Physical disability, can i still work with horses?

[amanda_1788]

Hi

well basically I have problems with my hips, i had to have a major operation on one of them to help stop the pain i was getting and it has helped a lot but not eliminated it, and my left hip also causes me pain. Which if i wanted could have an operation to help, but the healing time is so long, i am just using strong painkillers at the moment which get rid of the pain if i use the maximum dose. this can make me feel a bit spaced out now and again but its better than the pain. I also soemtimes can backache although had an x ray and it was ok so basically have to put up with it.
Anyway the thing is i have always wanted to work with horses either in a livery yard or become an AI in a riding school. I do have my own horse and can do everything muck out and poo pick if i take my painkillers with no pain, but if i was to do this job i dont know if i could manage the amount of mucking out and standing that needs to be done. I can walk around for ages but standing on the spot for long periods i find hard and the mucking out will affect my back. by the way i'm only 19 years old. Has anyone on here with any physical disability worked in this sort of physical job? How much mucking out/standing on one spot is involved? Can anyone reccomend anything i can have done or do to help my back? as that would solve the main problem. Thanks for any help or advice anyone can give me. As its either this job or a primary school teacher but would obviously prefer to work with horses.
oh and i can physically do everything its just that some things cause me pain but i can still do them i just work through it.

 

[Jen_e_Jen]

I definitely sympathize. I have some pretty decent back problems(multiple prob!), and horses are my passion! Anyone that's been around horses knows what a huge amount of physical work is involved, and it takes it's toll on horse-lovers like you and I. I'm not a doctor, so I wouldn't know if the act of riding will make your situation worse, but if your doc says it's ok go for it. The amount of stall cleaning is going to depend on the number of horses, but I personally found that as long as the bedding you use is the kind that only needs to be picked a bit every day, and stripped once a week it's not nearly as painful. Standing causes me pain as well, and I don't give lessons or anything yet, but when I am working/lunging the young horses I am very rarely standing totally still. What kind of horses do you ride? Because of my back I ride gaited horses and it's much less painful.

 

[*Sez*]

I would definitely speak to your doctor, and possibly a disability employment adviser as well, from the Job Centre.
I have a disability that effects all of my joints, and I worked full time at a riding school as Head Girl. It was hard going, but over winter was especially unbearable, as the cold and damp makes the pain worse. I was mucking out up to thirty stables a day (fortunately rubber mats with a little shavings), but it did create a lot of back and hip pain for me, as well as pain in my knees, ankles and calves from being on my feet so much. Other duties included being a leader in lead-rein lessons, and given that I find walking painful, that was excruciating! There tends to be a lot of mucking out, lifting of hay bales and feed sacks and similar physical chores to be done. I my opinion, it was a very different kettle of fish to having one horse of my own.
In the end, I had to admit defeat because I simply wasn't able to function and now have an office job which, while it's still difficult and painful, is more bearable and the reasonable adjustments put in place by my employer have meant that I can continue working.

I suppose it all depends on how reasonable a boss you end up with and how much adjustment they are prepared to make for you if you were to find certain aspects of the job difficult. I think so long as you are honest at the application and interview stage, if they feel you're the right person for the job in all other respects, they may be willing to make changes to the post and equipment to make it more manageable for you.

Giving up my dream was absolutely gutting, but I gave it a shot. At the end of the day, you never know until you try!

 

[Miki]

If you were to be giving lessons I don't think that much standing still would really be involved. My RI is either sitting on the rail or walking around the ring all lesson.
For mucking stalls it really does depend upon how many horses and how much picking is nessasary every day. If you have to remove most of the shavings every day it could be bad whereas if only the dirty ones have to be it would be much better.

 

[Kis Vihar]

Hi!

Hey we could compare notes.....!

I too have a hip problem, but it doesn't sound as severe as yours. I run a yard with my best mate here in Hungary, so I don't have a boss - which makes me very lucky! I can do as little or as much as I want / can. But my name on the yard is 'hobble' or 'limpit' !!!

