Behind the scenes, My Yard Routine.

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes? Do you see a photo of someone at the yard and wonder what their daily routine is? How do they fit it all in? What food does their horse eat? Maybe like me your just a little bit nosy and like to find out more about what’s behind the photo’s we see on social media. Maybe we could all find out some little handy hacks to speed things up a little, a new tool that just works amazing a storage solution that perfectly fits our endless supplies in .Which we 100% need, of course- (even those grubby, definitely empty 10 year old hoof oils)

One of the first things mentioned in the Social Supercharged Riders course run by the amazing Rhea of @RheaFreemanPR is to ‘document don’t create’. Basically its a way of creating content by documenting our behind the scenes and giving all of viewers a little insight into well our not normally publicised lives I guess. Initially I felt a little apprehensive because I mean are people really going to want to see/read what an everyday person gets up to?

I stopped questioning the what if’s and gave it a go myself and yes since having more descriptive captions, documenting my horsey journey I have more engagement on posts and have found some super new accounts to follow too! I also realised that I love reading about other peoples journeys , I love knowing more about their horses, their little quirks , what feed they eat or what the riders been up to. Maybe I’m just too nosy but it just makes me feel like I know the person/horse. It’s not just another photos of a horse. Its more like oh look that’s Con, I wonder how him and Gem are getting on with their dressage today (Hope you don’t mind the mention, Gem!). Iv’e never met Gem (@GemEventing)in real life but through her documenting her journey and how she spends her days with Con you feel like you know them well and are therefore more likely to engage with the content posted.

I’ve digressed slightly but I wanted to add a little context to my new ‘behind the scenes’ feature. I would love to be able to vlog this but I’m not the most confident, its normally windy and i’m new to my yard so I don’t want to crack the camera out just yet so for now we have my yard routine in the form of words. I hope you enjoy!

My work day routine is rather boring, shift work = very little horsey time for work days so I thought id explain our everyday routine at the moment.

On arriving at the yard I put Ru (our overgrown GWP ‘puppy’) in to his yard bed near the stable, make sure I’ve remembered to get the stable ready for Ariel to come in and then go to the feed space, soak some Spedi beet and then grab Snowball’s head collar.

If you don’t already follow our journey you won’t know that Ariel is new to me, and we are both new to the yard so to keep her settled as she was a bit of a stress head to begin with we bring her in with one of her field friends Snowball. Weve been on the yard about 3-4 week now so we are going to slowly try and take Snowball away but for now shes happy and chilled so were keeping life as stress free as we can (for all of us!)

Once Snowballs in and sorted, I head to the tack room to grab Ariels bridle. We had a week of ‘I am a queen and I don’t need no human’ diva attitude where my lovely Ariel decided she would basically take the piss, barge us about, and basically spin and piss off down the grass strip numerous times when leading. In a head collar we have no chance so for now, for a bit more control we use her bridle. It seems to of broken the habit, and we’ve done a fair bit of ground work with her to politely remind her of her manners and although we allow some sass, respect for humans is key. In all her sweetness and good looks its easy to forget how big she is and does like to throw her weight around in a tantrum. (I wasn’t going to include this part but I want my blogs to be honest and lets be fair not all our horsey days are sunshine and rainbows are they!)

So once we’ve steadily walked to the yard, with no diva behavior, a slight bit of dragon snorting (scary monsters hide in the yard, clearly) we head to the stable, where she either goes and munches some hay or obsessively attacks her Likit! Spoiler, ‘Apple pie and custard’ is her favourite flavour so far, confirmed by the yellow now all over her lips and muzzle! While shes busy keeping herself entertained I’ll go receive her saddle and pad from the tack room. Today were using ‘mint’ from the Woof Wear colour fusion range with matching dressage wraps and overreach! Im a secret matchy matchy lover, I used to be obsessed but I’m trying to tame it down a little with Ariel. My bank account will thank me , I’m sure!

