How do you combat the clocks change & cope in the dark????

Chloe_GHE

Chloe_GHE

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I am dreading this wkend for the poxy clocks change and I am plunged into darkness with the horses for 5 days a week, I have been grumbling all week and none of my colleagues can sympathise coz they go home to nice warm houses whilst I go off to the top of a dark wet hill to try and ride and muck out in the dark.

I am lucky to have a floodlit menage and fairly good lighting on the yard, but nothing seems to make it much more fun so....do you have coping mechanisms to get stuff done in the dark?...or any top tips to gain an extra fraction of daylight...or are you just in the same situation working full time and have to do everything at the end of the day and can sympathise with me, a group whinge is always a winner I find
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I did contemplate asking if I could finish work at 2, but I can guess the answer!
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I am lucky usually finish work by 3 although a 45 minute drive home doesn't help
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. Usually enough time for a quick ride round the block (what I would give for a menage leave alone a flood lit one
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What I hate most is the cold dark mornings there is nothing worse than trying to do them at 5 in the morning in the dark and cold! Usually once I get Xmas over I think the evenings pull out fairly quickly so I get a bit happier then.
 
oh i'm so jealous of your indoor school I think that would make winter so much easier, we have a heated coffee room and rug room, and the school is sheltered, but the idea of a nice cosy indoor is very appealing....maybe I can just get a big tarp and with a bit of old baler twine string it up between the trees, voila! instant indoor!
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do you think eves pull out as soon as after xmas?... I will hold onto your philosophy for that then because 2 months of doom and gloom don't seem so bad. I guess I could buy a miners light for my hat!
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Ha ha Chloe, I can just imagine your indoor, not sure if I'd fancy riding in it in windy weather tho
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I make sure I do everything in the morning, including riding, as I don't start work til 9.30. I finish at 6 and then I just have to go and drag horses in from the field and put them to bed, so it's not too bad really. Except when it's peeing down like it was this morning and I got a thorough soaking out riding. I hate winter.
 
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do you think eves pull out as soon as after xmas?... I will hold onto your philosophy for that then because 2 months of doom and gloom don't seem so bad. I guess I could buy a miners light for my hat!

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They start pulling out on the 21st Dec and I do think you start to noyice a difference in the evening fairly quickly.
 
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do you think eves pull out as soon as after xmas?... I will hold onto your philosophy for that then because 2 months of doom and gloom don't seem so bad. I guess I could buy a miners light for my hat!

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They start pulling out on the 21st Dec and I do think you start to noyice a difference in the evening fairly quickly.

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that stat has cheered me right up, winter blues almost banished
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No top tips I am afraid. I don't even have the luxury of a school. Work full time. I think maybe at least it will be starting to get light when i turn them out with the clock change (that doesn't last for long). It is this time of year that I have to kick myself up the butt and get into a routine of going to hire an indoor school or go to evening shows to get a mid week ride in. Roll on the spring!! brrrrrr
 
My head torch! Couldn't be without it in the winter.
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(my yard mates mocked me at first, but I'm often being asked if they can borrow it!
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) Floodlit outdoor means I can keep my horse fit and I work 10am-6pm to a) avoid the worst of the rush hour traffic and b) make the early o'clock starts not quite so early!

I miss summer already though.
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Ha, can I finish at 2. This is what I am trying to propose to my boss, and I need to somehow make it look like it will be a good idea!

I do finish at three on a friday and then if i could somehow wangle another day or so at three I would be quite happy. Otherwise, yep trekking off to try and find my mare in a big dark field (I will probably bring someone elses horse in, lol) and then riding in the lit menage, Well there are worse ways to spend your evening. Just have to get through it really and wait until the summer.x
 
Well, my problem is similar to yours because I've got school, but am lucky to have a helpful Mummy
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After la weekend I will be riding one in the morning and the other in the evening. I'm lucky ot have a 20x30 school with one light, which is just enough to be able to cope. My Mum does help me out, which is brilliant, but I get very tired in winter. I often fall asleep in school...
 
