Today, my version of "Reality Horse T.V."

[SLW]

So I wasn’t born w/ a silver spoon in my mouth and I’m not bankrolled by anyone (dangit!!), this leads to a point. After cubbing on Saturdays I’ve come home, attended to my horse and then promptly taken a nap of more than an hour feeling quite lucky.

Today I shall attempt to cub hunt this morning then work this afternoon, sans a nap! My horse will go with me to work and spend the afternoon in a stall. I’m packing an extra ration or two of coffee to over-ride my napping habit and the reality is that if I want to enjoy some mid-week hunts through the season I can hardly afford to take off each Wednesday.

So today is my test run for this working girl trying to mix hunting with work. Wish me luck! Anyone else able to successfully mix work & hunting?? While I’m no spring chicken I’m not quite useless enough to be plucked and tossed in the pot for stew.

Full story after supper…if I’m still awake.

[armandh]

Wed. off

just 3 more months until I collect SSI but back B4 I retired I took Wed. off as a vacation day. my vacation stretched through hunt season. [depending on bad weather and deer hunting seasons.]
these days it takes several days to recover.
sorry if you have a job without paid benefits as is becomming common these days.

[JSwan]

I find that my need for after hunt naps diminishes as we start hunting later in the morning.

Not that I’ve hunted lately - drat. But as we start going out later, I don’t have to dress in the dark and try and find the pig in a field with a teeny flashlight.

The pig in this case is a real pig - not a little pot bellied thing. I go to the barn and do am feeding - but the pig sleeps too soundly and I have to go out in the field in my finery and try and find the darn thing. If I don’t, and leave without feeding him breakfast, he eventually wakes up and spends hours at the gate squealing like - well - a stuck pig.

As we hunt later and later in the morning, by the time I get home and finish chores it’s practically time for dinner anyway - then I collapse in my chair and crochet until nodding off.

I just read that paragraph and realized I do sound like a geezer. I’m not!

[gothedistance]

@SLW;2756927

So today is my test run for this working girl trying to mix hunting with work. Wish me luck! Anyone else able to successfully mix work & hunting?? While I’m no spring chicken I’m not quite useless enough to be plucked and tossed in the pot for stew. Full story after supper…if I’m still awake.

Here’s wishing you luck! Besides coffee you might take som Vitamin B50 too (in the morning before hunting) – it will help you stay awake and alert all day long.

I usually throw myself down on the couch – boots and all if I’m really zonked – after Wednesday hunting. Didn’t hunt today because of the rains (both drat! and yaaaaah!):no::yes:

[KSAQHA]

Jeepers, SLW, now I’m wondering if I should start power dosing myself with B50 in preparation of that 17th hunt? (wonder if it works for horses, too? ) Will definitely plan on t.v. dinners for the family THAT evening.

With the cooler temp and blustery conditions today, were the hossies a bit frisky?

[Beverley]

Well, back in the late 70s to early 80s, when I lived in Northern Virginia, worked full time in downtown D.C., kept horses in Maryland, and hunted in Virginia…and cubhunting started at 6 am…I would get up at 3 am, drive to MD to get horse clean and tacked and on the trailer (always a group going from that barn, thankfully), get to the meet, enjoy a couple of hours of hunting, rely on trailer driver to take care of my horse for the return trip and back at the barn, dash home, shower and dress, and get to the office by, oh, 10:30 or so. High caffeine intake during the rest of the day prevented an unscheduled nap at my desk or in a meeting.

As cubhunting and then regular season meets moved to later in the day, I couldn’t do it during the week without taking the day off. But after kid #1 was born, I had the good sense to join with another colleague, also a new Mom, and work out a job sharing position. So I had Mondays, Tuesdays, and alternate Wednesdays available.

Now, since I’m a day’s drive from the nearest hunt, well I just take off days to weeks at a time to go hunting.

[LookinSouth]

I certainly can’t ( even with my 40+ sick days) take every Wed. off to hunt and if I did I probably would lose my job.
I can’t fathom how anyone would have the energy to go out on a hunt and THEN to work after!! I was more exhausted from my first hunt on Sunday then the most strenuos of 12 mile hunter paces at a fast moving pace :Dm

I do have a number of week long vacations throughout the year though and look forward to doing the Wed. hunts those weeks though.

[Ray]

I hunt 4 or so Tuesdays in the fall. I usually go to work for 3 PM, work 3 hrs. Better than missing the whole day. The flexibility of academia I KNEW I was hooked when I rearranged my teaching schedule not to conflict with Tues hunts

And yes, I do start thinking about a nap after hunting, caffeine can only do so much.

[SLW]

I did it!! The secret, just keep moving, just keep moving ALL day and when the flask start coming down the line let two pass, then take a drink from the third one. On Saturdays’s sample all of them! Will check into the VitB-50.

Hunting was fabulous, the ground very nice and from what I saw the hounds worked well- KSAQHA this was my little mare’s like 5th time out and I wondered if the winds and brisk temps would make her think she was something she’s not. Her CTR/ER background kicked in and she hunkered down and did fine. A friend used her for a speed bump for a horse she was riding that is still sorting things out in the hunt field.

Excellent point about the later starts, that sure will make a difference. And gosh, my job is so totally flexible and it’s not like it’s an office job where I have to be spit-shine clean. In fact, when I walked my mare into the clinic a client was there and he wanted to show me a saddle he had just imported for a client of his. He put the saddle on my mare and her ears went out the side as if to say “hey SLW, I just lugged you around for 2.5 hours, please, can I have the rest of the day off?”

