When one of our regular stablehands had to expectantly undergo surgery, we had to scramble to find someone to fill her place and we were so happy to have found Tara.
Tara started working at Lancers in January as a temporary stablehand and we have been so thankful to have her join our community. Tara is a horse person and rides a five-year-old warmblood named Lotti. She has been a dedicated and hardworking individual and acclimatized to the Lancer stable routine quickly. Tara noted that when she started in the job, she felt rather slow but can easily keep up! Even though on the day we chatted with her about this feature, Tara had spent two hours of the day chipping ice so the manure bin could be emptied, she commented that she has really enjoyed working at Lancers. She added, there are “really good kids around here. At barns, there can be a lot of drama but these riders are super nice and friendly”. Tara also enjoyed the horses and Merlin and Ben became favourites. Tara liked that Merlin is very friendly and his stall is always so nice while Ben is really sweet and gentle.

Tara also found Lancers a more fun place to work compared to other places because she was able to be around horses! She explained, “It’s a job because who wants to clean horse stalls all day but it’s also not a job when you get to be with horses and horse people. Tara has been working at Lancers Monday to Thursdays while also working Thursday to Sunday nights as a bouncer at a downtown bar which means on those days, she doesn’t leave work till 4:30am. This job as a bouncer is giving Tara some valuable experience for the career she is pursuing as a corrections officer in a jail. She explained that many actually start out as bouncers because you get a thick skin in a place like that.

Of her time at Lancers, Tara said that she was “glad to have had this experience and get to know the horses and people and learn more about Lancers”. While Tara had seen Lancers at horse shows, she did not know too much about our organization. When coming to Lancers, she was surprised to see how big it was because by just driving by, it doesn’t look as big as it is! She also noted that “the horses are very well taken care of and it is nice to see that even though the horses are in the city and aren’t in the country, they get all the care that they need and turn out time and they are very happy horses. Some people might not realise that they get as much turn out time as they do”!

Tara has been an active member in the Avon Pony Club during her childhood and those good foundations that are laid out in Pony Club made it an easy transition into another Pony Club barn. We were so happy with her work ethic while here and she did a great job looking after the horses. We are very much looking forward to our regular stablehand’s return, but we will also miss Tara and hope she returns for lots of visits.