I usually just get head down and stuck in!!!
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Unfortunatly when ours neds are in,they're in for about 3-4 months depending on weather and how wet the field is. My last job was ok, finished early enough to shovel in the day light, but i stupidly changed it for a 9-5.30pm, yeah duhhhhhh i know, didnt think of winter at the time,
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spoken to the boss hopefully start at 10am few days a week, allow me to ride and shovel in daylight and make up the hours the followin day, could be a suggestion?
 
I just used to get on with it, never really mumbled and groaned as what would be the point in having a horse?
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In my gap year, I was working two jobs over the winter. I was down the yard at 7 to muck out aswell as putting two other horses out and usually feeding the whole yard. Then I'd work on the full livery from 8 until usually 11 then a quick turn around to be in my other job at 12 which then either finished at 5 or 6. Get back down the yard, ride and finish up for the night. Would get home around 8ish! Luckily had an indoor school if it was raining and a very well lit outdoor. I always left about 3 haynets ready and filled so I could just grab them when needed. Theres nothing worse trying to open a new hayledge bale in the semi dark with a blunt knife!
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And I would quite happily do it again this winter if it meant I could actually have a horse
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My head torch! Couldn't be without it in the winter.
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(my yard mates mocked me at first, but I'm often being asked if they can borrow it!
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) Floodlit outdoor means I can keep my horse fit and I work 10am-6pm to a) avoid the worst of the rush hour traffic and b) make the early o'clock starts not quite so early!

I miss summer already though.
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Haha, I have a head torch too, much to everyones amusement! I have also bough several of those cheap stick-on battery powered LED lights that you just click on and off, to use in extra dark areas such as insufficiently lit tack-room, hay-barn etc.
 
yeah I'm with you on the annoying hours 8.30 - 5pm, but last year in feb he did let me take a few days holl broken down as hours and leave early a few days a week, and I might try and wangle a start an extra 1/2 hour early take a 1.5 hour lunch break which would just give me time to squeeze in a lunch time lesson if my mother boxes him to my instructors whioch is conveniently just 1min drive from work, does mean my colleagues will have to suffer me messy haired and possibly smelling slightly of horses for the rest of the day!...
 
I have a head torch..

I have 11 haynets too, and fill them on sunday afternoons. I also have 10 buckets, just cheap ones that fit inside each other. I make 10 feeds at a time incl. supplements, then stack them into 2 piles - 2 horses and thats my feeds made for the week.

i fill my water barrel so i dont have to keep running to the tap every night, and I chop as many carrots as possible and keep them in an empty supplement box.

This saves me time to ride in the week. If i ride in the morning, i just have to muck out, then can get on. They are both fully clipped, so minimum effort after riding. Just chuck rugs on and put them out.

They come in at about 2pm ish, and just have a little hay on the floor to keep them busy till 5pm, then at night i just take the poo out, may ride one, then hang a new haynet and put feeds in.

If they have stayed in all day due to bad weather I ride one and lead the other down the farm drive in the dark (its 2 miles down and back) to stretch legs.

Jan & Feb, i drop off riding so much in the week as I have a bit of a rest - horses too. just hack at the weekends.
 
I actually don't mind the clock changes (apart from less sleep) - I get up at 6am. Get to yard by 6.30 - mucked out and tacked up by about 7.15am and then off for a 45mins hack or into the school.
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(we have a shower room at the yard to get ready for work)

The horses go out all day while i'm at work, and I turn flood lights on at 5.30pm to get them in. Luckily the boys are well behaved, and do really well in this routine.
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I do have a suggestion, but you have probably discounted the idea.
I get up early and ride before work.
Before I moved yards my mare was on DIY, so I mucked out and rode (and yes, I start work at the normal time of 9am or earlier). I found that it worked a treat, as all I had to do in the evening was get her in and feed then home to a nice warm bath!!
Now she is on 5 day full livery (phew), so all I have to do is ride and turn out with some breakfast and a haynet.
Whatever your routine is in winter, its never going to be easy to start with until you have established a routine that works for you and your horse.
Roll on spring!!!
 
OMG!!!!!! I didn't realise the clocks changed THIS weekend, and i have 2 dressage tests this Sunday. Whooooops, would have been a bit early.