After a groom, she wears the Amigo Mio Aussie All-rounder in the field so is always super clean underneath. She came with this rug and I love it, it keeps the flies off her, offers UV protection with her being dark and is water resistant so is ideal for all these soggy Scottish showers we keep having! Her normal grooming routine consists of a quick sweep with the body brush, checking her girth and back areas are clear from any dirt, if its been wet i’ll get the dried mud off her hocks with a ‘magic’ brush, pick her feet out, apply a hoof balm (shes currently barefoot but will probably be getting some fronts on soon due to being a little sore on the stony ground out hacking) , quick spray of mane and tail detangler ( we use either Carr Day Martin or Absorbine , there my top two since my old grooming days!) and finally after tackling her immensely thick tail Ill spray some Barrier super plus fly spray on her coat , Leovet Power phaser cream around her eyes and add some Skin so soft by Avon for good measure. The barrier fly spray also adds a lovely shine to her coat (Apparently it’s the Avocado in it? Not just good on toast for the gram ay?) Although if anyone asks it’s good old elbow grease of course!

After adding her breastplate, I’ll pop the pads and saddle on and then while she’s getting used to her girth tightness I get myself ready by changing my wellies to Ariats, squeeze into my body protector, put my hat on (I love my hat! It’s Gatehouse Chelsea Airflow pro crystal and has the perfect amount of bling on it! I don’t know what i’ll do when I have to find a new one). Were hacking today so I shove on a HI-viz (now resemble Michelin man working as a lollipop lady, I can never get used to feeling normal in a body protector or a little silly in baggy hi viz but safety first!). Gloves on, girth tightened up one more hole, add the bridle and off we go to the mounting block of doom!

Ok, less doom now as we are getting there!

Initially we had mounting block problems, clearly there are monsters inside them but after lots of calm and slow approaches, allowing her time and no stress or force we now 80% of the time can walk up to the block , stand chilled and get on with no issues. I feel like time and calmness is key with her, she needs to know her boundaries and not to push them so needs some firmness but then immediately followed by calmness. Ultimately she just needs reassuring that everything ok, and as we build our trust in each other everything is become much more easier.

After our gorgeous hack in our lovely country side, Ill take her saddle off in the yard and wash her down if she’s sweaty, all four legs will then be hosed well. We are currently battling with mud fever (luckily its not seeming to bother her or cause her any distress) so following the guidelines of the shampoo today is wash day. She’ll have the shampoo applied and massaged into her heels, and it then needs to be left 30 minutes to soak in and do its magic!

I’ll make her feed up, shes currently on Baileys fibre beet, top spec lite balancer and alfala A as that’s what she came with and even though shes in more work shes maintaining well and looking good so for now that’s what we will stay with! Now shes happy eating, I’ll take the dog for a quick run in the stubble fields before returning to rinse her legs off.

Luckily she is an angel with this and stands like a dream so I’m able to gently massage any dried scabs that have now lifted away and then gently pat dry her legs with a towel.

She’ll then be re-rugged, a few last minute cuddles and kisses and then turned back out (walking like an angel and not a dragon with an attitude problem, of course). I’ll then turn out her field friend, and tidy up the stables, wash her feed bucket, make sure shes got hay , water and enough bedding for tomorrow, clear all my bits away, put the tack away and call it a day.

I felt like it was a given that I bring my horse in, groom, tack up, ride and turnout so although I went into more detail then I expected I guess you now know what my ‘real life’ routine is now and I would love to know what yours is? Why don’t you try adding more description in your next posts and make sure to tag me and remember ‘document don’t create’ and if you still have some spare time after my very long post (sorry) why not have a look at Rhea’s Social Super Charged Rider’s course too! Plus there’s actually a really useful riders podcast and freebies on her website too.

Speak soon,

Meg xx

As i've mentioned a few people/brands I'll share the links below, just click the bold text!