Unrealistic daily routine?

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XxCoriexX

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Ok so a friend of mine has said my daily routine is unrealistic and I am going to burn myself out! Can anyone let me know if their routine is similar to mine?

5:45am up shower feed cat make lunch etc
6:45am leave house go to yard, feed, turnout, muck out and sweep yard
8:00am leave yard go to work, get changed and make up on in the bathroom!
6pm (supposed to be 5 but needs must) finish work back to yard, ride, skip out, set stable for night and feed
7:30/8pm leave yard and either go home or to the gym, if I go to the gym then im home by about 9:30/10pm
11pm. bed time!!!


Weekends are a little bit quieter, usually Friday nights are spent out or with my sister, Saturday days are cleaning days or outings, and sundays are my days to visit my granddad!
is this unrealistic? I thought this was an ok daily routine?
 
No...it's similar to mine...

5.30 get up
6.30 gym
8.30 commute for an hr on the train
5.15 leave work
5.30 hr commute home
6.30 30 min drive to yard
7pm get to yard
8.30ish leave yard
9pm home
10pm dinner

That's most days in the summer. Winter I don't ride in the evenings, so "just" go straight home. Normally home about 7ish
 
if you have the motivation/energy then it will work but make sure you make time for yourself, its a similar timeline to mine but i'll be honest in the winter there are days I'm just too tired to ride but this has been my routine for near 7yrs now...

I am at yard for 6am, start work 7.30 finish 3.30, try to either ride, lunge, groom, fill nets/make up feeds. I did go to the gym last year but I just haven't had the notion for it this year at all.

I don't know your personal circumstances but I have a home to keep and an OH so there's all that to make time for too :)
 
ditto, very similar timetable with 3 horses to look after , apart from yard owner no one else on the yard knows there are 2x 5 o' clocks in a day. Could do without the work bit in the middle, but then there would be no money for the horses.( wish i had a pound for everyone who says horse owners are mad)
 
I think a lot of horsey folk will say that's their normal routine and mines not hugely dissimilar but not quite as bad. Up at 7 on train at 8 at desk for 9 leave work at half 5 at stables for anything Between half 6 and 7 home for 9.
I also have a husband and house duties to balance. Yours would just be too much for me though and to sustain I'm not sure how folk do it.

I would sack the gym off so you can then make your lunch and shower at night to save time in morning and still be in bed by no later than 10 half 10.
 
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Same as mine.

Up at 4.45am

Shower etc. .leave house at 5.30, arrive at yard for 5.45 am

Feed, muck out . .turn out.

Get changed in stable, deodorant sprayed all over, leave yard at 6.55 to ensure at office before 7.30am.

It does not matter if I'm Working From Home or not . . I still get up at that time, as the horse is in a routine.

And yes . . after years of doing this, in shattered , feel burnt out and hence do not have the energy to ride in the evenings.

OH see's to dogs in the morning, inlaws look after dogs during day . .and dogs still need to be walked in the evening.

Weekends are spent still getting up early, ride early, in order to get back to walk dogs with OH so they don't own the horse takes up all the to time.

I find I feel worse mentally, when OH moans about 'the hobby' which is another DIY mortgage! . . .

Have thought about livery, but im a control freak, and . . . The cost is so expensive, means I could not afford to spend on the nice things . . :)
 
Thanks for the replies everyone!

I do have my own home so that also takes up time for maintenance etc but no OH so really only have to make time for myself haha!
Maybe people not on DIY forget how many extra chores it includes!?
She also has horses but has an OH who makes dinner and deals with the house and both horses are on full livery, so she doesn't need to visit every day.

Was starting to think she was putting me down a little bit...but glad to know there are other people in the same boat as me!

I would love to sack off the gym but am trying to shift weight at the moment and I actually find that I enjoy it and it helps me to de-stress at the end of the day!

I also have three cats at home who demand their quality time and cuddles! I definitely wont get away without doing that at night ;)
 
I work shifts, but when I'm on 7am-5pm days I get up at 4.30am, yard by 5am, do 3 horses then set off for work at 6.20am. Back to the yard for 6pm, 3 horses again, ride if I have time/the arena isn't a swamp (not often it's not tbh). Then gym when I have the energy, get home about 9pm, quick tea and bed. Other shifts are a similar routine but just moved round the day depending on shift start and finish times. I get told by people i'll burn out, and a lot can't believe my routine but *shrugs* no one said horses were easy :p
 
6.45 start

feed parts and diy 10 horses
remaked feeds
change any rugs
7.10 turnout horses
muck out feed hay water each of the 9 stables as i go
feed cp cats
turn pony and donkey out
muck them out
finish about 10 am


erunds chores shopping


3.30pm

bring horses in
feed cats
then dee poo
4 start brushing off and picking feet
hay in 5pm
then finish
 
Similar to mine.

