A Day In The Life Of A Freelancer – GEM Sports Horses & Equine Services

This week’s Brand Ambassador Blog follows Georgie from GEM Sports Horses & Equine Services as she shows us a typical day in the life of an equine freelancer!

When you imagine a day in the life of a freelance rider/groom, you may imagine somebody spending every second of everyday in the saddle, no dirty work to be done, just simply turn up, and ride, all day. Or maybe you imagine someone who turns up and does the morning or evening muck outs, or you may imagine something completely different. Thing is, sometimes, freelancing involves a lot more than just horses and mucking out! As a freelancer, you are running your own small business, always looking for ways to grow and expand alongside the chargeable work you already have. 

Tuesday 15th March

5am – 6am: Wake up, breakfast, coffee, horses, drive to first job

Every freelancer is different and everyone manages their schedules differently. My schedule changes every day and no week is ever the same no matter how hard I try! However I do usually start earlier on a Tuesday just to tie in with the type of jobs I have. 

Once I’ve had my breakfast and coffee, I make a flask, grab some snacks and warm the car up, I then go and hay and water all the horses that are in before setting off. I’m lucky enough to have incredible supportive parents who turn them out for me by 7.30.

6am – 8am – first job: Ride 2x horses

First job of the day is to hack out or school 2 ex race horses, sometimes just the 1 depending how many the yard have in at the time. It’s important for these horses to learn the quieter life after racing and working with them are one of my most favourite jobs to do.

8am – 8.30am – second job: Turnout and prep stable for evening

A fairly easy job to do, looking after a lovely mare 3 days a week. She gets a little treat in the morning before being turned out with her pals then I prep her stable ready for the evening.

9am – 11am – third job: hack out 1x baby cob on his own

Being your own boss is great, no supervisor to tell you when you can take a break so I tend to have a quick 5 minutes before tacking up. The horses are usually turned out and all get a hand full of chaff to come in with so it works quite well. I go for our ride and turn them back out once we’re home and everything’s done.

11am – 1pm – home: more coffee, biscuits, prep stables for evening

That’s my morning work done! When I get home I head out to do the yard, muck out, hay, feed, water and bring the horses in that are being worked that afternoon.

1pm – 1.45pm: lunch

During my lunch break I tend to do a bit of admin too. I fix something up to eat then spend about half an hour in front of the laptop doing some show prep or replying to messages and emails etc

2pm – 4pm: ride competition horses

I’ve got my 2 competition horses that are normally ridden about 5-6 days a week. I try and stick to a strict schedule with them and their work varies everyday. I aim to jump them once a week, hack once/twice a week, school twice and pole work once a week just to keep it interesting for them. Once they’re worked they go back to bed with some hay before dinner.

4pm – 6pm: work youngsters

Ive got 2 youngsters that are just starting their education, they will both be backed and produced before looking for their new homes in the summer.

6pm – 7pm: dinner 

I usually stay at my partners place on a Tuesday so once I arrived we had dinner then watched some of the Netflix series “our house” which I would definitely recommend!!

7pm – 8pm: reply to messages/emails, invoices, social media prep, show prep, blog writing.

This is me starting to wind down for the night, I’m currently just writing this blog before heading off for a shower. I’ll reply to the rest of my messages and emails beforehand then anymore business stuff will be left until the morning.

8pm – 10pm: quiet time 

You won’t get much sense from me now, getting ready for another full on day tomorrow. I actually fell asleep on the sofa tonight 

So there we go! This is just a small snippet of 1 day in a freelance riders week. Albeit it sounds a fairly quiet day, it’s definitely busy, always something to be done.

If anyone has any questions or if anyone is thinking of becoming a freelancer themselves I’m more than happy to share my experiences with you.

Thanks for reading!

~ Georgie @ GEM Sports Horses & Equine Services