Well, after my GCSE's I went to Matt Ryan’s for two weeks to get some experience working on a competition yard and to get some training in. It was FANTASTIC! Everyone was really nice and I made some good friends. I celebrated my 16th birthday there and we went out to dinner which was nice. Matt and Marie were fantastic at giving advice to you when you rode while they were riding their own horses and I learnt a lot.

It was very hard work and there were some long days when you had to wait for the lorry to arrive back from a competition at 11pm and unload it all and reload it for the next day! But it was well worth it. All helped by the weather being super most of the time and getting a bit of a tan (and some sunburn!)

The Average day:

7:20 - Wake up
7:30 - Muck out and Hay all horses
8:30 - Breakfast
9:30 - Yard
1:30 ish - Lunch
2:10 ish - Yard
5:30 - Feed, Hay and tidy up
5:45 ish - Finished!

Some days it would be your turn to do Paddocks and so you would get up at 6:45 and from 7:00 ish you would go round all the fields feeding all the horses that are turned out at night. Also when it was the day before a competition you would finish considerably later as you would have to plait all the horses, get all the tack ready and pack the lorry etc.

All in all I had a really super time and I am hoping to go back for another 2-3weeks in August and maybe return full time in my gap year- who knows!!

Photos of the Caravan I stayed in, Belvedere and a photo I took off Matt at Badminton (Click to enlarge)