6am Up and dressed
6:15 Out the door to the yard
I do all my jobs at the yard in the morning so it's quicker for me at night.
8am Leave for work
8:30am Get to work, change, put make up on etc.
9am Start work
5pm: Finish work
5:30pm Get to yard, muck out, nets in, water, refill the two day nets he's had in, feed, done.
I'm home by around 6:15pm. I'm lucky in that my yard is about 4/5 minutes away from my house. My mum does him for me on a monday and thursday so I go straight to work from home. I shower at night, otherwise I'd never have time in a morning!

^^^ that's not my every day yard routine, just an example of when I want to get done and home. I usually spend all day there on a Saturday.

I've done this since October and it suits me fine. I was doing shift work before and I did have more spare time but due to the shifts I was always knackered. This is so much better for me.
 
I did this for a while with added dog walking! After a few years I got sick and investigated livery as by the time I factored time/travel/fuel into the equation it wasn't much more a week to have a lie in and days off from the yard!

Just remember to have some chill time now and then!
 
It sounds like a pretty standard DIY routine. I am lucky that I now have my horse on livery. Is there any way you could do a few bits in the evening to speed up the morning? I was really organised the night before so in the morning I could be out the house in 12 minutes! But even with a shower you should be able to do it in 30
 
There are times in my life when that routine has burned me out, others when it was absolutely fine, provided I was strict about getting to bed on time. If you feel ok, then don't change it. If you start to get run down, try to think of a few shortcuts.
 
I'm very, very thankful to have 24:7 winter turnout which means I don't have to religously muck out 2 horses every morning. BUT the field is a bit of a trek from the yard, one can't see in the dark so I have to wait for daylight and they won't lead nicely back to the field together after breakfast which I've worked out is an extra 15 mins of ploughing through mud!

I'm lucky in that I have flexible working hours now so I can do all my jobs / ride etc in the morning and work late to make up the hours. When I was working in London and commuting it was awful.
 
For me, that wouldn't be sustainable in the long run, though I'd be fine for a week or two. To start with, not enough sleep! Even if you really do manage to be asleep by 11pm, that's less than 7 hours of sleep each night, and I couldn't stay sane and healthy on that in the long term. Personally, I need to unwind/digest between dinner and sleep, or I won't fall asleep, so getting home at 10 and eating late wouldn't allow me to be in bed by 11. I also know that if I don't take the time to prepare (i.e. cook) proper meals and decent lunches, it's no good long-term (junk food and ready meals calling...).

You also have no "give" for unforeseen circumstances. Even though I have a much more relaxed schedule (only once a day to the yard), I still struggle when stuff happens. E.g. I've had the car in for repairs 5 times in the past two months, meaning I can't get to the yard at all and need someone to pick up the slack for me. Another time, the cats needed their annual vet appointment, meaning I miss the yard trip, else I wouldn't be able to work a full day. On average, I have at least 3-4 days a month when I don't make it to the yard for one reason or another (December had a bunch of work-related lunches and dinners...). I have an arrangement with fellow liveries to help each other out on those days, so it's fine, but I think you need some slack and/or flexibility in your schedule to really make it work.
If you have the option of buying in services as/when needed, it might work ok. Would be interesting to see how much extra that would cost a month, and whether it's still worth it compared to pert livery (as above).
 
It's not hugely different to mine to be honest.

06.00 get up
06.10 out to horses - feed, turnout, fill Jazz's night haynet ansd muck him out
07.00 back in house - breakfast, quick shower, get dressed
07.40 leave house for train station
07.50 train to work
09.00 - 17.30 work
18.30 home - cook dinner, empty dishwasher/washing machine/put washing on etc etc
10.30 go to bed!

There are also days like today, when the weather is so horrible that the horses are kept in which means I need to muck out and hay both of them in the morning, but that only adds about 15 minutes.

At the moment I don't ride during the week as it's dark and we don't have an arena, but in the summer I would also have riding probably from 7-8 a couple of nights a week. I am lucky now in that (a) the horses are at home and (b) I don't have to bring the horses in and do evening feeds, my sister comes up and does that before I'm home from work (her horse lives with us too), but before I moved back home I did have to go up to the yard after work every day to do evening stables.

It's quite tiring, by about Thursday I'm usually starting to feel like a wrung out cloth, but I've been doing a similar routine for years and have survived so far!
 
Try meal prepping your lunches on a Sunday perhaps? I can meal prep lunches for Mon-Thursday in under 30 minutes which saves me time in the week but most importantly means I'm getting good nutrition and keeping my energy levels up. There are loads of youtube videos on meal prepping and if your hitting the gym as well then even more reason to :)

I have mine at home but even being turned out 24/7 with access to the yard where I feed hay, apart from picking up the poo off the yard it doesnt get swept everyday, lol!

