hello everyone welcome back to Riding With Rhi today I'm gonna take you with
me on a Sunday with my horse my Sunday routine at the yard you overwhelmingly
voted for a voiceover on Instagram so I hope that you enjoy this I'm gonna take
you through everything that I do as I do it as well as tell you some of the
stories from my previous jobs in horses what's been going on with Ted and
everything so put this on in the background grab a cup of tea whatever
get settled in and let's get into it as you can see the first thing that I do
when I get to the yard is feed the horses because I always ride Ted in the
morning and he needs an hour between his feed and obviously me riding him so that
his tummy doesn't get upset and then I just get out of their way and make haynets usually I would make two haynets for the night ahead and then I would use
whatever is left over in his hay from the night before and pop one of those
out on the yards that he has something to eat whilst I muck out his stable but
actually today he ate all of his hay from the night before which is quite
unusual for him he's not a greedy horse so I ended up filling up a whole
other haynet and when he's finished picking away at that I'll just top it up
and then I'll pop that ready for the next day so we sort of have a haynet
already done so yeah it was a really beautiful day on this day I think it was
the hottest day of the year so far was about 20 degrees which is hot for the UK
and we've had the worst weather lately so you'll see in a moment that I just
check his temperature behind his ears and under his rug actually he's fine in
that fleece for now so I leave him as is it's about 8 a.m. at this point so it's
not as warm as it will be and he's fine in that fleece and yeah just moving on to
muck his stable and I put on a Harry Potter audio book which is definitely a
guilty secret I love mucking out to the Harry Potter audiobooks I've listened to
them like a million times and I started relistening to the books about in December
time last year and I'm now finally on the final book and I actually finished
it on the day that I am recording this so that was really sad I don't know what
to listen to you next so if you have any suggestions for great audiobooks let me
know I listen to pretty much everything but I've always done this when I was at
university I was studying in English Literature and I was working at a yard
at part-time and I would listen to the books from my classes
whilst I did all the yard chores so I sort of hit two birds with one stone but
yeah I just love having it on in the background I like to learn I like to
read books I listen to books and I just enjoy it I find it quite therapeutic
mucking out and having a little a little story going on in the background I also
as a child I would wake up super super early so my parents gave me this rule
that I wasn't allowed to come out of my room passed I think was a before like five
o'clock so they got me this little tape recorder with storybooks on it and I
would just sit and listen to storybooks so I'm sure that there is part of that
in this now I also had a little like toy farmyard so I would listen to the
storybooks and play with the farmyard and honestly as an adult not a lot has
changed has it I'm still playing with the farmyard it's just life-sized so
just clearing out Ted's buckets here as you can see and then whilst I fill up
his waters I would just sweep outside of his stable and make sure that it's all
neat and tidy I've definitely got the timing wrong before on this and I've
managed to overflow the water buckets while I'm sweeping because I've got the
timing wrong but you know we've got to try and be economical now I'll just fill
up his feed that needs to soak for a little bit so I'll leave that with the
bucket on top whilst we're riding and then come back and sort the rest out
later so now I'm just gonna groom and then tack up and ride we are lucky at the moment
as I said it's been really dry so the horses are actually pretty clean even
the grey ones like Ted we have the muddiest winter so honestly it's a
blessing that the grooming has finally got easier because they were so muddy
for the longest time it was it just took ages to get all the mud off I mean
you've got covered in dust and everything so this is lovely so today
I'm gonna take Ted up to the woodland behind the farm I haven't been up there
before I think I've ridden through it once but I've never sort of been around
and explored it and I thought I'd just go back to my childhood and do some
exploring I used to ride this little connemara cross he was also grey when I
was a teenager and I would just go off with him this was back in the Cotswolds
where I grew up and I would go off hours and go hacking and I remember one day I
rang my mum because I didn't know where I was and we eventually figured out
where I was from sort of seen churches and road signs and
everything and she when she found out how far away I was she was so angry but
honestly that pony was the best he would walk all day he never got tired he never
got lame he was just the best and I didn't you know rag him around the
countryside we literally were walking and trotting with like a little canter here and
there but yeah that is pretty much how I spend my weekends as a child was just
walking around on this amazing little pony so that was great so yeah gonna go
back to our childhood roots today and just do a little bit of exploring it's
such a beautiful day I'm very excited just adding fly spray because it's
getting into that season unfortunately and Ted is so so good with fly spray
which I am shocked by given how bad he is for a lot of other things he's such a
fidget you can see here I'm just putting some on my hands to put on his ears
which he does not love but it's better than spraying him in the face honestly I
wouldn't want to do that so I thought my GoPro was working when I got on but it
obviously wasn't so I turned it on here we've just got into the woodland and I
actually spotted it there's a log which I can get back on using so I got off to
lock the gate it's kind of a tricky little padlock and you'll see actually
at the end of this ride that I have real real trouble locking it again I've got
some bloopers to show you so wait for those and yeah he was so well-behaved
with me getting on on that log which really shocked me because if you've seen
my videos lately you'll know that I've been having such trouble getting back on
him after galloping in the straw filled he just hate standing at this
gate and I thought he would be the same but he was great with that log which is
fantastic cos as you can see we're just exploring the woodland trails
I haven't hacked out with anyone else in the longest time because I'm not hacking
during lockdown I just don't want to be anywhere near cars or traffic so I've
just been riding around the farm and he's just been getting really really
good like he's getting really relaxed and he's been really well-behaved so I'm
hoping that once lockdown is finished I'll be able to hack him out on the
roads with traffic by myself and if I can do that successfully then it means
that I can hack him out in the mornings before work rather than just having to
go in the school during the week which is fine but it's not fun
all the time and it's it's nice to have the option of hacking out and usually
I'd have to hack out on my own during week as no one rides as early as I do
before work and you will have seen just back there there was a gate and that is
actually where I had my first fall on Ted I didn't catch it on the GoPro
unfortunately but yeah he panicked going through the gate and I ended up falling
off so in a moment you'll see that I try and lock the padlock on top of Ted it
goes badly why won't it lock Teddy?
