Life on the yard

Although Piggy has a heavy schedule of competitions, there are obviously days on the yard when all the hard work goes in to produce the horses to perform at the best of their ability, whatever their level.


Head Lad Stuart describes a typical day at home:

We are up and on the yard for 7am. We have 22 horses in at the moment so plenty to feed and muck out. This is usually done by about 8.30 when we stop for half an hour for breakfast.

Piggy will have written a work list so we know which horses are doing what, and who needs tacking up first. Mornings are spent getting horses ready, and then washing them off after work.

Piggy will often train Ben (stable jockey Ben McClumpha) as they school horses together. Monday is the quietest day usually - but not always... Piggy aims to get the riding done by around 2pm, when we stop for lunch.

We try to turn the horses out for at least an hour a day, more if we can, and they are regularly taken out for a hack. The hacking round here is good and it keeps the horses fresh. The day after a competition a horse will go on the walker for a bit and then out to graze. We have seven paddocks which we make the most of.

The afternoons vary. Sometimes Piggy teaches - as she admits, not as much as maybe she should - or goes to look at horses. Then entries need to be done, bills paid, owners spoken to, manes and tails pulled, the school harrowed, the fields poo-picked. It's the end of the day before you know it - not much time to think about anything except horses.