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Enough Time And Motivation

Dressage
#1

I have my wonderful 19 year old mare that I truly want to get going again and I have a wonderful 5.5 month old dog that is showing signs of competitive ability.

I am basically an empty nester with a steady job that lets me leave it all behind the office door at 4:00.

How do I work it so that both my passions get my best effort? I am not motivated enough to get up at 5:00 and ride or train with the pup. And I like to be in bed and asleep by 9:30. I am 58 years old and have a limited amount of physical energy in any given day.

Share how others have done this.
Sheilah

#2

We need details - is the horse at home, or boarded? Commute time from work? Where do you train your puppy, and for how long? How often do you want to ride?

1 Like
#3

I’m the last person to be giving advice about motivation, but I attended a talk by an author/self-proclaimed “study skills specialist” who had some helpful advice that I think is applicable in this situation.

One exercise he recommended was accurately timing how long it takes you to do things. His claim was the #1 reason people procrastinate is because they over-estimate how long it will take them to complete a task (as a self-proclaimed professional procrastinator myself, I think that’s partly true).

Questions you may want to ask yourself: How long does it truly take you to complete a productive schooling session with your horse? Likewise for your dog? How much time is “wasted” (if any) in a typical session doing other things that aren’t specifically necessary for training horse/dog— cleaning tack, yacking with friends, doing other related horse or dog chores that could be done another time. How much time do you spend in the transitions getting ready to go ride or work with your dog?

I think if you have a clear picture of exactly how much time you need to effectively work with them, it’s easier to make a realistic plan.

8 Likes
#4

Thank you so much! This makes perfect sense.
Sheilah

1 Like
#5

Maybe this is nerdy, but I write up a daily plan for each week. I keep a template in Google Drive and just make a copy and fill it out each week. Right now I do ride in the mornings, and it’s often hard to get up, but I make sure to schedule at least one day a week that I can sleep in and catch up. It’s easier to get up on time on Tuesday or Wednesday knowing I’ve scheduled an easier day on Thursday, for example. This schedule also includes a menu for the week and any major appointments or work things, so I can plan around them and not get caught off guard by something that is going to throw my riding schedule.

The past few weeks I’ve also been putting out a set of riding clothes for each day I plan to ride during the week. It saves a couple minutes in the morning, but also looking at those little bundles reminds me of future rides, which is exciting and motivating. I think I’d be sad if I got to the end of the week and had clothing bundles left representing missed rides.

4 Likes
#6

I’m retired, so my animals don’t have to come after work. i have 5 dogs. 3 of them i train for FEMA/USAR and are certified and deployable. For my discipline, i actually don’t spend much time training on a rubble pile…maybe two days a month is all… as they are maintenance only at this point. I do take them with me on farm work, and they are subject to my instructions. Inside the house, they get a little bit here and there of instruction/commands. And my horses…i have 19 of them. The main thing i do is interact with each one of them individually every day. It may be just picking out hooves, detangling a snarl in a mane…or asking for them to back up with a hand signal or some little thing. Then i try to train with three per day. My domestics i’ll ride a bit. Lately, (like for the past year) the mustangs have been the big time users. And the luxury of dealing with a completely wild critter is there is a lot of just sitting. I NEVER just sit…but when trying to gentle them, i force myself to…Doesn’t always work, but i try.

3 Likes
#7

Best effort comes when you are well rested, clear minded, and have a good plan to follow, AND you have time to refresh your mind.

I can sympathize with your constraints. I agonized about finding time to ride when I started working after grad school and what helped me was using my google calendar to chart out everything. Time management is key. Every ride goes into the calendar, along with every other activity. I minimize the riff-raff during the week: not a lot of chatting, quick grooming, and rides are 35-40 minutes. Years of multi-tasking and working three jobs have helped me gauge exactly how much time I need to accomplish something. The horses get 5 rides per week, and I try to make sure the overlaps happen on the weekends, and days where I can start later at work.

I have a “goal mirror” where I have 1 month, 2 month, 3 month, 6 month, 1 year, and 3 year goals. They are written on post-it notes so I can move things up and down on the timeline. The goals help keep me going when I get a bit tired or stressed, or start doubting. Once I accomplish a goal, I move it to the “accomplished” part of the mirror, so I can see how far I’ve come - that is also motivating for me.

I also build in some mental health days where I don’t do much of anything, and I try to have one weekday where I’m not coming directly from the barn to work. Maybe a weekend trip, or just some hacking around, cleaning tack, enjoying the company of my wonderful horses - so I can get a refresh and not burn myself out.

4 Likes
#8

i find that dogs take VERY LITTLE extra time! Just living with a puppy does just about everything within your homelife, training-wise, that a young dog needs. The better a trainer you are, the easier and more successful it is, but then that’s how it is with horses too.

