Working full time and fitting in winter riding!

fairylesley said:
I teach textiles and it's open evening tonight too! :0) Not getting home normally until 5/6 every night at the moment.
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Snap but food tech and travel an hour each way! Just done 2 1/2 of GCSE controlled assessment cooking and then clearing up..... Plus my room looked like a whirlwind had hit! 2 hours of tidying and sorting out washing!
 
Just get on with it! I get up at 5.30 have an hour commute to London, go to the gym before work, leave London at 5.45pm, get home about 7, at yard at 7.15,ride, get home about 8.30, dinner about 9 and then it all starts again the next day. Getting home at 5 or 6 would be amazing! That's not a long day!!!
 
Work finishes at 5/6, then mummy work begins with my 2 year old! Lol :0) managing to see my boy at 7.30 but dark then. Will see about flood lights but maybe I should try the night riding??!
 
I actually rode more when I worked full-time hours than I managed this summer, and this winter will be tricky!! I purposefully keep my horse out 24/7, and my YO does morning feed/haylage/rugs so I only need to go up once a day to ride and feed. He got ridden 6/7 days a week last winter, despite being in NE Scotland where the snow didn't leave the hills where we hack between October and February... I lost one week where I couldn't physically get to my horse, tried and got stuck in a drift for 3 hours, but other than that we rode in the fields when icy, the floodlit menage (which would only flood at one end so we could always lunge!) when dark, and hacked out when the snow was too deep to do anything else.

This year, running my own business, I really struggle for time. I really rely on my YO, who will work around whether I can do mornings of evenings that day, or when I need to stay away overnight with work. So I think 4-5 times a week will be doing well this winter...
 
I manage by getting up early and getting home late as well as being organised about what else i am doing. I leave for work at 9 and get home at 6, i have normally ridden 1 or 2 before work and then another 1 or two after work (3 of my own and one i lunge for someone else). I ride in the dark, we do have floodlights on the arena so any hacking/jumping is done before work or at weekends and schooling is after work. The College near me runs jumping and dressage on alternate wednesdays so i will try and get over there some weeks to use the indoor/decent floodlights/big arenas.
 
Once you get into the routine of long days it's not so bad, have a lie in on a weekend morning and pay someont to chuck your horse out that once. I'm the 0530 start to get neddy and dog sorted, work all day, yard then home around 2000/2030. It is manageable with a fair bit of willpower :)
 
I'm another one who says just get on with it!!!

I have never and would never be on a yard that doesn't have an all-weather, floodlit school so riding in the winter is never a problem for me (as I'm not fair weather)

In the winter I limit my riding to 4-5 x a week so twice (sometimes 3 x) during the week and twice at weekends, 3 x schooling 1 x hack. If it's the week before a comp then it's normally 4 x schooling and 1 x hack or an extra day off before. I think competing throughout the winter definitely motivates you. I don't suppose i'd be as motivated in the winter if not. BUT, I would still ride 4 x a week so long as we wearn't knee deep in snow!
 
It totally depends on your circumstances. There's no point saying to the OP who has a 2 year old daughter to get on with it and have a long day. Many people have additional commitments (children / partners) and cannot be out of the house from 5.30am until 8.30pm. If I did that I would be divorced! I have to be home by 7.30pm and I choose full livery x 2 as that's the only way I can ride both ponies during the week but equally when I was a child we kept them at home with no school and we just went for long hacks at the weekend and they were fine. If you have transport then a lot of riding clubs have weekday evening sessions in local indoor schools.
 
Thanks HBrae! It's not a matter of getting on with it I work really hard. I was just wondering if people rode at night in the winter or just waited until the weekend. Like you said its dependant on circumstances. :0)
 
my friend has a 2& 4 year old, but luckily a supportive husband. but although at the moment she can ride early before work (we usually hack out at 6.30am) while he is with the kids, then zoom home to get them ready and go to work, because we have no arena or flood lights we simply can't ride in the winter, and she does also rely on childcare. we are hoping for a lunge arena with a little light to be done soon so we can at least lunge a few times in the week.
the main issue i find (i don't have kids yet) is actually having some chill out time with my bf, my friend finds it the same with her hubby and kids, gets home and barely has any time before bed. so this winter she has decided she wont manage to ride in the week, instead, she will turnout and muck out am and i will bring hers in pm so she has some time after work with her kids. i do find i go a little crazy having a whole 5 weeks days of just mucking out not riding in the winter, but with lack of light i have no choice. mine still normally behave if not ridden for 5 days
 
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