I love horses, I love spending time with them and the majority of the jobs which come with owning and riding them. However, there are some jobs I like more than others and there are jobs I wish I loved doing. So here are my top 5 horsey jobs I don’t love doing but wish I did.
- Mucking out, or more specifically OCD mucking out
I find mucking out fairly therapeutic and generally enjoy it. However, Scottie’s bed is never immaculate and perfect. Even after a really good muck out, chances are if you searched through the bed, you would find a couple of small bits of poo what were missed and I very rarely spend the time tidying up and squaring off the banks. Don’t get me wrong, the bed is clean, dry and with good banks, but I can’t help look at photos like this and wish I had the motivation to get Scottie’s bed looking like this! - Mane and Tail pulling/trimming
I love how Scottie’s mane looks after a good tidy up, but my God I hate the process. I always start off motivated and start by pulling his mane, just to get fed up and whack out the scissors to get it done in half the time! This never looks as good as a pulled mane, but over time I have managed to achieve a badly pulled look, rather than a horrible scissor job. My moto is “if he is going anywhere important he will be plaited anyway!” I am the same with tails, I’m not a huge fan of pulling tails, so I trim instead and have to be very careful as I can’t hide this with plaits! - Tack Cleaning
I take the same approach for my tack cleaning. There is nothing I love more than clean, shiny tack, but can I find the energy to keep it like that? No! It gets a good clean a few times throughout the year where I take it all apart. But the rest of the time it just gets the odd wipe over with a damp sponge when it starts to look a bit grubby or after a sweaty ride. - Bandaging/Matchy Matchy
I have a very small selection of bandages simply because I never use them unless it is for first aid purposes. Scottie has a red matchy matchy set (saddle pad, bandages, fly veil) but he has never worn it all together. In fact, I don’t think I have ever bandaged him for exercise. If he needed protection for jumping, I whacked his brushing boots on. I think it would need to be a photoshoot for me to get him all dressed up in matchy matchy! - Poo-Picking
Now I don’t actually mind poo-picking at all, it’s quite nice, especially on a sunny day. However, what I do despise is then having to wheel the barrow full of poo to the muck heap, which is nearly always up a hill and far away! It’s this walking with the heavy barrow which prevents me from doing more than one barrow at a time! I should probably invest in a quadbike and trailer…
Do you have any horsey jobs you wish you liked doing?
Last Updated on 22/12/2021
I always mean to keep my tack clean but never make it a priority sadly. I usually love bringing the horses in unless it’s windy and they are acting like lunatics.
I almost agree, but I do love plaiting, tail/mane pulling & bandaging!! And sort of, I don’t mind mucking out, but I hate it when I’m pushed for time. Good post!
I love it when I start, but a few mins in I quickly remember I actually hate it! 😂
Once you start doing bandaging/matchy matchy on a daily basis it gets easier, haha! I’ve been bandaging since I was a child so it only takes me a few minutes to do bandages!
It doesn’t take long to bandage. But the idea of doing it and then having to reroll all the bandages…. No thank you! 😛