A "short" trip to the barn: how do you do it?

[MissusS]

Yesterday I successfully managed a “short” trip to the barn. (Cue the applause and fireworks!)

On my way home I was congratulating myself on my efficiency and how responsible I was being at getting home in time to still make supper and tidy the house.

If I am popping out in the morning before work for a rehab hand-walk session I can be in and out in 60 minutes but any time I have to tack up and ride it seems to take an exponentially longer amount of time. Yesterday I was in and out in approximately 80 minutes, including a 25 minute ride and 5 minutes of rehab stretches. No one was around to keep me chatting/distracted and I came in with a “must be efficient” mindset.

For reference, when I take my sweet time on the weekends the same amount of work in the arena can lead to a 2.5-3 hour barn visit. If I’m helping with chores like stacking wood for the winter I can easily be out there for 4 hours. Barn time is a lovely portal into self-care for me and I can frequently lose track of time.

What do you consider a “short” trip to the barn and what helps keep you “on time” when you don’t have the luxury of a free day?

[JB]

Losing track of time is VERY easy to do when you’re doing something you love. For me, there are times of the day on a regular basis where I need to not lose track, so I have several Events scheduled in the calendar on my phone so I get a ping reminder. It reminds me it’s 4:00, or 5:00, or 6:00.

When I was riding before work, but also working very flexible hours which meant I could get TO work by 10am if I wanted (and had to stay longer on the other end of course) I set an alarm on my barn watch (because I rarely had my phone with me during those years) and put it on as soon as I got down there. This let me know it was 8:30, for example and I needed to start wrapping things up.

You just have to set reminders of some sort that you’ll hear or see.

[fledermaus]

I keep my horse at home. There is no such thing as a short barn visit. Riding is sort of like if before you cooked and ate lunch you had to clean the kitchen from top to bottom and repair the stove. Every day. I figure a short visit is two hours NOT including the actual ride.

[Bogie]

Is there such a thing as a short visit? I live 7 minutes from my co-op barn. If I only go to feed and pick the paddocks, it’s about 45 minutes. If I want to ride, too? Close to 2 hours. I’m never sure where all the time has gone.

[JB]

Spending more time than necessary is a choice Not always a bad one, don’t get me wrong, there are absolutely days where I find stuff to do in the barn simply because it’s therapeutic.

It’s also a choice to decide that you get the most important and urgent stuff done, and no more. That may be your ride, but you have a plan and you work that plan. If you DON’T have time to ride for 45 minutes like you usually do, then you don’t, you ride for 20 or 30 minutes and you’re done but then you don’t start doing other things that fill in the rest of the 45 minutes.

This goes for everything we have to do and want to do. Realizing you have X time to do Y things means you figure out what’s priority and what isn’t - what REALLY isn’t.

[GraceLikeRain]

Phone timer is the only way I manage it. Without an agenda 3-4 hours is easy and I can do a half day without much effort if I get on a cleaning or special project kick.

In the summer I do 75 minutes start to finish. The only way I do this is with alarms set at 15 minute intervals and willingness to smile nod and not engage with anyone else crazy enough to be there

6-6:15 knock off critical dirt, pick feet, tack
6:15-7:00 45 minute ride with abbreviated warm up and cool down because she’s been out 24/7
7:00-7:15 untack and hose
7:15-7:30 lotions and potions application, one wet rag to wipe bit, bridle, saddle, and boots, tack put away, fly equipment back on

There were many times when this bit me in the rear because of a partially sprung shoe, sticky moment under saddle I needed to work through, etc but I got in a lot of ride time this summer. It’s not my preferred method but it is pretty rewarding to knock everything out before work.

90 minutes is pretty comfortable without being too rushed if I’m alone. The minute someone else appears it feels like I lose an additional 15 minutes to chit chat, not trying to look maniac sprinting back and forth putting things away, and waiting for something like a wash rack or tack room to be freed up.

