A Day in the Life

I've really been enjoying the flowcharts I've been seeing pop up about people's days and routines, so I thought I would share mine. It's not terribly exciting, but I did actually find it interesting that, other than giving and taking about 3 hours in commute time, my days are very much the same. It helps that barn work has to be done daily, whether or not I have time to ride, so my day is started and basically ended with horse related activities. I don't really have a social life (and really didn't before we moved) so it's not life-ending that I have to go home and pick  stalls every day. I work from home on Fridays, and have flexibility during the week to work from home as needed, though I am very self conscious of my want to abuse this right and try to avoid working from home as much as possible, if that makes sense. I'd love a fully remote job, but in the mean time, I will be working with lights and trying that friend with the indoor to see if I can visit so I can keep my horses worked. I sleep in a bit on the weekends (sometimes unintentionally) but otherwise keep to an early schedule just to not mess with my body too much. Knox, the puppy, is growing up fast but I still prefer to not punish dog bladders by putting them to bed early and not getting them out to pee at a decent hour.

My chores are done at night, and include:

- Stalls, picking and re-bedding as needed. Owning two stall walkers means that this is not a light job.
- Refilling water buckets (currently done by hand, as heated buckets are plugged in and hose is frozen)
- Laying in feed
- Pulling down "inside" hay, filling hay hoops
- Once the horses are in, I refill the slow feed bale nets outside with the "busy quality" hay. We are expanding my tub and net system so soon I'll only have to do this every other day or so, yay!

I only feed once a day right now, which I may just continue to do. My horses don't get a ton of food, and have all night to finish their meals, and it allows me to actually leave on time in the morning. The only reason I think I'd go back to doing morning feed is if I can't get weight back on Arya without adding more food than she can eat in one sitting. Other than the mares conspiring to pee in weird spots in their stalls the moment I come in and flip on the lights, the stalls stay a bit cleaner and I can just throw on a coat and some boots and get back inside quickly.

I also need to get better about doing some productive work with the donkey every night. She's weirdly decided that I am going to murder her the last couple of days, so we need to rebuild the trust while I figure out why she randomly decided I'm an axe murderer.

So that's my day. It's not as wonderful and glamorous as perhaps I once daydreamed, but I do love having my horses at home.