The Key to Balancing Life and Horses

It can be unreal how much time and effort horses take up… where does your personal life fit into this or vice versa? In this post, I’ll be talking about finding the key to balancing life and horses!

Personally, this year especially has been kicking my butt in the aspect of trying to get everything done – and it’s only February haha. Between starting college, owning a horse, and starting a business… I don’t have a lot of free time nowadays.

The funny thing? I moved my horse, Theo, with me to college (he’s 8 minutes from the campus) and I see him maybe twice a week aha yikes D- :

I, myself, struggle with constant stress, so not being about to juggle everything that I would like to is emotionally hard seeing that horses are a big deal in my life, and would like to keep it that way. Not to make this a sad post even in the slightest LOL but I just want you to understand that sometimes life just isn’t ideal.

Even if you’re only making it out to the barn once a week, every effort is good enough for this period in your life! Just… hopefully it doesn’t stay that way for long – am I right?!

So I get it. You want to spend more time with your horse(s) while keeping your grades up, getting at least a little sleep, AND avoid losing your job? Pretty steep demands, but let’s figure this out together!

Balancing Life and Horses

Without further delay… here’s the key to balancing LIFE and HORSES (even if horses are your life)! Let’s get into it!

The key to balancing life and horses? Set timers!

We’ve all been there: we tell our friends and family that we’ll only be at the barn for an hour or so, but that one hour turns into two, and then three, and on and on. But now that you’re in college and/or working… you can’t let time get away from you anymore.

Setting timers will keep you in check at the barn

Start by figuring out exactly how much time you have to spare while you’re at the barn, and then split that time up between grooming, tacking up, warm up, training, cool down, and untacking. Decide where your priorities lie then set those alarms accordingly.

This is also where self-discipline can be practiced, seeing how easy it is to say: “Just one more round.” But then that round is bad, so you have to make it up, and then it’s just a never-ending cycle.

Make time for your priorities

As my mother likes to say: “People make time for what’s important to them.” Which is so, so true. And it’s time to ask yourself… what is important to me? When you decipher that question, you’ll make time for those priorities.

Now, I’m assuming that barn time was pretty high on that list, so you’ve gotta squeeze it into your schedule. Perhaps if you woke up just on hour earlier, you could squeeze in a ride before class, or maybe if you did your homework instead of binging that TV show, you would have all Friday afternoon for the barn.

Realizing this, it’s also important to rest. Don’t cram your schedule so, incredibly tight, that everything – including barn time – feels like a chore. Maybe you need that extra hour of sleep, or maybe you need to think of something other than homework… don’t over do it.

Keep a planner!

You might be naturally organized, however, there are always going to be times when perhaps you forgot a class was canceled but now it’s too late to jump in the car.

While you’re filling out your planner, keep in mind that any barn time is still barn time. Even if you lunge your horse for 10 minutes, that’s still time with your horse, still time to check their feet and any signs of lameness, and still time to keep up their ground manners.

By keeping a planner, it’ll be easier to keep all of your ducks in a row!

At the end of the day…

even if you don’t have enough time right now doesn’t mean you won’t have time later. Don’t ever feel guilty because I promise that your horse is out living his/her best life running around in the pasture!

Tell me, how do YOU balance life with horses?

All the best,
Laura

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