#9

I second the puppy thing (and pretty much everything else in the thread for that matter) - puppies have the attention span of a goldfish. When my pup was younger, most training was “passive” and happened via enforcing simple boundaries during my day-to-day tasks (e.g. not allowing him on the counter, asking him to lay on his bed while I’m cooking instead of begging, etc.) and 5 minute sessions or however long it took me to work through a fistful of treats, 2-3 times per day. He’s about 18 months now and training still doesn’t last more than a few minutes. Of course, that doesn’t count all the time I invested learning the best ways to train my dog (Recallers with Susan Garrett if you’re interested - I very highly recommend), but that still only took about 20-30 minutes a few times a week. Even if you’re planning on doing something like agility, which requires a LOT of training, short and fun sessions are going to be more productive than drilling the same thing over and over for an hour anyways.

Horses on the other hand… well let’s just say I’m not nearly as efficient ha!

In college when I had busy weeks, I would block out classes on my schedule, and then make a separate list of everything that needed to get done that week. Then next to each item, I’d write down how long it would take me to complete each task and then do some “tetris” to fit it all into the gaps so I wasn’t wasting a 30 minute break between classes staring at my phone or spending 15 minutes thinking about what I could complete in the now 15 minutes remaining. Then it was just a matter of looking at my planner and crossing things off as I completed them. In my current life, that looks a bit like scheduling work items around meetings, and planning my after-work activities (like what I’m going to focus on training the dog, or exercises for my horse, etc) in 5 minute breaks during my day.

Set aside an hour sometime this week and just start putting things down on paper to see what you can really fit into your schedule! Get up 5 minutes earlier to train the dog in the morning, then again at lunch (or right after work if you don’t come home for lunch) and then 5 minutes before pup goes to bed. If your mare is out of shape, you won’t need to commit lots of time riding right away anyhow - so say 15 minutes to change and get in the car, 30 min total commuting there and back, 45 minutes to groom/tack/untack and 30 minutes of riding - that’s two hours. Say you get home at 4:30, pup is trained by 4:35, and you’re at the barn and back by 6:45 - you’ve still got 3 hours to yourself!

2 Likes
#10

Everyone else here as had some great suggestions.

Don’t think that your horse needs to be ridden 6 days/week for an hour. My 2nd level dressage horse is ridden 4-5 days a week, and some of those rides are closer to 30 minutes than an hour. Focused and efficient rides that have a (flexible) plan when you go into it are really so much more beneficial for mental training than long ones. Chatting at the barn usually takes a lot more time than the actual riding, only way to fix that is to chat less (which is hard). Does your horse truly need a deep grooming session every ride? (No). Naked legs versus boots versus polo wraps all make a difference.

Pups don’t need long sessions, so this is even easier. 15 minutes here and there are so doable.

Make meals on the days you give your horse off. Leftovers are my favorite thing ever. I only cook a couple nights each week.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday: Maybe off, maybe lunge, maybe light hack. Nights where you plan to do a little more with your pup and cook/house stuff.

Tuesday/Thursday: Focused training rides clocking in less than an hour. Eat leftovers and do 5 minutes with your pup before he gets dinner.

Saturday/Sunday: Lesson/longer training ride and a fitness day. Spend the extra time doing the deep grooming and tack cleaning (and chatting) that you may have skimped on during the week. Meal prep if that’s something you think you can fit in.

Good luck! I found I had a lot more balance in my life once I decided my horse didn’t need to go 6 days/week and I didn’t need to run 5 days/week. Now I exercise 3-4 days and ride 4-5 and still have time to relax and take it easy.

1 Like
#11

As an aging rider, I’d also add in that taking care of yourself will help your energy level and that will help your motivation.

Eating well, eating regularly, for me a multi vitamin mineral really helps with muscle aches.

Time your chores at the barn. Count your steps. Figure out how to not waste steps. Get set up so it’s easy to groom and tack up. I agree that barn chitchat is the biggest time sink. Obviously if you commute to the barn you can do grocery and errands on the way home.

4 Likes
#12

I’m in a similar situation but instead of training a dog, I’m getting a graduate degree in my “spare” time! I board my horse and commute further than most people between work, home, and barn. I am not a morning person (AT ALL) so doing anything other than getting up and out the door to work with coffee is not an option. I go to bed a little later (around 10:30) but otherwise have a very similar schedule. I could go to bed earlier if I didn’t have a lot of commuting to account for!

I try to balance my week so I have heavier days and lighter days alternating if possible. I ride 4 days a week (two weeknight evenings, usually Tuesday and Thursday, and both weekend days) - on weeknights I don’t fuss with extensive grooming, tack cleaning, chatting to friends, etc. I pick feet, brush the saddle area, tack up, ride, untack, and go home. I can usually do that in 1.5 hours if I ride for 30-45 minutes (focused training rides). I’m home by 8:00 to 8:30pm and I have a quick dinner, unwind with my dogs, and head to bed. On weekends, I spend longer at the barn - socializing, cleaning tack, more thorough grooming, making feeds, etc.

The other 3 weekday evenings I can do other things (like study, work on a crafting project, or, in your case, train the dog) at home as well as run errands on the way home if needed. I eat dinner a little earlier but I make sure to start whatever the other thing is as close to getting home as possible, otherwise I get sucked into inertia if I sit down and start scrolling online while watching TV.

