Five-star event rider Louise Harwood has added to her income streams while times are tough owing to Covid-19 with two new jobs, and is training for a third.
“I’m doing 21 and a half hours a week as a home delivery driver for Morrisons,” Louise told H&H. “My neighbour helped me get the job as I didn’t think I could write a CV! I had a job once 30 years ago, but I wasn’t sure riding horses every day was much of a help.
“It’s a nice job, you get to see the countryside and lots of nice houses. I’ve met some interesting people who are doing the driving, who have diversified from other walks of life.”
Louise still has five or six horse in work and her niece Amber Skelton has moved in to help with the riding. She and Amber are also working as home consultants for the Body Shop, earning commission on products sold.
“We are considering doing a live video giving my mum a facial – she’s not very girly and I’m not sure she’s ever had anything like that,” said Louise.
Finally, Louise is studying to be a gym instructor via an online course, in the hope that in the future she can teach Pilates or Swiss ball balance exercises for core stability alongside riding.
“The first thing I will be qualified to teach is circuit training so I can put Swiss ball exercises into that,” she said. “I started the course fairly soon into lockdown and a lot of it is physiology, so I dredged up my brain power from my degree in applied biology. Now I’m into a part which is more about different machines. I think I’ll have to wait for a gym to re-open for the assessment.”
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Louise says she is enjoying the chance to do some different activities, but misses eventing.
“We never have a chance to do anything other than ride horses round and round the arena. But it would be nice to compete, to have something to aim for. Most of my horses have gone out in the field, but the naughty ones have to stay in or they jump out!”
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Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