If you are determined, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to work with horses, as long as you had a very understanding boss. One (sad!) aspect I can think of which may affect your chances of working with horses is whether an employer may see you as a 'risk' - I know it's a terrbile thing to say, but I can just imagine the situation - you are asked to do something which makes you worse.... The employer sees the potential lawsuits. I'm NOT saying this is true for you, just pointing something out which may 'get in your way' when trying to find work with horses. It shouldn't make a difference whether you have a physical problem or not, but sadly, it may well do.

I agree, the Emploment Service or whatever they are called in the UK now are brilliant, and may well be able to help you - they (used to, not sure if they still do) run something called 'access to work' Through them, many years ago, I was supplied with my own special chair for when I worked in an office - also voice activated software for my computer as I have a damaged right shoulder (and the hand is affected) making typing difficult. Now I type quickly 'conventionally', but only use 2 fingers on my right hand!!

I obviously don't know what your hip condition is (if it's not a personal question!) ..maybe you could PM me sometime and we could chat.

I know the BHS exams were completely out of the question for me - one of the tasks, it may have changed now, I'm not sure, was to mount from the ground, which I cannot do. If you want to be a RI, I think the ABRS used to be a little more lenient (realistic?!).

Regarding yard duties, I can do just about everything, but unlike you, I don't have huge amounts of pain - My hips feel very 'unstable' and I regularly fall over! I too need an operation to remove spurs of bone growing abnormally after operations on my hips when I was young, but I don't want this - I am still registered as a UK tax-payer and have a UK address and doctor, but my local hospital in the UK seems to keep killing people by infecting them with MRSA - including my mum, who died in 2002. I am VERY reluctant to step through the doors of a hospital ever again!

Bending down and straightening when mucking out can be a bit of a pain - literally - but we deep-litter our stables, having a major clean out every so often which I don't get involved in! I can poo-pick OK, in the stables and the field, using a tall-handled 'hod thing' I think they are called stable mates or something - and a hand-rake (from a garden centre!). All other stable tasks are possible for me, but I do have to know when to say 'no' and that something is too much. .... I don't recommend long-reining with walking sticks - I tried last week - very awkward!!

Please if you want to chat, PM me, we can discuss all things 'hip' related!!!

I admire your determination - I wish you all the very best of luck! I'd rather work with horses and struggle a bit than be a school teacher! I have endless patience with delinquent horses, but children...? Saying that, I also teach ....English to the Hungarian children! Only a few at a time - I can tolerate that!

Kindest regards,

K

 

[kturner]

I have many physical problems and could never work with horses full time. My daughter tried it for two days, she is fit and struggled and gave it up. I wish I could do it but I cant. I have one pony of my own which I look after and that is with a lot of adjustments to how I do things.

Why dont you ask your local ridilng school if you could have a trial day or two, that way you could find out before taking on a fulltime job and finding you cannot do it.

I also thought about trying to do it part time, but that is not really feasible when they could get full time people instead. How about helping out someone with 2-4 horses and being paid for that, if you could live on that lower income, then it will not be toooo much strain, but you still satisfy your need to be around horses. You could have a part time other normal job at the same time. In other words "do both".

 

[mrs pdales]

Why not look into other jobs with horses? Unless you are very VERY good, most of the groom jobs loose their appeal after a while and AI is fine but believe me(and I've been there) even that wanes... why not look into the world of nutrition/journalisim/saddlery/welfare/ there are loads of others.... particually if you are more accademic and self disciplined than I was regarding study!!

 

[rubysmum]

i want to give you 2 really different & contradictory answers - just to cause confusion - the disability right legislation [as im sure you know in far more detail then me ] means that employers - in certasin sized orgs - HAVE to make amendments to allow staff with disabilties to work so in an ideal world yu would have every opportunity to access this kind of work & have an adaptations needed to allow you to do this BUT the reality is that yard work is horibly backbreaking labour - i work 2 days per week on a yard - i am healthy & v fit [run half marathons] but some winter wekends i can hardly move when i get home - horse based work is full of people who started up fit & have managed to knacker themselves just by the type of labour - many yards offer p/time insecure employment on minimum wage & there is real competition for the good jobs - have you worked out what you want to get out of horse based employment & seen where else you could get this - if you are academic enough to consider uni & PGCE to become a teacher would you consider vetinary medicine or someof the other suggestions made by other wiser than me - you would then also earn enough to own horses & pay someone else to do your mucking out