A Day in the Life

Stephanie at Hand Gallop did an updated one of these recently and I decided I would too

6:00am - First alarm goes off, promptly snooze it multiple times

6:40am - Relocate cat so I can roll out of bed, rummage around in piles of clean laundry that never got put away, get dressed, make bagged lunch.

7:10am - Leave for work

7:18am - Arrive at work, wave to security guard, be thankful for short commute and job that I can always be a little late for.

7:20am - Check emails, calendar, figure out what needs to get done today.

7:45am - Morning meeting

8:15am - Work (this varies hugely day to day and is not horse related in the slightest so I will just gloss over this part)

9:30am - Coffee break, aka breakfast time. Most people in my office don't eat breakfast before work and instead make food in the lunch room. On any given day there are eggs poaching, bacon frying, bagels toasting, etc. I keep it simple and generally have a bowl of cereal with milk.

9:45am - Work

12:00pm - Lunch - generally leftovers plus a yogurt.

12:30pm - Work

4:00-5:45pm - Leave work (I technically finish at 3:45pm but I'm frequently a little late in the morning so I always stay at least a little late, if I'm caught up with something the security guard will call me at 5:45 to check if I'm still alive before the gate closes at 6pm. That's my reminder that I should probably leave.

 5:55pm - Arrive home ravenously hungry. Heat up leftovers and turn on the TV/Netflix for something to watch while I eat (I am a huge fan of making massive pots of food that then feed me and SO for 3-4 days, especially since our schedules mean that our meal times only occasionally match up)

6:15pm - Finish eating, but decide I want to finish/watch another episode.

7:00pm - Turn off TV, move cats off my lap, put dishes away, get changed to go out to barn.

7:15pm - Leave for barn.

7:30pm - Arrive at barn, wave at BO as he passes in his truck, otherwise have place to myself. Grab grooming bucket from tack room, put some treats in my pocket and head towards pasture.

7:45pm - Finish hiking out to herd, Kachina's not hard to catch, but I still generally have to walk most of the way out to whatever corner of the field they are in. Loop lead rope around neck and remove fly mask. Put halter on, give Kachina treat (to encourage her to remain easy to catch). Walk back to gate working on polite leading manners along the way. Put down fly mask near gate.

7:55pm - Tie Kachina at hitching post, give quick grooming, fly spray application, and tack up. Lead Kachina to outdoor arena.

8:15pm - Mount up and ride. Start with lateral work warmup and then progress to work of the day, usually consisting of 20m circles and simple patterns but with focus on bend or tempo or my position or transitions.... Finish with short cool down (I try and do many walk breaks within ride so she never gets too hot)

9:05pm - Dismount, lead Kachina around to scoop poop, walk back up to hitching post. Untack Kachina and put tack back in tack room. Measure out maintenance feed and magnesium supplement, bring feed to Kachina to eat while I groom her. Put gentle cream on Kachina's chapped pink lips while Kachina acts like I'm trying to poison her.

9:30pm - Bring Kachina back to pasture, put fly mask back on, smile as she nickers at me for her final treat, set her free. Stand there for a while admiring Kachina's effortless canter as she runs to meet up with the rest of the herd (and fervently wish I could get that canter under saddle), and then watch the herd dynamics for a while as the sun sets.

9:45pm - Put the rest of my stuff away, lock the barn.

9:55pm - Leave barn.

10:10pm - Arrive home. Collapse on couch with SO and discuss our days (his shifts vary but one of them has him get home around 9:30pm)

10:45pm - Feed cats and go to bed.


Sometimes depending on when I finish work and how hungry I am I will go straight from work to the barn and ride first before coming home for supper. I try and do this more in the spring and fall when the sun sets earlier (In the winter it's already dark when I leave work so it doesn't really matter). In the winter I don't have to walk out to the pasture but I spend more time at the barn in general because my cool out/dry time dramatically increases. I also don't ride every day, I average a barn trip every second day when I'm not out of town. Wednesdays are dragonboat practices from May-September (which goes from 5:30-9:30pm), and I do pilates 1x/week October-April. Also some evenings are spent hanging out with SO or cooking my big meals/doing other chores and errands.

What does your day look like? Do you keep a pretty consistent schedule or change it up depending on what else is going on or how hungry you are? #planninglifearoundfood