It’s definitely doable, but being efficient with time at home and the barn is important and finding balance so you don’t burnout is critical.

#13

If you go-with synthetic saddle and biothane bridle you don’t even need to clean tack! And a quick brush over the saddle and girth area more than suffices. In the winter, the dirt helps them stay warm/in the summer it will help keep flies from being able to bite into their skin. I call it a ‘protective layer of dirt’ Chatting/iphone/tv are the biggest time-sucks. Cut down on those and you might find free hours (rather than minutes)

2 Likes
#14

I still knock off all major dirt, just don’t spend time getting them to a shine or fussing over their tail or whatever.

I’m not sure I’ll agree that it keeps them warm in the winter. I do make sure that they don’t have major mud in the winter preventing them from being able to fluff their hair. But maybe we’re thinking of differing levels of dirt–my OTTB will literally look like a dragon made of mud sometimes in the winter.

I will agree all day long that chatting/phone/tv are the biggest time sucks and I fall prey to them all sometimes.

4 Likes
#15

The dog is young, the horse is heading into old age.

I’m quite intimidated by how organised everyone is!

2 Likes
#16

That’s interesting about people tending to overestimate how much time a task will take. As an ADDer, I find I have the opposite problem. Even if I double a very generous time estimate I run way over. And I’m certainly working steadily & reasonably quickly when I do something. I suppose it’s because I’m not good at asking the right questions/make assumptions ahead of time. Built an electric fence for the trainer recently. I estimated 4 hours. It took nearly 8. Why? Well, I’d based my time estimate on a 24’ run between T-posts, the proposed fenceline being already marked, most supplies in situ, and that I’d have help with the T-posts. None of those were correct assumptions. :neutral_face: They wanted a 12’ run between posts; had to determine & mark out the fenceline myself (and revise based on elevation changes of the land); drag supplies out of sheds, load, & drive them out; and pound 35 T-posts myself.

2 Likes
#17

Also don’t wait for motivation before starting.

First start and the motivation comes while doing it.

For organisation put everything and I mean EVERYTHING on a calendar. Either with a pen on a real calendar or the calendar on your phone.

You check it twice a day. Once in the evening to have everything you need for the next day. Changes of clothes etc.

Once in the morning to see what you have to do that day.

The side affect is that whenever anyone asked what day is it?, you can reply with the day and date off the top of your head without thinking about it.

3 Likes
#18

Oh I totally agree… that’s why I said I think the idea that procrastination is caused by over estimation is only “partly true.”

I know I do the same thing and don’t allow myself enough time in many situations.

Regardless, knowing how long a task actually takes is helpful for a lot of circumstances, whether it be maintaining a training schedule or whatever.

3 Likes
#19

Me too! I don’t have ADD, but I’m more of an optimistic “big picture” person than a detail person, so I consistently underestimate how long anything will take. And if other people are involved, I usually dramatically underestimate how long they will take to do anything because I base it on how long it would take me to do it, which assumes they are equally efficient and effective at whatever the task is (which is very rarely true!)!

I think it is more about getting into a routine so things don’t require so much thought. Since I know I ride Tuesdays and Thursdays, I know I have to get my riding clothes in a bag and by the back door when I lay out work clothes on Monday and Wednesday evenings. I always grocery shop on Monday evenings so I know how much food to buy and that I will buy takeout for dinner that night (one less dinner to plan/think about). Anything outside my normal routine has to be on my phone calendar or I stand no chance of remembering it! When I was previously studying while working, I had a routine for studying nights - get home, watch one TV show while making dinner, studying for 2 hours after dinner, get ready for next day and go to bed. Initially, you have to “force” yourself to do the things (motivated or not), but soon it just becomes a habit and much easier.

2 Likes
#20

I can’t speak to the horse thing as much, but for the dog stuff…
At 5.5 months, you can be working on foundation work with pup, but (depending on the breed) you won’t want to do lots of serious repetitive training. As other folks have noted, puppies don’t have a lot of attention and you cam generally get a lot more accomplished with one or 2 10 minute training sessions in a day than you will with a 30 minute once a day. (And that continues as they grow up, too.)
The biggest time sink you’re likely to have with the puppy is formal training classes, in my experience. Agility-wise, the time commitment will largely depend on where you can train on equipment. If you have equipment at home, it’s really easy to do a quick couple of passes through the weaves or a 5 minute teeter session when you get home from work or before breakfast. If you have to go to a class or rent building time somewhere? Much tougher.
And, as with everything else, it depends on how deep you want to dive in. I used to take a once a week class and only do local agility trials, so maybe 6 trials a year or so, and only ones that I could drive back and forth to from home. That blew up when I got really into it - and now I trial (or judge, bc yes, I got in so deep that I decided I needed to become a licensed judge in addition to running my own dogs) upwards of 30 weekends a year and have two actively competing dogs and a puppy in the pipeline (on top of my full-time job, of course).

3 Likes

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