is it lefty loosey righty tighty?
why won't it lock Teddy?!
hmm
let me have a little break. I can't figure this out good boy
that's it! Oh, I thought we had it there
Yes! We did it!
The gate is locked! And you stood there
because you're such a good boy you know what despite the ridiculousness of that
situation I was so happy with Ted he literally stood Stockstill when I messed
about with this padlock which I did not expect I thought he would fidget I
thought I'd have to get off and then walk the rest of the way home and even
this gate here he's just a saint like he was in such a good mood this day he let
me undo it and I always try and do the gates on the horses because I just think
it's really good practice for them you might need to do a
gate from horse one day and I love all of my horses to be able to do gates so I
always practice you see that bay horse in the school there that is Ted's
girlfriend so look at his ears he like loves watching her and this is one of
the things I just love about Sundays is that you can just take your time I'm not
clock watching I'm not trying to figure out how long I have before I have to
leave to get to work on time before a meeting it's so nice to take your time
it's something that I never never take for granted on a Sunday so we're back at
the yard obviously we're gonna untack now we didn't get that sweaty because I
didn't do a huge amount of cantering like I said I was literally just ambling
around the forest so he is not sweaty which means I can get him out in the
field pretty quickly I like him to have as much time out in the field as
possible so today it's about 10:30 at this point and he will be out now until
about 7:00 p.m. and there will come a point in the summer where they are out
24/7 so once that happens I'll be sure to give you an updated routine
but for now they're still in at night so I want to give them as much time as
possible out in the field if you've watched my Instagram lately as well
you'll know that I've been having real trouble catching Ted in the other field
I thought he would be better in this one but he actually ran away from me the
other day so if you are not following me on Instagram you're missing out on the
polls I do about whether you think I'm gonna catch Ted or not so do get
involved because honestly it's the only thing that keeps me sane sometimes when
I'm running around after him in the field so there he is off he goes into
the field I'm gonna head back and do some tidying and then I'm gonna clean my
tack so actually having time to sweep on a Sunday is also incredibly satisfying
when I was a teenager and I worked at this hunt yard on the weekends I my boss
was just a real stickler for having a really tidy neat yard we would sweep in
the mornings and in the afternoons he just never wanted our bosses to see the
yard in a bad state and it's definitely instilled in me to have a real
organizational approach to how I have the horses and it really helps honestly
when you're trying to balance a full-time job obviously I don't even do
Ted every day but during a full-time job plus horses you need to know where
everything is and you need to know that it's gonna be working in good working
order it's not broken and honestly being organized is the only way to do that so
I'm so grateful for that job for teaching me that and now I'm just gonna
clean my tack so before I got Ted on share I actually had a huge gap in my
horse riding and it meant that I didn't have a lot of the things that you would
normally have liked a cleaner just available and I was doing research
online about which tack cleaner to buy just in case there were any new ones that I
should be looking at and I was in this forum on the Horse & Hound which is a
British horse horse magazine and there was a Saddler in this forum and he was
basically saying that a lot of tack liners have a layer of glycerine in them
I think as glycerine and it basically adds just like a greasy shine to all of
the tack but it also sits on top of it in a layer and he was saying that if
anyone sends their tack to him to be fixed and it has this layer of grease on
it he actually charges extra because he has to spend days
stripping this grease away off the tack before he can actually repair it and
apparently this brand that I'm using now I can't remember but I will link out for
you in the description it's brand new so I honestly don't in the name of it but
this stuff apparently doesn't sit on top of your tack it repairs it it makes it
shiny and supple but it doesn't sit on it in a layer of grease so I thought
that was great I got the tack wash which is there to remove grease and dirt and
grime and then I also bought the tack conditioner so I use the tack wash maybe
once a month and then I use the conditioner at once a week and just keep
the tack in good working order and whilst I do my tack I also do my boots
I've had these Ariats for about six years now and I love them I try and take
really good care of them because they were a gift from my parents that they
were quite expensive so I was try and make them last as long as possible
so now just making up Ted's feeds this will be his feed for tonight and then
for tomorrow morning for whoever is feeding first thing which actually might
be me because I have him on Mondays so I usually get to the yard first because I
have to ride before work this stuff is really hard to stir in with the chaff i
always ends up leaking some of it over the side but you know what it will give you
great muscles so there is that so we'll take these and I'll just pop the covers
on them over by his stable we had carrots for dinner the other night so I
brought some peelings with me as well just to sprinkle on the top and that is
pretty much it you guys that is my Sunday with my horse I hope that you
have enjoyed this video if you did do give it a thumbs up and subscribe if you
haven't already done so today's my first horse share so I'm showing my tips
tricks and bills as I go along I hope that you have a great day
see you next time