t ride for an hour plus on anything. If you can’t get it done in 40 minutes, the horse isn’t going to learn it that day anyway. Unless you are doing trot sets/conditioning or something. If the horse is super it is even shorter…I have been known to have a perfect 20 minutes and call it a day. I like them to know that if they are good, life is easy.

It takes me about 15 minutes to switch horses. Jump off one, drag its tack off and give it a treat, paint its hooves, hose, scrape, into stall. Wash its bit. Grab next horse, pick feet, knock off dust, tack up and go. I factor an hour per horse and rarely take longer. This is after chores. I wipe down my tack after everyone is done…used bridles go on hooks in the aisle until then. That adds another 15 minutes onto the back end. I am fast, have to be get everyone done, do my real work, and manage farm and 2 kids.

[Bluey]

You can also pony some days from those you are either giving a break that day or just legging them up, not really directly training.

Not every day has to be a day to train.
This way you can alternate days with who gets trained as long as it takes and who is being just exercised and right along ponying another being exercised only.

Some trainers also use mechanical walkers for basic warm up, cool down and at times even for light exercise.

[partlycloudy]

I have 7 in training. I try to ride 3 each morning. I also do all my own work.
In the summer it is a bit easier, I have my horses on night turnout, so mucking is less work.
I have an alarm on my watch for 9.30…first horse should be ready to go. then 1 at 10.30, one at 11.30…then a much needed lunch break. Afternoons are maybe lunge a couple and hack one out.
If any miss a day, then Sat. and Sun mornings are catch up.

It annoys me when people make an appt. to see a horse and then are late…the schedule is messed up! Organization is the name of the game.

[Danger_sDelight13]

I ride 6 horses from 8-2pm. I get them all out and groom them and have them tied in their stalls so I can just throw my saddle on them and go once I start riding. I spend about 45 min riding each horse.

[Highflyer]

I do 6 most days. I spend 30-45 minutes on each horse. Minimal grooming this time of year, quick bath with the hose after. I try to stagger it so that only 2-3 really work and the others hack, trail ride, or walk. I do the barn work first, ride my own two horses here, drive a half hour, ride the other four, eat lunch/ run errands, half an hour drive back, do the barn again, clean tack. That is on an easy day-- it gets complicated when I have a lesson!