DAILY ROUTINE

• 06.00 Our busy day starts and the first thing that we do is feed the stallions. We feel that it is important to leave them to eat quietly for half an hour. At this time, there is a change in shift for our grooms, and there is a meeting as the night grooms hand over the responsibility to the morning grooms.

• 06.30 The stallions are given their morning hay, and the grooms begin to prepare them to be ridden. They have a daily worksheet to follow, and each groom is assigned to a rider and their horses.

• 07.00 The riders arrive and start riding their first horse. Each horse is ridden for 30 minutes, and are ridden in the order of the agreed daily planner so that everyone is organised and can devote dedicated time to each of the horses. Once they are ridden the grooms cool the horses down, put them onto the solarium to dry off, and finally brush them down to relax their muscles.

• 13.30 The stallions are given their lunchtime feed.

• 14.00 The afternoon shift of grooms arrives, and there is a handover meeting to discuss the horse’s requirements for the afternoon. During the afternoon all of the tack is cleaned ready for the following day, and the horses are put onto the walker. During this time the vet, farrier, saddler, or physio will look after each of the horses exact requirements.

• 17.00 The horses are given their evening hay, and the hay trolley is restocked for the following day.

• 18.00 The horses are given their evening feed, the yard is swept and the barn is tidied, and the horses are left in peace.

• 22.00 The night grooms arrive, and they have a handover meeting with the afternoon grooms. They work through the night looking after the stables until 06.00 the following morning.

ONGOING TASKS

The horses are skipped out every 2 hours, and it takes the grooms approximately 1 hour to get around the whole yard. This means that the horses beds are always clean, and the yard tidy, and this is generally fitted in around their other duties. The winter riding school is graded twice a day, and watered down by hand once per day to keep the riding surface in perfect condition.  

WEEKLY ROUTINE

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday all of the horses are worked as above. Saturday and Sunday there are afternoon performances, so the horses are put onto the walker in the morning, and then prepared for their performance in the afternoon. Monday is the horses day off. They are put onto the walker and the solarium, and we have a day catching up with cleaning and polishing the gold bridles and white performance saddles. 

STALLION ROTATION

The horses are rotated to Heldenberg every 3 months for a change of scenery and a different work pattern. They are more relaxed there, and are ridden through the woods in walk and trot, and have some time off from the hustle and bustle of the public yard and the weekend performances. They are rested for 6 weeks in winter and 7 weeks in summer. They spend the summer months of July and August in their summer quarters at a place called "Wetzdorf" in the city of Heldenberg in lower Austria, approx. an hour’s drive north-east of Vienna.