Due to me working odd shifts in work, I only muck out the horses on my days off of Monday & Tuesday and when I don't start work until 10:45. I work odd times on the weekends and then on the other days opposite to the 'late' shift is the 'early' shift to where I start work at 8 and don't finish until 4:30. With the horses not going out until 8:30 and coming in 4/4:30ish by the time I get there after work they'd be in. Now these 2 horses seem to be the worst 2 to muck out when they're in there, always knocking the wheelbarrow over, standing in the way and making more mess. I'm lucky enough to be fussy not to have to work with this when my mum can muck them out on the days I can't, it's always handy because if either of us need a day off from doing them there's always the other person there. 

This is a quick image of what I wear when I do my yard work. The bottom half of the outfit rarely changes apart from the odd change of footwear.
The trousers I wear are Regatta waterproofs. They are similar to these Regatta Stormbreaker ones I found on ebay for only £8.69 with free P&P. For this price I'm definitely adding these to my ebay watch list for when I need another pair. Although these are lightweight and thin they are durable and last a while. The current pair I'm wearing have lasted me for 2 years. So for the price you pay they do last a long while. These trousers are great because I wrap up warm for work in the winter so those clothes keep me warm while mucking out and then throughout the summer they are light enough to not make me hot. 

On my feet I'm currently wearing my Harry Hall Yale Country Boots, these are some of the most comfortable boots I've ever worn. They are not longer for sale but I recommend if you can get your hands on a pair they're great. 

On my top half I wear a hat on my head no matter how I've done my hair ready for work. Any wooly hat does the job of keeping my ears warm and keeping the smell of dirty horse bed out of my hair, which helps keep me presentable for work. 
I then have a variation of jackets & coats to which I wear on top of my uniform. Due to how warm I can get at times when mucking out I only wear my thermals and work t-shirt under my coat. The current jacket that I'm wearing for this weather is my Dublin Trinity Blouson Jacket, then in the winter I wear my Equine Answers Regatta coat. Throughout the summer I typically just wear a hoodie to cover my uniform or depending on how hot it is I'll wear a different t-shirt and then will get changed when I get into work. 

On my hands I then wear kids gardening gloves as these keep the smells off my hands. The gloves I use are these kids gardening gloves from Wilko. They are also great as the haylage we can can sometimes get thistles in it, they are quite awful when they stick into your hands when you grab into the bale. They are great throughout the winter as they keep your hands dry and keep the chill off of your hands. 




The other alternative to wearing all of these before work is a pair of overalls. I have a pair of these from back when I was in college but I don't really wear them for yard work as they're a bit big for me, and I found throughout the winter I was needing to wear waterproof trousers and a coat to stay dry. 

Gardening gloves or Yard Gloves?

Out of all the gloves I've tried for my yard duties, gardening gloves have definitely been the best I've tried so far. Okay so I haven't tried any that are £10+ in the equestrian range but when I found some for £1.25 from Wilko that do the job for me I couldn't justify trying any more out really. The ones I've found are these kids ones. That's another struggle I had when trying to find a great pair of yard gloves was that my fingers are so small I have to wear kids gloves. This includes riding & everyday gloves too and to be honest these gloves are still a little too long in the fingers for me. I find that I get the end stuck in the little clip to keep the hosepipe head turned on when filling up water buckets. These gloves have a tough bottom half of polyester, this means they are waterproof as long as I don't end up fighting with the hosepipe and it gets the orange bit wet, this has actually happened a few times. 

These are great for when you get the off thistle in the haylage, as there's nothing worse than having a thistle thorn spiked into your finger or under the nail when you reach in for haylage. 

These types of gloves are more frequently found as work gloves in adult sized gloves. You can also get some which are hi-viz which would be great for riding out hacking if you were to use them as riding gloves as well. These would also double up as that due to the grip they provide.