Cara Roberts

Looking for work in the horse industry.

I began riding at the age of 7 at my local riding school where I attended lessons and Pony Club on a fortnightly basis until I was 12. I later progressed to loaning a variety of horses before eventually owning my own horse, a 14 yr old 14.3hh Cob x Arab who had been out of work for around 3 years. I learnt a lot about riding and adapting to different horses through bringing him back into work. He was particularly a nervous horse to hack, therefore I enjoyed the challenge of building up his confidence on the road until he eventually began to enjoy it. We successfully competed in dressage at a local level.
I also volunteered at Riding for the Disabled, Treborth for over two years where I helped to prepare the horses, groom and feed them, as well as lead the horses during lessons and on hacks. This required a lot of communication, understanding and patience with the riders. I volunteered for approximately 6 hours a week, involving people of all disabilities and ages.

After selling my horse around 2 years ago due to education commitments, I have helped to bring on/ train other horses; being youngsters, racehorses and those that had been out of work and have gained pleasure and experience from doing so.
From June of 2015 until March 2016, I was employed as a ‘Ride Leader’ by Anglesey Riding Centre. The riding school catered for beginners to advanced students with the use of an indoor and an outdoor arena, as well as over 5 miles worth of off road bridleways. The centre was also a part of the Pony Club branch. I worked here on the weekends and during the holidays whilst still attending full time education. Here, I worked as a part of a team where a regular day would include making the feeds in the morning, fetching the horses from the fields (during the summer season) and grooming them. We were then given the timetable for the day regarding lessons and treks, which horses needed to be ready and tacked up by when and when we would take out a ride. In between taking rides out (either mounted or on foot) we would muck out the stables, clean buckets, clean tack, make sure the yard was tidy and bring out horses to be visited by the farrier or vet if necessary. We would bring out the horses to the customers and have them mounted, adjust their stirrups and the tack if necessary, as well as give them the basic instructions of riding such as how to steer, stop and move forward. Any questions they had were answered and it often involved reassuring a lot of nervous riders. Working here involved the handling of a variety of different horses from section As to Shires of all different temperaments, school and livery yard. Before taking trot and canter rides out, we would have the riders assessed in the school to make sure that they were up to standard and that they had been matched well with their horse. Whilst taking rides out, I was responsible for the safety of up to 5 riders at a time, doing walk, trot and canter rides. This involved making sure the riders were always comfortable and enjoying their time. On Sunday mornings, I was responsible for a group for up to fifteen 6-12yr olds where they came to learn about stable management skills and were each given a pony to look after. Each week we focused on different aspects on the basics of taking care of the horse such as grooming, mucking out, tacking up etc. We would also exercise a few horses a day (some school horses and some liveries) especially before the summer season in order to maintain their fitness levels. Working here gave me a solid understanding of the demands of the riding school industry and working with horses in general. I also developed my confidence in working with customers.
For the past couple of months or so I have been attending Cae Newydd, a local classical-dressage based riding school. I have worked on perfecting my riding skills here, mainly on my posture and getting the horse to bend, before working on some basic lateral movements such as shoulder ins. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and would love to further my education in classical dressage in the future.

I completed my A Levlels this summer and I'm taking a year out before hopefully going to University next fall, however if I find work I enjoy I would be happy to continue with it for the forseeable future.