It will not have escaped your notice that horses are high maintenance and expensive. In fact, it probably dawned on you pretty quickly when the hours you spent caring for your new horse on day one had to be repeated in full on day two. Plus he lost a shoe, so you can kiss Friday night’s takeaway budget goodbye.
Yes, the path of the horse owner is by no means smooth. The vast majority of us hold down full-time jobs to fund the upkeep of our equines, thereby engaging in an eternal battle with Father Time to squeeze in a precious daily hour or so to do the fun parts of horse ownership (chiefly ride and give treats).
It’s no wonder, then, that the rise of remote working/working from home has been embraced by our community. No more travelling wardrobe in the boot, or pointed comments about treading mud into the office. No more constant clock-watching for fear of being late, or running the petrol gauge to red by Wednesday. Just sweet freedom, and precious time recouped to do what you love best.
However, as you settled in to your remote working life, your team might have found one or two changes to your routine somewhat… perplexing. Your horsey life might have been kept somewhat under wraps in the office save the show photo on your desk and the odd strand of hay in your hair. Now with nothing to separate you from the yard but a (highly portable) screen, they’ll likely be getting the complete and unabridged version.
The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed the entire Horse & Hound team is remote working. I’d like to reassure readers that we uphold the highest professional standards and while you might recognise some of the points on this list, we’ve had to conduct extensive research to compile it. None of the below is a reflection of our own lives. For example, I am not typing this post with a lead rope tucked under my arm while the horse attached to it is shod.
So now I’ve cleared that up, here’s our list of things remote workers with horses understand – or at least what we think your colleagues might have noticed…
1. Your evolving wardrobe. Sure, you might have kept up appearances in the initial working from home weeks, but now you’re rocking up to virtual meetings in baselayers and hoodies that could probably walk themselves to the laundry basket. Bonus points if you log on still wearing your hi-vis.
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2. Your use of wacky background images has become a talking point in meetings.
“Where are you today?” your colleagues chuckle, as your smile radiates from a tropical beach scene. They don’t need to know what’s actually behind you is a wall of rosettes and pictures from competitions (or your horse’s stable…).
3. Your consistent horsey profile images. Slack, Google, Teams, Zoom – you acquire so many online accounts as a remote worker. And every one of your profile pics has a horse in it, doesn’t it?
4. Interesting sound effects. Namely clip-clopping or hammering nails into shoes. “Oh, that?” you say. “That’s just next door’s builders…”
5. A lot of your email signoffs purport to be “Sent from my iPhone”. Well, it can be rather tempting to capitalise on the “remote” definition of your role. By which, I mean replying to emails from the tack room.
6. Clocking that you were online at 6am today! You shrug it off, saying you fancied an early start. But also, your instructor could only fit you in at four this afternoon so you’re pushing those flexible hours as far as they’ll go.
7. That you were a little out of breath hopping on that spontaneous Zoom. That’s because when call came in you’d literally just put your foot in the stirrup. The horror.
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A horse owner and rider with more than 20 years experience, Bethany has been writing for equestrian publications since 2017. Over the course of her career, she has reported from major British Riding Clubs and British Dressage championships, covered Badminton Horse Trials and interviewed equestrian sport’s best athletes. Her work can also be found in Country Life, The Field and Breathe magazine.
