When does your alarm go off.....

redredruby

redredruby

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 October 2011
Messages
327
Visit site
And when do you get out of bed??

What is your morning regime? Am trying to work out how I can save time in the morning so any tips are gratefully received!

Thank you!!
 
At the minute a blissful 7:00am go outside and check they are still there, alive and haven't gotten up to any mischief during the night. Quick cuddle and get on with my day.
In a couple months it will be 6:00am kick them out for the day and muck out then get on with my day.

I am lucky I just have the two and they are both two so no exercising and they are kept at home so no travelling.
 
My stomach is my alarm and it never fails! I always wake up between 5.30 and 6.00am no matter what which is a double edged sword on a weekend :-(
Out of the house by 7.30ish, down to yard, muck out and turn out, try to be done by 8.15am then drive to work to get there for 9.00am. Time saving ideas are to wear work clothes under my horsey gear, brush my teeth in the car, wear a baseball cap to keep my hair clean and free of hay/straw!
 
I don't have an alarm. I wake around 5am and usually snuggle in bed and check my emails, scroll through FB and then have a doze; then I get up when I want to; usually around 6am in summer and about 8am in winter.

To answer the second part of your question; all horses on my farm live out 24/7/365 and are fed adlib hay all year round. After I've had my coffee when I first get up, I go out and feed the ones who are being fed (only about 25 of them in the summer) and that can be that, or I can pootle around and do more. In winter it takes me much longer to feed as then there about 40 of them to be fed and we have shed loads of snow in the winter so takes longer to get around the whole farm to feed the ones who need feeding.
 
Last edited:
Alarm goes off at five at the latest, early if I have to get to London or Leicester (at least once a week). Ponies are a couple of miles away, this time of year it's a quick check over, feed, top up water. Winter it will be rug/turnout.

I'm at my desk by 7am if in the office or on the road north by 6am if travelling.

In winter I get everything sorted the night before, I avoid changing rugs unneccasarily but quite often they wear nothing inside and a rain sheet out if weather torrential.
 
Currently 5.45am, up and out the house by 6.15am. Bring in, Ride, poo pick feed and turn back out then leave yard for work by 8.15am. My time savers are always packing my work stuff the night before including my outfit which I get changed in to at work. Hard work at the moment especially as I'm not a morning person but I love having the evening free.
 
Alarm goes off a 5.20 but only because I have an awful habit of pressing snooze! Get up and get ready in horsey clothes but with work make up, pack work clothes to take with me, make packed lunch, make tea in a travel mug, eat porridge. Drive about 12minutes to the yard, tie pony up and give him breakfast.

Whilst he's eating I skip out and sweep this bed, he's on a semi deep litter shavings bed so I skip out all week (twice a day) and then take out some wet once a week leaving a wet base.

Once bed is done I empty a pre made haynet into his haybar (haynets are made in the evening), sweep outside his stable then turn him out.

Once pony is out I change into work clothes and go straight to work, drinking tea along the way!

Time saving things include making feeds and haynets the night before, deep littering and getting changed at the yard.
 
Last winter it was 5:30am if I needed to be in uni for a 9am lecture - down the yard for 5.45, muck out, put T/O rug on, do haynets and waters (she'd be put out by someone about 10am with the rest). Finished by 6:30, go home, have shower, walk dog, leave house at 7:30 to get to uni for 9 (and I only live 16 miles away!).

Luckily she's now going to be out all year so will be checked by the other owner in the morning if I don't make it up, though I've only got one 9am lecture and the earliest apart from that is noon :D.
 
It depends as start work at different time every day but say tomorrow, alarm goes off at 6.30am, however the alternative alarm that is the cat goes off much earlier!! Get up, straight out once dressed to see pony. Check him, electric fence and water and back home for breakfast and then out of house to walk to work. I get up 2hrs before I'm due at work as means I don't need to rush xx
 
My alarm goes off at 7 am but that's for the puppy. I'm on assisted grass livery so I get to the yard when I can to make up his feed for the next morning and poo pick his 'pony prison' as he's on very restricted grazing at the moment. Come winter he'll be out in the main field which should have enough grass to see him through the winter as 'standing hay' and I won't have to poo pick, luckily snow is apparently rare here and the yard is on good soil. I work in pubs so generally don't start before 10 am at the very earliest.
 
Hubby gets up at 5 every morning, I usually follow at about 6.30, breakfast ponios and whatever work that has to be done follows that.
 
Just changed to daylight saving over the weekend - Yay for summer, but it felt like the middle of the night when the alarm went off this morning.
 
tankgirl1 said:
Cor blimey, Mine is 8.30am at the earliest! It's meant to be a fun hobby remember? :p
Click to expand...

Blimey - by 8:30 Last winter I would have mucked out, turned out, walked the dogs and showered, breakfast and driven 45 mins and been at work for 45 mins. Would love to be a lady of leisure!
 
6:30 am.....wiggle everything loose and up out of bed by about 6:45ish depending on how stiff I am then feed myself. Dogs and try to be at yard by 7:30/8am earlier or earlier if mum and I can.
 
This morning I rolled out of bed at around 8:45, schlepped into the kitchen to make toast and tea, then sat down at the computer where I'm still sitting currently. Will probably make it to the horse around midday - that's the joys of full livery and working from home.

