How do you make the most out of your time at the barn?

I hear there are people out there who take long, leisurely walks, linger over good books in their neighborhood coffee shop and even complain of occasional boredom. I am not those people.

For me, life is a rapid-fire succession of things that have to be crossed off an ever-growing to-do list. With family, work, cattle and horses all making demands on my time, you can bet that I don’t get many extended periods of time to lollygag around.

But that’s OK. While I don’t exactly get a lot of leisure time, I find a million small moments during the day — mini vacations if you will — that remind me to be appreciative of the blessings around me. It’s not exactly stopping to smell the roses … it’s more like horse sweat and alfalfa hay.

I’ve also learned to milk the most good out of my allotted hours. Like so many busy people, my lunch hour is often spent running errands or catching up on work that’s piling up. But on those rare lucky days when work is caught up and errands are either done or can wait, you’ll often find me at the barn.

It’s a move I’ve copped from a friend of mine who is fortunate enough to board her horse not far from her workplace. And it does have its own set of skills. After all, we’ve all been told not to put time constraints on our training — it takes as long as it takes, and that might or might not be within the limits of a 45-minute block of time. So it’s important to bite off only small chunks. This isn’t where I’d introduce something new or tackle something a horse is having problems with.

Groundwork on the young horses is always a good option — it’s low-stress on them, requires no saddling time and has big payoffs. Stall cleaning, too, is one of those things — like dirty dishes or laundry — that always need to be done. Last winter, a source — a Quarter Horse breeder from Wyoming – called me on my cell phone during my lunch break, and I confessed that she had caught me with a manure fork instead of a computer mouse in hand. She laughed and commiserated about the dwindling hours of daylight. You’ve got to scoop it while you can see it!

So … to all the other busy horse people out there … what are some of your time-saving tips? Leave your comments below and help the rest of us get more good out of our barn time!

Happy riding!
Holly Clanahan
Editor, America’s Horse magazine
For members of the American Quarter Horse Association