horse/work balance?!

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SarahRicoh

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Hello again :)

Just as title says really! How do you all manage to balance your life?
Currently i work 4/5 days a week 9-5 at a kennels which means i get 3 days off(normally) to ride and some evenings(shared with seeing the bf).

However,having 2 i need to get a full time job to be able to afford the horses but then it leaves with me no time to enjoy them or to see the bf :/

plus i aim to get a puppy in the near future which would be fine atm because pup could come to work with me. But puppy=money which means change job which means no time :(

So where do you lot work,what animals do you have and how do you manage to balance your life??
 
Oh I am the worst person to ask. i am a trainee teacher. I get up at 5.30, at the yard by 6.00, muck out my one horse, soak hay, turn out etc change and at work by 7.15. Then work sort of finishes at 4.00 but we have meetings until 5 or 6 so today I got to the yard at 6.30, didn't ride, got back home at 8.00, then I had to plan all my lessons for tomorrow. Got done at midnight. This needs to improve. At least it is Friday tomorrow so I am riding in the evening after meetings even though I am literally crying with tiredness but I can't sleep so I'm on here. :(
 
unbalanced....have a little tipple before bed? totally knocks me out!

I work a 9-5.30 quite demanding office job in a city, horse is 20 miles away out in the countryside, home is 20miles in another direction so i do a daily triangle: home to work 6 miles (50 mins traffic:eek:) work to yard 20 miles (approx 45mins) yard to home 20 miles (30 mins on motorway), I manage by only going up in the evenings, t/o and jobs are done by the yard mon- friday....but i need to work to pay for this. Its a total catch 22, sometimes i feel like im not a 'proper' horse owner because hes on assisted diy /or part livery (depending on where you live), some days i cant get up due to work commitments etc...and riding, well that gets done in the rain and dark during this time of year- i live for my weekends!

I have come to the conclusion that i need to find myself a nice rich husband, so that i dont need to work full time, and can spend my days playing ponies and might actually start to ride properly one of these days!
 
I've only had my Mollie since June so I've yet to see how I fit my work around her care in the winter when she's in.

My work (support worker with learning disabled adults) involves round the clock shifts. Tomorrow I'll start at 10am and finish at 10.30 am the following day. Clearly this is going to be a problem in winter, I'll have to find help (daughter, partner, others at the yard) to see to Mollie on those days. We don't get breaks so I can't even slip out at lunchtime etc!

I'm only contracted to work part time, but I do many extra shifts. The irony is, I'll need to work extra to afford Mollie, which gives me less time with her :( My work's not very well paid.
 
my earliest shift starts at 0630 and my latest at 2130 so I keep my boy on full livery to make sure his routine isn't messed up.
if I'm an early shift I go up after work so I might get home at 2030 latest.
if I'm a late shift I go before work, which can mean being at the yard for 0700.
nightshift is an easy one :p I finish at 0700, sleep until about 1400 then go to the yard about 1600.
I'm quite lucky because the yard is 10 miles straight down the m77 from work.
still, i have to be organised otherwise I'd never get anything done
 
In the early days of having my horse, I owned a clothes shop and my boys were only 7 and 8 years old so they had to come with me to the yard (which they hated) or someone looked after them. Amongst that I was running my own business and days off were limited. I look back now and just don't know how I managed. It was a major juggling act which I hated. I took a major decision and gave up my business as something had to give, my children and my horse were not something I would give up, so my career did. The following years were very tough financially but I got through it. Now I work from home, my boys are now leaving school and I spend alot more time with my horse. Home/work balance is very hard thing to achieve!
 
SarahRicoh said:
Hello again :)


plus i aim to get a puppy in the near future which would be fine atm because pup could come to work with me. But puppy=money which means change job which means no time :(
Click to expand...

I have a full time job, one horse and one dog. I work 9 til 5 and work is 30 miles from home and my horse. I go to my horse after work 3 x week and both weekend days.
The only way I cope is to have the horse on full livery, and one of my friends have my dog monday-wednesday. It's not how i'd like it, ideally I would love to have my dog at home all the time but it's just not fair to leave her at home on her own from 7:00 until 19:00. At my friends she has another dog for company, then on thurs/fri my OH finishes earlier.

I love my dog and I wouldnt be without her but I wouldn't get another until I am not working so once she is gone I suspect it will be a good few years before I get another.

My advice to you is to really re-consider the puppy idea. As you have said they aren't cheap and they do take so much of your time which is ok if you can take it to work but not so good if you have to leave it at home. If you do still want one then wait until you have been in your FT job for a couple of months to see how it works out with your horse and BF first.
 
Oh the trainee teacher post got me thinking. In the 'old days' when I had just started teaching I had two horses fifteen mins drive from my house, and the horses were 20 mins in another direction. We ended up buying a cottage with some land but for a few years I did this...

5.30 - go for a run with the dog.
6.00 - Go muck out two, feed etc
6.30 - ride one quick round the bock hack or concentrated schooling.
7.00 - set off home
7.15 - shower etc leave home 7.45
8.oo ish - Get to work for eight ish and teach/work til five ish
Summer - walk dog again (used to take dog to work with me when cool enough and she'd sleep in the car when cool enough between lessons else sometimes had to come home mid day so no lunch then either).
5.30 pm back to field beds down evening stables and ride the other one - hack five mins in dark to indoor school in winter or hack/school in field in summer.
7.30 pm Get home for half seven eight
Prep lessons/work for next day till nine or ten then do it all again. This routine was so rigid to get everything in it is ingrained in my brain. I had a live in boyfriend then too but I can't remember what he looked like LOL!!

