Ashford Equestrian Centre
By Katie
For my TY work experience, I went to Ashford Equestrian Centre. I decided to go here as I have an interest in work with horses, and I wanted to see what working at a different yard was like.
We started each morning by mucking out all the stables and filling the wheelbarrows with hay for the evening. Both of these tasks would take up around the first hour depending on how many people were working on that particular day.
At around 10 O'Clock, we would have a quick break and organise what we would be doing for the evening. This time would be spent assigning horses that needed to be ridden or figure out ideas for lessons that would be happening.
When ponies would be out on lessons or being ridden by the workers, one of the jobs that had to be done was skipping out their stables and making sure the stables were neat and presentable for tourists and visitors to look at.
The lessons varied depending on people’s experience and what they wanted to do. There were flatwork lessons, jumping lessons and also treks through the forest. As well as they also have a horse and carriage which can be booked to bring you around the castle. Throughout the week I got to help brings lessons into the forest as well as riding some of the ponies in the forest, and on the last day we brought Bramble around the castle with the carriage.
At the end of the day, once all the lessons were done and all the horses had been ridden, we would spend the last while pulling down all the horses beds for the night and giving them hay and nuts.
I really enjoyed my work experience at Ashford, I met some really nice people and learned a lot about how a yard like that works as it is a lot different from the yard I normally help at. It was a great week and I’d recommend going there if anyone has an interest in working with horses.
We started each morning by mucking out all the stables and filling the wheelbarrows with hay for the evening. Both of these tasks would take up around the first hour depending on how many people were working on that particular day.
At around 10 O'Clock, we would have a quick break and organise what we would be doing for the evening. This time would be spent assigning horses that needed to be ridden or figure out ideas for lessons that would be happening.
When ponies would be out on lessons or being ridden by the workers, one of the jobs that had to be done was skipping out their stables and making sure the stables were neat and presentable for tourists and visitors to look at.
The lessons varied depending on people’s experience and what they wanted to do. There were flatwork lessons, jumping lessons and also treks through the forest. As well as they also have a horse and carriage which can be booked to bring you around the castle. Throughout the week I got to help brings lessons into the forest as well as riding some of the ponies in the forest, and on the last day we brought Bramble around the castle with the carriage.
At the end of the day, once all the lessons were done and all the horses had been ridden, we would spend the last while pulling down all the horses beds for the night and giving them hay and nuts.
I really enjoyed my work experience at Ashford, I met some really nice people and learned a lot about how a yard like that works as it is a lot different from the yard I normally help at. It was a great week and I’d recommend going there if anyone has an interest in working with horses.