I ain’t no J Swan w/ something to go crochet now!! At best, maybe do a load of laundry, nah, not even doing that tonight…

[Rt66Kix]

Good job, SLW! That’s great! My hunt is almost 2.5 hours away from my home, and I work another 35 minutes the opposite direction. I don’t think I could squeeze both in one day.

[JSwan]

@Beverley;2758104

Well, back in the late 70s to early 80s, when I lived in Northern Virginia, worked full time in downtown D.C., kept horses in Maryland, and hunted in Virginia…and cubhunting started at 6 am…

I’m sure you already know this, but there is no way you could do this now. Even in the middle of the day it can take hours to get anywhere in that area.

[wateryglen]

Flexing hours!

I did this for many years. Lots of flex time. I’d work 2 hrs later the night before and after the hunt day. Come in at noon after hunting and work say 6 hrs. OR come in after hunting and work 8 hrs. :eek: if you’re really tough! It’s obviously easier during cubbing but as the days get later; it does require a full day off. Space your vacation days to say twice a month to get them off. Only have to do it for Dec-March anyway. That’s only 8 days! I’d pick & chose my meets by my favorite locations ie: those worth taking a day off for. Sometimes I would work makeup days on weekend days, like Sundays. Or work weekday holidays even!

Really if you think about it; between weather, the meet location, how horsies shoes are, how rig is, how ground conditions are,  how horsie is doing/feeling, how I'm doing/feeling, = there's always days you can't go anyway!  I've never been able to hunt 3 days a week anyway and my hunts were always 2 days a week packs.  So it IS possible to work this out.  My priority was keeping horsie fit.  

One other political reality I've had to face.....be careful about telling co-workers and maybe even the boss exactly WHY you are taking the day off.  I've found a definite bias from others that what you are doing doesn't justify time off.  People can be very judgemental.  Sometimes it's their personal feelings about hunting animals.  Sometimes it's jealousy. Or ignorance.  Sometimes it's resentment that you are getting so much time off and/or their perception that THEY are carrying the load for you when you're gone so much.  Remember it's your private reason to take a day or some days off.  You don't have to share it.  And be sure to NOT talk about it at work the next day for crying out loud!! :yes:  When they ask; defer or lie!! :winkgrin:

My best lie was....that I was taking some graduate school classes and needed a weekday off to attend.  I'd schedule every Weds off from Sept to Dec (see? a semester!;)).  And I got my boss to let me work 4- 10hour days to keep my FT status!  Or in 1 case; I cut my hours back to 4 days a week to 32 hrs so I could keep my benefits!  And I'd occasionally whine about how hard my class was....all the reading....papers due....but be vague about exactly what I was working on....."Oh gee, I'd rather not say...I'm not sure what I wanna do...." etc.  But I was shocked that co-workers/boss were judgemental about that too.  Jealous like oh she's working on HER masters or something.....sheeeesh!!!  Yep, be careful of the workplace politics when it comes to foxhunting!!!

[Beverley]

J Swan, yeah, I know, that’s one reason we elected to get jobs ‘outside the beltway.’ (Well, we ‘are’ outside the beltway now:))

I remember the bumper stickers that said ‘don’t Fairfax Loudoun.’ I think they did anyway and are now working on not ‘Loudoning Clark?’

Wateryglen, I’ve always been up front with folks in the office about going hunting. The most common reaction has always been ‘they still do that? do they release foxes to hunt?’ Prompting patient explanation on my part. I have no reason to apologize for participating in such a great sport! Even my next door neighbor in VA, a card carrying PETA member, acknowledged it wasn’t such a bad thing. And I have several hunting pics in my present office which typically just draw oohs and ahs.

[JSwan]

Yeah - Fauquier folks are still trying to keep the developers out… the next election will be an important one.

A while back the Board of Supervisors (in their infinite wisdom) asked citizens to suggest a new slogan for the county. Why the old one needed replacement I have no idea - no one cares anyway…

Well - let’s just say the suggestions were quite amusing, and I have not heard a peep about a new slogan in a long time.

My submission was, Welcome to Fauquier. Thank you for visiting. Now get the hell out.

Another was, Welcome to Fauquier. Finally, more cars than cows!

I’ve never figured out why folks feel rural areas are some sort of Third World country that needs fixin’ and civilizin’. It is quite possible to live a complete and fulfilling life on this earth without latte’s and big box retail.

I think it’s funny how people at work think a person is rich if they have a horse. I used to shut people up by asking how much they spent on going out to lunch every day, and getting a latte in the morning. Turns out they were often spending more just on those things than I did on my horse. Not that it convinced any of them that I was not being paid a heck of a lot more than they were, or how nice it must be to have such a rich husband (that one was my favorite.)

[Painted_Wings]

I work full time. I try to hunt one Wednesday a month. During cubbing I can do it and maybe only have to take about 3 hours off from work if I work late that day. We have one fixture that is only 15 minutes from the barn that we don’t usually hunt on weekends so I choose that one for Wednesdays. Problem was our last Wednesday hunt I participated in, the coyote ran us to the far end of the 6000 acres we were hunting and we were out over four hours. Made me really late for work that day and I had customers in.

Last weekend was a killer too. Hunted Saturday almost three hours. Drove back to the barn rode another horse. Went home, took a shower, got dressed, went to the hunt ball. Got home about 2AM. Got up at 5AM to go to a Horse Trials. Got home from there about 6PM having not eaten all day. Went to bed at 8:30PM.