I'd like to get a conversation going here about how we all balance our daily lives, families and work with our horses and riding.

I'm always in awe of people who seem to be able to effortlessly hold down a full time job, raise and family and keep a home and have time to ride regularly and even compete with their horses. I don't know how they do it.

I guess I'm lucky that my horses are retired now because living as far from the barn as I do, I can only get out to see them on weekends and Eric and I go out together and spend time with them. I tend not to go out on weeknights because I have a long commute home from the office and then as long a drive again out to the barn.

If they were both of an age where I could be riding, training and competing them, everything else (like husband, house cleaning, cooking etc.) would take second place.  I can see where my first marriage had problems!

How do you balance your home, family and work life with your horse life? Do you have some tips to offer others or is there an area you struggle with?

I look forward to reading your responses.

I have a really difficult time with this, even though my horses are at my backdoor, (literally).  Usually the house work suffers for my attention to the horses. 

I have frequently been heard to say that work really interferes with my horsie endeavors, as I miss most of my friends weekend events, or even mid week events. 

I truly am lucky to have them at home.  I don't know that I would have the energy to see them if I had to board out.  Actually I do know.  Even when I was younger, with bounds of energy, I did not see my horse except once or twice a week. 

So I guess I would have to say that I still have not learned to balance them.  I will always want the horsesto be my first priority, but in order to keep them, my job takes top priority.  My home??  hmmmm  it needs a bit of work...  I usually pass on that.  I have always had a neater, tidier barn than my home.  I prefer spending time there. :)

 There are times when I dream wistfully of having my horses at home, but I know that for me, boarding is the better option. I just wish I boarded them closer to my home.  They're 45 minutes away now, but I love the barn and my BO and wouldn't want to lose that just to have them closer.

Housework?  What is housework?

 My wonderful husband told me shortly after we married, "I want you always to have horses in your life if you want them. I can see that they are good for your soul and I want you to always be happy." 

Having a partner who really "gets it" really does help, doesn't it?

Most of the time I don't have it balanced out at all. I get up before the roosters and get home at 6 pm so that doesn't leave me much spare time. The past 2 months we gutted and remodeled my house so that took 110% of my time. I feed the horses in the morning before work, give them a good look at, pet and smooches. DH takes care of them at night. He's great about seeing if anything seems out of whack with them and will call me if he thinks something is going on with them. Although I'd prob do more with them if I didn't have to cook dinner, wash clothes, work and do what ever else needs to be taken care of. DH is a great help and he doesn't mind seeing to the horses and whatever needs to be done in the barn. This spring he put down stone in the paddock area to keep the mud out, he mows the pastures and has put a new roof on the barn. So although I don't spend nearly as much time with my horses as I'd like, I'd be lost with out them. Even a brief moment spent with them is worth its weight in gold to me.

spragueme:

. Even a brief moment spent with them is worth its weight in gold to me.

I hear you!  All we do now is go over on the weekends and groom and give treats but just to spend that time with them is priceless.

I should also mention that you shouldn't stress yourself out about not getting things in balance. The more you stress, the more you get things unbalanced. You tend to rush yourself and not enjoy the time with your horses and that's the reason you choose to be with them in the first place.

Next weekend I might actually get to do things with Glis both Sat at a clinic (only if someone cancels from it being sold out) and Sunday at a Hunter Pace. So in order to do those, I need to make myself find the time to ride her to get her ready for those. Having small goals will make you get out there and get it done.

 my horse is just up the street at a self board stable, and our business is run out of our property, so, i drive by him several times a day.  i stop and have quick visits with him and do the stall cleaning and feed etc. either a bit each time or all towards the end of the day, depending on my schedule.

i spend 2 or 3 hours at the stable at least 3x a week.  then i groom the horse, maybe rinse him down if it's hot.  just spend some time with him.

my horse has been unrideable this year due to lameness, so, i'm not juggling fitting rides in, but, normally i get 2 or 3 rides a week in and i was hoping this year to get 4 or 5 rides in not zero!

i have someone come in a clean my house 1x a week and if i don't feel like cooking, well, i just don't.  i'm a good cook, but, i told my dh 16 years ago, that i cook when i feel like it.  it's not my job.  so, i cook 4 or 5 days a week more or less.

the people i know who have little kids all seem to have nannies, so, they get their adult/horsey time uninterrupted (these are average folks, not rich ones).  

i don't know how we fit it in, but, when i was a kid, my mom took us to the barn after school almost everyday and then all day saturday and sunday.  we still seemed to have time to visit friends and do whatever.  

i don't have kids and i am not overworked, but, i feel like i have so much less time than my mom seemed to have.

 It sounds like you have a good balance and a good attiitude. It's a pity you've had the lameness problems though.

I got home this evening around 7 and the air was filled with the aroma of cooking.  My wonderful husband was cooking chicken almondine -- it was delicious.  I told him I could get used to coming home to a hot cooked meal every night

I have just now been able to get back on the forum - I get locked out a lot and it won't let me log back in

"In the old days" when I was married, then divorced and a single mom, working as much OT as I could get my hands on, it was a lucky thing that I was born over-active.  My feet hit the floor running at 5:30 AM and I went non-stop, 7/days, until 10 or 11 PM, with Sundays being "quiet horse time" - loll ol

 I was also fortunate to be born Drill-Sergeant Organized, so knew how squeeze three steps out of every one I took.  There was never room for error as my son got older because he dirt biked, was in one or two athletic events at school, and once in awhile I could cajole him into riding a horse with me.  Of course there was HIS homework he and I both had to struggle thru every night --- that was really exciting --- not

For most of my life, my horses were on my property but, the  5 or 6 years I had to board, I was lucky they were never more than five miles away and always sort of on the way home from work, if all I could do was stop and smooch someone.

I have strictly trail horses --- once a trail horse is broke they stay broke; very little "reconditioning" is required, so that helped a lot:)

 Now that I'm retired and wore out, I don't get an inth done of what I used to and rarely ride - lol lol  Thankfully my horses have always been more than just about riding and thankfully they are on my property which, makes a lot of difference when one feels like just giving someone a smooch on the snoot and letting them blow in your ear 

 Easy!  I don't breed and the SO requires little time because, oh wait, he works in WI right now.  Oh wait, there's that stupid job thing that eats me alive during field season.  But for me, the horses are my #1 priority and I take advantage of every second.  Everything else comes after.  Balanced?  Hardly, I'm working 50 hours a week right now AND trying to sell my house AND trying to compete AND about six other things.  So I pretty much just stay permanently tired.  What is balanced and why would I want that again?

How long does field season last?  Jobs do get in the way of life sometimes, don't they?

Although I bet if you didn't need to work, you'd still manage to keep yourself busy 8 days a week!

I guess things work out for me now because both horses are pretty much retired.  If I feel the urge, I can take Annapolis round the farm, but I don't have to spend hours training or anything.  I wonder how things will change if I get a younger horse in a couple of years.

 Our field season runs from about March to October.  During that time, we may be gone 2-4 days per week but plans change constantly based on weather and hydrographs.  When we are out, we are working so physically hard that your body has nothing left at night.  I guess it's a foolproof weight loss system for those interested in that sort of thing?