[Foxglove]

@fledermaus, I keep my 4 horses at home. If I am pressed for time, I prioritize --generally I MUST ride Will and shoot some arrows --if not Will, then my back up horse, W. But ride I must, and shoot I must --if really pressed for time, I don’t shoot --just ride (w/t/c --working on transitions and lead changes) . To maximize my available time, I:

1. set out all food and hay the night before --sometimes that means putting hay/grain buckets in the horse trailer beside the gate where the pasture fed horses eat --saves four trips to the barn and back.

2. put feed into stalls of Will and W (who pasture together) --then all I have to do is open the gate, and they are in and fed.

3. Whatever tack I am using is hung on the horse’s stall saddle rack (drop down 4x4s). If it is W, his boots are set out along the aisle by appropriate leg.

4. Brushes are on bench.

I can have W or Will fed and saddled in 10-15 min. Then I ride as long as possible.

Back in the barn, I drop the tack on the closest rack and put horses out.

When time permits, later, I put everything away.

Tomorrow I am taking two horses to the hunt club (guest hunt) —the trailer is packed, their saddles are in place by their stalls ( I haul saddled), they have been clipped and brushed --and a prayer said they don’t roll. This afternoon I will set out food by the pasture fed horses along with their hay.

W and Will’s food will be in their stalls --they will be in the pony pen after evening feed —don’t want to hunt for them on the 20 acre pasture tomorrow AM.

[Training_Cupid]

90 minutes if I ride. This includes bringing my horse in from pasture, grooming and tacking up, ride, feed grain, and turn back out. If I have less then 90 minutes then I usually just do an extra long groom session, or lunge or in hand work, or maybe just hop on bareback for a walk around the property. But sometimes I drive the half hour out to the barn just to give my horse a carrot and feed his grain.

[sophie]

For me it really depends on 1) the people that are at the barn, and 2) how dirty my horse is.
If there is no one to talk to, and if my horse is easy to get clean before tacking up, I can keep it under 90 minutes, easily.

Otherwise, all bets are off.
Just this week, I went to the barn to clean stall and to ride, but I wasn’t able to because of people, horse being covered in muck, and stall being so messy it took me 2x as long to clean. So, no riding that day

[KBC]

Simple answer I don’t….

I happily enter the black hole that is barn time, only to find that 2 hours BT is like 4 hours real time, no idea how it happens, but it does.

[luvmyhackney]

I keep my horses at home so it’s a giant time suck at times. I have to set alarms and I use Ride IQ lessons to help track how long while not constantly checking my phone.

I can tack up in 15- 20 minutes, ride, then 15-20 minutes of cool down and grooming. I generally ride 20-30 minutes as I don’t have two hours to spend and still get daily chores done.

[OverandOnward]

If I could keep it to 2 hours, that would be a miracle, I would be so happy.

I am working on this, though. Have to get in control of barn time, a lifelong struggle. Honestly I will ride more often if I know I can successfully time manage the visit.

Phone clock alarms do help.

What I lose track of is all of the chatting with sundry different conversations (easily adds 30 minutes or more), plus a few extra chores. I need to manage these things differently.

I’m actually both thorough and efficient in grooming and tacking up. It doesn’t take that long to do it well. Putting horse away, I can get a bit hung up on details, but I’m working on that.

Because of the space layout, where I groom is not at the main traffic area. Does that help cut down on chat time? No, it doesn’t. I end up staying in the main traffic area to chat while not grooming at the same time. My horse, down the aisle in the crossties, has a particular dirty look that means “STFU and let’s get on with this !!!”