Hmmmm I'm 5'6 and was 8 stone then.....

Fifteen years later - I um.... married a 'rich enough for me to stay at home man'. Horse wise there's my competition horse and my son's pony. In fact I'll be dropping him off at nursery in an hour, going for coffee with my 'mummy friend' then going to ride my mare. Life is easier now but I'm still a rubbish rider!!

I am two stone heavier but a LOT less knackered!!!
 
It does seem a hard thing to get right.... Wat we do for our horses ay?

Dw roody2 i wouldnt get a puppy if i didnt have time cz not fair on it. Im lucky atm cz i could take it to work with me but my job is seasonal so come winter(hardest time with a horse) i have no hours hence i need a new job :(

people that have dogs do they get left at home whilst u tide or come with?
 
morning i work full time in a vets and do varied shifts , earliers and lates and a shift inbwtween, horses get done by myself in am and pm and get brought in for me at lunch as competiton horses so do not have all day out, sometimes dodnt get finsihed a yard til way after 9pm some nights and been up at 4.30am but we love them so there needs come first xx xx
 
I'm a nurse, and I work a variety of shifts covering 24/7/365, some of them 13 hours long. Lu lives out a present, which is really easy obviously. I do get a fair few days off, and some afternoons so I feel the balance at the moment is fine. When winter sets in she may need to come in at night over the worst of it and need rugging etc., but she lives at home with me so and I have a good support network at the yard so I don't forsee many problems.

P.S The boyfriend gets his attention once my horse is sorted, if he decides one day that he can't accept that, then he has the wrong girl :)
 
I work 08.15 till 17.15 with a 45 minute commute by train each end. Yard is ten minutes away. I have 3 horses and 2 dogs.

My day: get up at 6 and walk dogs, catch train to work at 7.30, arrive back at train station at 6pm and hubby brings me the car so I can drive straight to yard. Over the summer, I've ridden either one most evenings (the third is retired) but have no lights so riding over the winter will mostly be weekends. I usually get home between 8 and 8.30. Hubby walks the dogs in the evening. I usually cook dinner. Bed at ten.

I'm lucky that I'm ona fab yard. Turnout is included in DIY rate (they don't want people up there at stupid o clock in the morning so they do morning stuff) and at least one of my horses, ideally all 3 but will play it by ear this winter, will live out 24/7.

I'm expecting the winter to be tough this year.

I would also advise that you reconsider the puppy idea if you're already questioning your work/horses balance. I do love our dogs but life would be a lot easier if we hadn't had them in the first place.
 
I work 9-5.30 mon to fri, approx 20 miles from home and the ned, takes about 40 mins travelling. I go up on a morning to change rugs and give him his morning feed due to silly opening times on the yard (luckily I pass by on my way to work).
Other than that he is on full livery and stabled 24/7 at the mo as he's on box rest so almost like winter! This was the same as last winter.
I get to the yard after work at around 6.15 and at hand graze (at the moment) for an hour or so, normally I'd ride tue-fri in the week and get in from the yard at 8.30, where I make dinner and collapse in a heap... I use the weekends to do chores/visiting etc and ride in the afternoon usually.

I'd love a dog but there's no way I can squeeze one in, I'm also lucky in that OH likes horses so I can combine seeing the 2 together sometimes, otherwise there's be no way I can fit a life in too :D I rarely go out weeknights and only about once a month on a weekend if I'm lucky - just don't seem to have the time or inclincation :p
 
we have three horses and a mad dog! i currently work two part time jobs so can be quite flexible regarding the horses :)

one job is about 20mins-half an hour in one direction from home, my other job is 20mins in the other direction from home and the horses are a further 15mins from there or half an hour directly from home or 45mins from the 1st job!

My lovely YO does our two horses mon-fri mornings (feed, TO, rug change) then i go up either between jobs and do both of them: poo pick, muck out when necessary, water, hay, feed, ride mine, lunge mums put them back out or in stable and YO will feed/hay when hers get done too or go up with mum and sister after work/school around 5ish and do all the jobs, ride, put all horses to bed wether its out in field in summer or stables in winter. this routine is the same summer and winter, we have floodlights in the school which is allweather so only cannot ride in the depths of winter when we have too much snow to get to the school, which funnily enough the snow barely lays on despite everywhere else having over a ft of the stuff!!but it does mean hacking has to be saved for the weekend :( unless i go out on my lonesome between jobs when there is no ice on the ground.

horse No. 3 is a four month old colt foal still living with his herd on the downs he'll come in for handling at wening then go back out with his breeder untill next spring! :D

HOWEVER!

In three weeks me and pip are leaving home as i have got a job as working/traveling Groom/Rider on a big Show/Stud yard so pip will be the grand total of 20metres from my Mobile Home :) i start work at 9 so will muck her out and turn her out before going over to main yard for 9 start work, when its quiet she can be ridden inbetween the work horses i finish at 5 so can finish her off and ride if i havent already school is flood lit and theres tonnes of hacking for the summer months:) NO RUSHING AROUND!! :D

its so hard trying to fit it all in but i suppose we all put up with it because we love the sweaty, run down, tired, hair-full-of-hay look!

sorry for the long post can you tell its been a quiet day at the office!?
 
Like everyone else...be as organised as possible and cram as much in as you can!! I have a full time job an hours commute away and some evening work too. I have one horse who is pretty low maintenance and I get up at 5am every day of the year to get everything done. It is a way of life now and I am always busy and juggling things...but I would hate to be bored with no horsey in my life!
 
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