You'll soon know if the routine will burn you out ... when you burn out! So worry about and adjust it then!
 
Your routine is similar to the one I had when I still had horses - without the gym bit though. I couldn't have managed that as well. Although to be honest I never felt the need, the horses and chores kept me very fit.
 
OP, v similar to mine, I'm almost 55 and still doing it for 2-3 every work day, tho I now don't ride in the worst of the winter on work days.
Dog comes with me (work and yard) so dog walknig too as well as lunch breaks

My home / yard commute is 3.5 miles each way. Work is nearly 6 miles in the other direction from home, sigh, right in the home counties heavy commute traffic. School hols takes 10 mins, this morning took 40 mins :(

To get rid of gym, try mucking out using heavy duty rubber gloves if your back is ok - gets the abs really working if you 'poo-pick' stable 1st in this manner :)
 
I should have said this is not a new routine for me!
I have been following this routine for about 3 years now. I think the main reason that she commented was that I am very quick to say no to a night out drinking as I am either tired or have to get up early for the horses in the morning!
Maybe our priorities are just different!
the majority of my lunches are made at the weekends, but I like to eat my biggest meal at lunch and then have a sandwhich etc. for dinner at night as it saves me some time and also keeps me fuller through the day when I am at my most busy!
 
I used to do DIY , but found (for similar reasons that SupSup has said), that all is well when things run OK,..it's the unforseen circumstances that throw everything to cock if/when they happen..and let's face it,..they do!

I'm happier now on a part livery basis and i found that the time/fuel spent running to and fro from the yard in the morning was costing just as much as me paying for the service, so personally for me, it was to good changeover to Part Livery, as it now gives me more flexibility in my life and also some ME time, which in my humble opinion is pretty important to me,as everyone needs that downtime...it's good for your health :)

Each to their own i guess.... whatever works for you and your circumstances..
 
If you have the energy for it and don't feel weary then go for it. Sounds likes your weekends are calmer and give you a chance to re-energise.

I had a similar routine BUT I was also competing and photographing at weekends and can only assume I burned myself out. I now have ME. and can barely ride a couple times a week now. In the late Autumn, I was feeling tired but assumed it was because of the amounts I was doing. I pushed through it ignoring it and by January I was on the sofa unable to move for weeks.
 
It's not unrealistic, but you won't have time for anything else.

It's the same that mine has been for the last 5 years, then I moved out in September and have struggled ever since, I've now moved to where I only have to go once a day (After work) They are fed and watered in the morning and are also on shavings and mats so much easier for me to muck out than straw and I am LOVING it! Not rushing in a morning has made such a difference to me and my days are much more productive.
 
Part livery isn't realistically an option for me at this yard. stables etc have to be finished by 10:30am so I have to be there to do her in the morning and I ride at night. some days on the weekends a friend of mine will turn her out so I can have a long lie.
That's true I really don't have much time for anything else......but there is always a sacrifice to get what you want right?
 
I only work part time so do get a few more hours in my day. I also work with horses so no need for the clean up and changing in between.
I do strongly think you need a bit of time to chill tbh. I certainly couldn't get in at that time of night dinner, bed and be happy. It would stress me out massively!
 
It doesn't sound like a routine I would like to do, it would drive me mad tbh not being able to have a bit of flexibility, but then as much as I love my horse she isn't my whole life. My routine just now is up at 6.30, kids up breakfast ect. Leave house at 7.45
Arrive at yard 8 am - muck out and put haynets out to soak
Leave yard 8.20
Do school run at work for 8.45.
Leave work 5pm.

2/3 evening a week I will go back to the yard and ride/lunge and be home for about half 6/7.

At weekends or when OH is at home I am on the yard for 7am and home for 7.30 & im back to do her in the evening I make all my feeds at the weekends and haynets for the week as well. My YO turns out and brings in and feeds as yard gets fed at the same time. Couldn't cope being on DIY with no assistance options anymore.
 
ATM I've no time for riding (luckily pony is quite happy just being a horse stuffing his face!)

5.00 up and out of the door
5.15 arrive at yard, feed, muck out, hat, water, change rug, turnout
6.30 get home, shower, walk dog, breakfast (order depends on how hungry/stinky!)
8.00 leave for work (only work 5mins down the road but usually have stuff to do before I start)
9.00 start work
5.30 leave work for yard
6.10 get to yard (note time difference in rush hour!), bring in, change rug/pick feet out/feed
7.30 get home and start writing assignments, usually forget tea, bed at about 10ish!
 
it takes me a while in the morning because I need to feed all the horses on the yard, some with varying feed requirements then my mare eats likes to eat slowly and I like to leave them in peace to eat. Also I turn out at least one of her friends so she isn't in the field on her own
 
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