On the week of the 23rd to the 27th of October, we had our ty work experience. I went on work experience to the Slieve Aughty Centre. I did my work experience here because I have a great interest in horses.
On the first day I went to work on the yard. I was with a girl who was showing me what to do. She has a strong French accent and it was hard for us to communicate because I couldn't understand her. I first cleaned out the stables and some of the beds were very wet. Afterwards I tacked up a horse and a pony for a family on holidays. I thought that the level of professionalism was very poor because the horses were cover in mud with long manes and tails that were knotted. The trial ride was very short and I feel that it was very careless work because the rides are not cheap by any means. Afterwards we untacked the ponies and lead the ponies out to the fields. By the time we were finished it was time for me to finish up.
On the second day, there were more people around the yard. I was given the job of cleaning the tack. I found that they were using normal hand soap instead of saddle soap. This is damaging their saddles. A lot of saddles were growing mould because of the damp conditions in the tack room. I spent the rest of the day inside the shed by myself cleaning and oiling the tack. Around 3 hours into this the farrier arrived to shoe some horses and he was the only person I spoke to until I finished for the day except the odd person making sure I gave the saddles a good clean.
On Wednesday I started by giving some of the horses water then I headed up to the sand arena to muck it out. Afterwards It was back to the tack room for me! I continued to clean and oil saddles for the rest of the day.
On Thursday I cleaned out the stables. Then I helped a women who was sweeping up muck. I got a shovel and gathered the piles she was sweeping. It was a wet day and there was plenty of muck! Next I had to pick out the hay that had gotten mixed up with the sawdust. This took a while. After I had this done I had to scrap the yard with the shovel, sweep it up put it into the wheelbarrow and then dump it in the muck heap which was very hard because the wheelbarrow was hard put up the large pile of muck. This work was very hard and tiring especially because I had no help. I then had to finish another girls work and gather up her leaves. Then I spent the rest of the day scraping the drive way. By the time I was finished I had a blisters on my hand.
On the last day I cleaned the remainder of the tack. Afterwards I cleaned out some of the stables and gave the horses water.
I think I still would like to work with horses. I feel like a got a good looks at a badly managed yard and I feel that I would have run things a lot differently. I got the jobs that nobody wants to do and even though I know somebody has to do this tasks I feel that it would have been easier if they were managed better. For example if the tack was given a light clean after every ride or even at the end of the week with proper materials and not left for as long as 5 months then they would be in much better condition and easily cleaned. I think that I've realised that it takes very good management skills to run a yard but I think I could do that.
On the first day I went to work on the yard. I was with a girl who was showing me what to do. She has a strong French accent and it was hard for us to communicate because I couldn't understand her. I first cleaned out the stables and some of the beds were very wet. Afterwards I tacked up a horse and a pony for a family on holidays. I thought that the level of professionalism was very poor because the horses were cover in mud with long manes and tails that were knotted. The trial ride was very short and I feel that it was very careless work because the rides are not cheap by any means. Afterwards we untacked the ponies and lead the ponies out to the fields. By the time we were finished it was time for me to finish up.
On the second day, there were more people around the yard. I was given the job of cleaning the tack. I found that they were using normal hand soap instead of saddle soap. This is damaging their saddles. A lot of saddles were growing mould because of the damp conditions in the tack room. I spent the rest of the day inside the shed by myself cleaning and oiling the tack. Around 3 hours into this the farrier arrived to shoe some horses and he was the only person I spoke to until I finished for the day except the odd person making sure I gave the saddles a good clean.
On Wednesday I started by giving some of the horses water then I headed up to the sand arena to muck it out. Afterwards It was back to the tack room for me! I continued to clean and oil saddles for the rest of the day.
On Thursday I cleaned out the stables. Then I helped a women who was sweeping up muck. I got a shovel and gathered the piles she was sweeping. It was a wet day and there was plenty of muck! Next I had to pick out the hay that had gotten mixed up with the sawdust. This took a while. After I had this done I had to scrap the yard with the shovel, sweep it up put it into the wheelbarrow and then dump it in the muck heap which was very hard because the wheelbarrow was hard put up the large pile of muck. This work was very hard and tiring especially because I had no help. I then had to finish another girls work and gather up her leaves. Then I spent the rest of the day scraping the drive way. By the time I was finished I had a blisters on my hand.
On the last day I cleaned the remainder of the tack. Afterwards I cleaned out some of the stables and gave the horses water.
I think I still would like to work with horses. I feel like a got a good looks at a badly managed yard and I feel that I would have run things a lot differently. I got the jobs that nobody wants to do and even though I know somebody has to do this tasks I feel that it would have been easier if they were managed better. For example if the tack was given a light clean after every ride or even at the end of the week with proper materials and not left for as long as 5 months then they would be in much better condition and easily cleaned. I think that I've realised that it takes very good management skills to run a yard but I think I could do that.