Where does the time go? It seems to be something like this: Chat with barn worker(s) about current horse behaviors, which involves looking at and petting horses that aren’t mine and are not my business. Admire new kittens. Chat with BO/M about feed, blanketing, farrier schedule, whatever is on her mind, while not grooming. Say high to Mr. BO/M and chat a few minutes out of politeness because he likes people and is very involved with daily barn management (he’s the organizing force that maintains operability, actually). Refill fly spray bottle because it’s low and horse wants fly spray for this ride. Write note to self that horse cookie container is getting low and needs a refill, put note in car as otherwise I’ll lose it. Think to self that it will be good for tail maintenance to spend just a few minutes spraying detangler into tail and combing out a bit. Think to self ‘mane is insufferably long & it will take just minutes to trim & shape’, then trim & shape mane. Horse poops in aisle, clean up horse poop because compulsive about that. Barn friend arrives, spend a few minutes talking about her new horse search and horses she has tried last. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Aside from that, 15 minutes to groom thoroughly & tack up, maybe 1 hr 15 min (sometimes less) longeing & riding, 20 minutes to put horse away.

I’m working on it. Sort of.

[TheJenners]

Mine are at home. If I’m just doing the basics, I can do morning stuff in 10 minutes and evening stuff in 20, including picking feet. Grooming etc? Yeah… no. Riding? Half a day, even at home, I swear When the weather was nice and I was going to a friend’s barn to ride with her, we could get them brushed, tacked, ridden, and then hosed and put away in about 2.5 hours, and that was hustling because we are both very experienced horse people who don’t waste a lot of motion in the basics.

ETA: that’s with just the ones I have now, I’m down two + donks - before with a full+ barn, it was more like 15 in the morning and then 25-30 in the evening, and that was flying like my ass was on fire and my hair was catching.

[sophie]

@OverandOnward

I’m actually both thorough and efficient in grooming and tacking up. It doesn’t take that long to do it well.

HA! That is what I thought, too, when I had my own BAY horse. My lease horse is a paint x and mostly white, and I swear she spends a lot of time laying down in the muck like a cow would. Which means, lots of crud in the girth area / between the front legs, and lots of pee/poop stains all over. Since she is not mine, I feel the need of having her reasonably clean all over when I ride her. And that takes time. sigh

[Tha_Ridge]

My drive to the barn is around 3 hours round-trip so there’s no truly short trip, but tack-up service is a game changer if I need to be in and out. I can do three hours in about 90 minutes if needed.

[SharonA1]

I find that when I do rush the barn time, it makes me so grouchy and resentful of everything else, it is actually better to just accept that I can’t be at the barn the way I would like. But when I am there, especially on weekends, I flatly ignore texts/phone calls/questions about when I will be home. I am at the barn. I’ll be home when I’m home. (Children or other dependents at home does change things, of course; I couldn’t take this attitude when my kids were young.)

I have non-horsey friends/DH who will sometimes say passive-aggressive things like, “You’re going to the barn again?” on weekends, but I just smile and say, “Yeah, I can’t wait.”

[Highflyer1]

I also do the phone timer on days I ride before work. The horse is gray and generally filthy but oh well. I generally time it for when he comes in to eat, and I can pick feet, brush where the tack goes, and be on in 15, 10 minutes of warmup, 20 minutes of flatwork, 10 minute hack to cool down, 15 minutes to pull tack off and hose/sponge or brush sweatmarks depending on the weather. Don’t make eye contact or stop to chat.

[MissusS]

So many great responses! I love hearing about everyone’s tactics and approach.

For those of you who can can get everything done in a relatively short amount of time: I salute you! For me it is easier to manage a short trip in the summer - don’t have blankets to deal with etc but on the flip side I am less motivated to hang out and linger in the winter when it’s cold which drives more efficiency lol - it’s a conundrum!

Weekend/day off barn time is perfect for me to take all the time in the world… When I pop out before or after work I need to be on top of my plan and not deviate - and be grateful that I can sneak in that bit of time at all!

[endlessclimb]

Winter is a conundrum.

Blankets make grooming faster, but fluffy hair (if not clipped) make a longer cooldown.

[sheltona01]

When I rode, I could be out in under an hour if I really tried hard. The biggest thing is don’t sweat the small stuff. You don’t need to fully groom every day. I could groom in under 5 mins including picking feet. Also just keep moving, you don’t have to stop when talking. Also just having less stuff to deal with in the lockers. Everything has a place so you don’t have to think where to place something or look for it.