Creative Captures

For today’s memory, I am pleased to welcome a guest writer, Maggie Young, who has written a great piece about her time helping out at horse riding stables.

My Days at Chaucer Riding Stables

After finding a book called Riding Cavalcade in my loft, that I was presented with at my secondary school back in 1971, it brought back memories of my days at Chaucer Riding Stables.

I Started helping out at the stables around 1970, so I would have been about thirteen. I lived opposite with my mum and sister, in a small village called Waltham.

The stables were owned by a husband and wife, Mary Mervin and Mr Mervin, (never knew his first name). She ran the stables and Mr M used to do all the DIY jobs. She was a very strict woman and I remember she always walked with bandy legs. I would normally go over most weekends, and even after school, if I didn’t have homework. At weekends I would go from around eight in the morning, to help with mucking out the horses and getting them ready for when the clients arrived for their riding lessons. 

We used to meet in what was the tack room, (this is when we were given our daily jobs and where all the saddles, bridles, grooming bits were kept). I remember there was a small office, where clients would come to find out what horse they were going to ride that day for their lesson. Normally it would be a one-hour lesson. 

Depending on the weather they would either have their lesson in a school at the bottom of the drive, or we’d take them out on a hack around the village. The school was built for indoor lessons, consisting of wooden boards on the lower part and hessian for the top part. It was a sand-filled arena, suitable for easy cleaning out. I’m not sure of the size, but it was big. 

I remember the yard had about ten stables in it, and all the horses had their own one with names on the doors, apart from the livery stables, but more about those later. The front stables that faced the main house had Candy (this was Mrs M’s horse, she was a chestnut mare, then you had Sandy, he was also chestnut and a very tall horse, about 19 hands, then you had Martini, she was a very flighty horse, and was always trying to bite/kick you on entering her stable or walking past her stable door, but was still a lovely horse to ride. She was a very dark tan.  

There was also Tammy, she was a small grey, very calm and always the one for the young children to ride. Next was Charade; he was a very posh boy. He was part Arab, so as you can imagine, he was very handsome. He was a cream colour with a lovely black mane and tail. Then around the corner you had Merrydown, she was a small dapple grey, nothing much about her apart from she, too, would like to take a bite sometimes.

Opposite her, were what we called livery stables, this is where other people would have their own horses staying at the yard. We would help look after them, but mainly the owners would deal with them. Then around the corner we had Natasha, she was as good as gold. 

My days would consist of feeding and watering the horses, then mucking them out. Some would be on straw and some on wood shavings. What a job that was, but it had to be done. Next would be brushing and tacking them up (putting on the bridle and saddle), ready for the day’s riding lessons. It wasn’t all down to me; there were a few others that helped out too: Georgina, Sharon, Jane, Mark and others but I can’t remember their names. We never got paid, but we did get a free horse ride now and again, this was the best bit, and money wasn’t why I did it, I loved working with the horses. My outdoor life was amazing; come rain or shine, you did what you loved doing. 

On days when we didn’t ride, we would keep the yards swept and clean. This was a hard task. We used to sweep it on our own or there would be a line of maybe two or three of us sweeping. This was much easier as it got done in half the time and we had more fun. We would then fill up the hay nets, which we used to make out of the orange bail twine from the straw/hay bales; I could probably still make one now ! Then there was the cleaning of the bridals and saddles. This was done using a bar of saddle soap and I can still smell it now. Then you may have to do some repairs to the stitching. This was a hard job, leather is not the easiest to stitch by hand. Wax Cotten and a thick needle were used and a thin pointed spike to make the holes in the leather – my hands/fingers used to be sore after doing this, but it was cheaper than buying new parts. 

Once it came to lunchtime, I would pop home, (nice living right on the doorstep) for a sandwich and anything else available. You can imagine I was starving after a busy morning. One hour was all we got for lunch and blimey, if you were late getting back –  beware! Afternoons would again be riding lessons, then the preparation to get the stables ready for the horses for the night, including laying out all the straw and add any extra if need be, and any more wood shavings to the ones who had it. The one thing we all used to hate doing, but on cold days we loved it, was the muck pile. Now this was another task, especially if it was very high. We would have to climb up onto it and fork it flat.  As I said it was great when it was cold, as when manure is piled very high, it does get nice and warm, I’ll leave you to wonder why this might be !

The day would end around six and home I would go. I would do it all again in a heartbeat, they were the best days ever.