Anyone with horses and a job will know the struggle of juggling life and caring for their horse. Lara Edwards knows this only too well combining work and a family with a serious dressage career.
At her Lincolnshire base Lara trains horses that range from youngsters she has bred herself, right up to her stallion Bodyguard who is working towards competing at Grand Prix level.
Lara’s rise up the ranks has been through hard work and dedication, and her steely determination was demonstrated when she fought back after having a pacemaker fitted in 2014. Lara even competed when 25 weeks pregnant with her first child, you could be forgiven for thinking she is ‘superwoman’!
Here we find out about an average day in the life of the Lara Edwards.
A Day in the Life of Lara Edwards
Lara’s day starts when her alarm goes off at 6am and she begins by getting everything ready for the day ahead for both herself and daughter Annabelle.
Annabelle wakes anywhere between 6.30 – 7am, where they get to enjoy some brief family time with husband Gary over breakfast.
To get the day underway Lara is out of the house by 7.30am, dropping Annabelle off at either her mums or Gary’s mums’ house before heading to the yard.
By 8am Lara will be on-board the first of six horses that she rides most days, either schooling or hacking depending on the horse and the stage of their training.
First up are the homebred youngsters, Jackson, Chanel, and Cleo with Lara currently concentrating on preparing Cleo for her first competitive competition.
“I have high hopes for all my young horses, Jackson has such a lovely nature and I am very excited about Cleo, as her movement is top class, said Lara.
The rest of the morning is then spent riding the more experienced Felix and Bodyguard, with Felix stepping up to Small Tour level and Bodyguard perfecting his tempi changes and piaffe for the Grand Prix.
All the horses follow a weekly training schedule of schooling for three days, followed by a hack on the fourth day, with pole work exercises on the fifth.
At 12pm it is time to swap her riding clothes for work clothes and begin snagging houses in her job as a Quality Manager for the family home building business, as well as conducting handovers to new home owners.
“Demonstrating the fixtures and fittings to a new owner is definitely the best part of my job and my attention to detail or some would say ‘OCD’ serves me well when I am snagging,” adds Lara.
On leaving work at 5pm Lara heads home to prepare Annabelle’s tea and enjoys a precious hour and a half with Annabelle before her bedtime at 6.30pm.
Lara then catches up on her emails, which could be work related or personal, including entries for competitions before Gary shouts that ‘dinner is on the table’ at 8pm.
Following dinner and an hour catch up with Gary; Lara treats herself to a soak in the bath before tumbling into bed at around 9.30pm, ready to start her hectic schedule again the next day!
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Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.
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