All set to change in November when hippo horse is moved to a DIY yard! Then I'll be setting an alarm clock like everyone else and I'm really looking forward to it :)
 
I don't use an alarm, haven't for years. I don't sleep too well so I'm awake before any alarm I would set anyway. I get up around 6.20 & set off for the yard about 5 miles away & get there for just after 7am. I turn out the horses & muck out & am back home for just after 8.00am for breakfast. :)
 
Summer is 6.30am, feed dogs, have a cuppa, drive to yard, water and poo pick and home by 7.45 for a shower and start work (work from home).
Winter is 5.55am so I can hear the weather forecast before getting up, feed dogs, yard by about 6.20, chuck out, muck out, hay and water, do evening feeds etc for two horses and leave by about 7am - work tends to be busier in the winter and I have to make time to walk dogs in the daylight
 
Due to the lovely mild weather, the horses are still out 24/7 so I am still in my summer routine. Alarm goes off at 7 and I get out of bed around 7.15 and go and let the outdoor dogs out. Then back in the house to get dressed etc. 8 am I go out and feed the horses down the fields and do one barrow of muck before my own breakfast around 8.45. In the winter I set my alarm for 6.45 and go out and hay the horses let the dogs out etc in my dressing gown. Then get dressed and have breakfast. Then go back out around 7.45 to bring the horses that have been turned out overnight into the stables and give them all their hard feed. Whilst they are eating I poo pick the turnout and put out fresh water and haylage, then turn out the day shift horses and muck out their stables.
 
At the moment- I have no alarm set as she is out on loan!

However, when she is back, I will be up at about 7am and seeing to her shortly after, as yard is on the way to work. Luckily we work on a slightly flexble system, as long as I am in work by 9am. Summer time she will hopefully live out and will check on her again late evening, but in winter it is likely I will grab her back in on the way home from work at about 5/6pm and check again before bed. At the weekends, it will be similar times, but probably with most my day spent down there too!
 
It doesn't! I tend to wake up on my own at about 8 at the latest, I generally just get up, dress and go to the yard to put the boys out. I run OH to the train station at 6.30 two days a week so on those days I just drop him off then go straight to the yard.

When I was working full time, the alarm went at 6 and I rolled out of bed immediately, dressed and went straight up to sort Jazz out. Back in the house by 7, shower and change, out to work at 8.
 
5:59:27 - dog alarm goes off and large goofy black lab jumps on the bed and barks in your face.
6:00 - alarm off
6:05 - take dogs out round the garden for business
6:10 feed dogs make coffee
6:30 out of the door, unless as is usual, children require pants/socks/shoes/whatever school uniform you've carefully laid out for them and they now can't find.
6:45 - definitely out of the door. Drive to the yard.
6:50 - remove large orange horse from stable, tie loosely, unrug (if necessary), show a brusg and provide feed mixed the night before. Feed all other horses on the block. Nip round and feed and fly spray field companion.

7:00 - wheel extra large wheelbarrow to orange horse's stable, muck out, tip water out, undo haynets
7:15 - collect orange horse and field companion walk around to paddock. Fill water buckets
7:30 - get way laid by yard friends and have a gas
7:40 - panic, sweep stable area, lid on large wheelbarrow and push into stable (this, in theory, stops everyone nicking my large wheelbarrow but in practice am not so sure)
7:50 - go home, quick change into vaguely respectable clothes
7:57 - herd cats, I mean children, out of the door and into car
8:00 - realise children have forgotten homework/pe kit/vital change of clothes/Beaver cap, etc.
8:01 - shout at children, reverse up lane and pray nothing is coming
8:05 - drive to school and then work

Top tips: Biggest wheelbarrow money can buy saves 3 trips to the muck heap when you have a messy gelding; feed outside whilst they eat; fill all haynets at the beginning of the week; put your work clothes out the night before; take turns watering the dogs and making the coffee in the morning; get a really good broom.
 
Missed the tips bit so, my tips are:
Make sure your clothes are organised the night before so you can just fall into them in the morning - if it is possible to have a shower after doing the horses, I just stick the day before's stuff on and then start clean when I get back.
Fill as many haynets as you can at the weekend.
We use woodpellet bedding which generally only needs topping up once a week so I do that on a Sunday. I use shavings banks in the boxes so if they are getting a bit thin before the weekend, I mix in a few shavings from the banks and can postpone topping up.
Don't change rugs unless you absolutely have to - my fieldmate likes to put a stable rug on her boy but she now only does it on Friday and Saturday nights when she is there to turn out the following day - it saves me time not having to change his rugs in the morning.
Get into a strict routine as much as possible because you then have time in hand for emergencies or out-of-the-ordinary events - eg, torn rugs, electric fence not working or, god forbid, illness or injury.
Think "time and motion" - we follow such strict patterns in the morning that we will end up making a groove in the yard. For example, new haynets collected on the way back from turning out, old haynets taken back to the barn as the last job before leaving.
I find that a strict routine not only leaves time for emergencies but also lets me do the odd "would like to", as well as "have to". For example, I might have a spare five minutes to fill some extra nets or reload my feed bins or pull my horse's mane. If things are going really well, I might even have time to lunge or ride!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top