Regarding riding, we don't have any lights on arena, and just have a couple of small battery operated ones round the stables, so it is a bit of a struggle. Used to hack on the roads with streetlights in the dark with lots of lights on at old place, but our spot is onto unlit country roads. I try and get up early so i can be tacked up and off riding as it gets light enough. Also booked in for a weekly evening flatwork clinic for a month with my youngster in an indoor arena, running 7 - 8pm, so that should be a help.
 
I didnt realise the clocks changed this weekend either!! I quite like it when the clocks change! Admittedly I am on the yard all day, but in the summer I feel I need to carry on working when it is light even if I have finished everything, and I find it depressing to get up mega early and for it to be light already!!
I quite like getting up in the dark, and the dark ending the day!
When I was at school, I did the yard in the morning and only rode in the evenings, outdoor arena with very dodgy lighting!!
The making the feeds and haynets up for the week is a very good idea, I do all my morning stuff the night before and that makes a difference to me!!
 
I am officially lucky after moving my horse to full livery 2 years ago! I still manage to get home after 8.30pm most nights though .... not sure what the hell I am doing as all I have to do is ride!!!!! In the days of dreaded winter DIY I used to muck out, turn out, do feeds for day and haynets ready for the night before work and then turn in and ride in the evening. It all fell apart though as had to work late too often hence the full livery! I dont miss getting up at the crack of dawn thats for sure!
 
Been in my "winter routine" for a week or so now, lucky enought to be on flexible hours at work and find riding in the morning suits me better, the light gets better for you rather than worse (outdoor but no lights) been getting up in the dark for good couple of weeks,
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have them mucked out and first one tacked up by 7, by mid dec i'm normally waiting for the sun to get its lazy ase up
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Now the weather has turned they are in most days so just evening stables to do and back home by 7ish.

Dont like tho but soon be spring.
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Find the weather more frustrating, like the areana surface being frozen, or the lane blocked with snow when you've a pre-entered show with no chance of a refund.
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I spent the whole of last winter renting a field with no lighting, one tap and no hard standing either! Looking forward to this winter as i am now in a nice livery yard with indoor school, lights galore and concrete everywhere - no mud to tack up in!
All i can say is thank god for head torches. My trick was getting all chores done by head torch and like mentioned above, be tacked up and ready to jump on once light enough to head out.
I still do very unsociable hours so head torches are a must!
 
Fortunately we have someone come and muck out and exercise 1 each weekday morning, otherwise I really wouldn't cope at all. It's just like having part livery, up until Dec I normally manage to dash in from school and get 1/2 ridden and them re - mucked out etc. before it gets too dark, then I have a half day form 6th form once a week so I'm planning to get a few ridden then.

Exercise wise winter is the horses semi - holiday time so I don't worry too much if they have the odd quiet week.
 
I just get on with it, i get home from school at 5, changed and on yard for 5:15. Horses are usually already in as they don't do being out in the dark. Ride 1 or 2 as have a floodlit outdoor although when raining i hate it! Then put them to bed, i have a load of hay in a stable ready to chuck in, water is topped up, skip out, feed, rug, done. I am usually in the house between 7 and 7:30.

Although this winter my 2 main horses are on livery with my trainer which means i only see them 1 day int he week then at shows and i have the luxury of an indoor to ride in when i go there
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i start work at 7am so i can be at the yard at 4.15pm.

no school so twice a week box up and take them to an indoor school 10 minutes away in trailer.

friday i finish at 2pm so can ride and lead around the fields/ roads.

compete or long hacks on the weekend.

2 x horses are kept in big yards instead of stables so deep litter, hay of floor. they live in turnout rugs and hoods.

1 x horse lives out 24/7 and just has feed thrown at him and legs checked etc.

tis very hard and tiring but what else would i do in the evenings???
 
Yuk I hate the dark. No school hhere, or even a flat field. My fab bosses have agreed to me taking 2 hour lunches so I can ride mid day. Ride at weekends, lesson &/or CR jumping midweek. Buy/invent any item of clothing/equipment you possibly can to make it more comfortable.

Oh & pray we get a summer next year!
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