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Member
Posts: 11
| For those of you who work full time.. how do you manage to work during the day, get home to ride multiple horses & cook dinner? What's you afternoon routine to get everything in? |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 460
| Thank goodness my bf doesn't mind eating dinner at 9-9:30 haha 'cause that's the earliest I can make dinner happen! It's tough, that's for sure =p I go straight from work, to the barn to ride 3/4 horses. Then straight there to home, where I (hopefully) remembered to thaw something out in the morning and get started on dinner =] Weekends are reserved for barrel races...laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning etc. Hope that helps! |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
 
Location: Pacific Northwest | I just do everything really fast.
Also crockpots are your friend. Although right now my GF works out of town during the week, and I survive just fine off top ramen because I guess I'm still a teenager at heart. That probably doesn't fly for married people with kids though.
ETA Once I have my horses legged up, they don't need to be ridden as strenuously during the week. I can do a 30 minute lunging session and call it good. I usually only ride one or two horses, so I only spend at the most 2 hours riding, if I choose to ride instead of just lunging them.
Edited by livexlovexrodeo 2017-05-09 4:56 PM
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 575
| Gym at 5:30
Work from 7-4
Ride until it's dark.
I tend to make 1 or 2 HUGE meals and then eat leftovers throughout the week. There's no way I could get everything done and still be able to make dinner every night. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 507
Location: Lost in the corn of Iowa. | I work full time plus do a call rotation one week a month. I have 2 head that I ride, I ride every other day and then on the off day I do normal wifey things, like cook, clean and what ever. When the kids were little I would cook larger meals on my days off of riding so that all I had to do was re heat left overs a few nights a week. I wish I had more time to ride during the week without feeling overwhelmed, but this has been my routine for a few years and it's worked well at keeping a happy balance with home life and horse life. |
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | I live by myself with 3 horses, teach full-time and have a 25 minute commute to & from work. Typically, I cook two nights a week and eat leftovers the other 2 nights that I'm home. On Fridays, I usually leave as soon as I do chores and take the horses to my boyfriend's place for the weekend.
On a M-Thurs, I leave for work about 7:05-7:10 a.m., get home about 4:30 p.m., then feed horses, go inside and relax for a half hour or so. When I say relax, I use that term loosely. Most days I'll either do laundry, start the dishwasher, or check my personal email. Sometimes I get dinner cooked then and go back out about 6:30 to ride. Other times, I'll ride a horse, then feed, then cook, and go back out around 7:30 to ride 1-2 more horses. If it's a leftovers night, I usually zap leftovers in the microwave while horses eat and ride about 30 minutes after that. I also have to clean part of the barn a couple times a week, buy groceries, horse feed, and try to do other household chores.
I find that if I do 1-2 household chores per night, I can get everything done. I'm not afraid to start the dishwasher or washing machine and go back outside to ride either! Typically I don't ride each horse for more than 25-30 minutes once they're legged up, and on nights that I'm really crunched for time, I'll ride one and pony one to save time. Tonight might be one of those nights.....I got home at 6 from a high school softball game and still haven't gotten to start riding. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| Story of my life.
Right now I have an hour and 15min commute. So up at 5 for chores out the door between 6 and 6:15, home between 6 and 6:15. I at least try to ride my good horse or pony him off my backup horse. I ride in our pasture a lot and right now am really working to get him as aired up as possible so we cover a lot of ground in 30-40min. If I pony him I try to also ride one of our rope horses and pony another. Right now my SO is working late as well, once he gets off earlier he'll help ride. Or we breakaway practice 1 or 2 nights a week since it's faster to get calves up and rope than steers we save them for the weekend.
By the time everyone is tucked in, fed, and we take care of any other things that need done outside it's usually 8:30-9pm. We do a lot of quick meals like tacos, spaghetti, I usually pressure cook a package of chicken breasts to shred for salad all week and will do fajitas out of that. Crock pot meals when I remember. Admittedly we keep a couple frozen pizzas in the freezer and had hamburger helper tonight.
Wouldn't have it any other way though (minus the crappy 2.5hrs of my day I spend in a vehicle). |
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 Porta Potty Pants
Posts: 2600
| I've conceded to a time out from barrel racing. Between work and driving my child everywhere, it just was causing too much stress, so I'm on a hiatus. My horse is now a 1D hay recycler.
Edited by azsun 2017-05-10 12:24 AM
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 Witty Enough
Posts: 2954
Location: CTX | I get up at 5am to feed, then out the door around 5.30am to get to work. I have an hour commute and work from 6.30am to 3pm. So get home around 4pm (if I can get away in time...) so that gives me time to ride and mess with the colt. Feed the dogs and chickens. Usually I can start my diner somewhere between 6pm and 7pm. Than spend some time on the couch and around 9pm it is time to hit the shower and get to bed.
I absolutely HATE getting up that early, I am not a morning person... (hence the name... hehehe) but even 6am would be too early, so I just deal with it because it gives me enough time in the afternoon to do chores, and if needed I still have time to take them to a vet or something without having to take leave.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 399
| Well we generally are busy all the time so I live with the crockpot always being used. We try to keep easy things to eat in the house like chopped lettuce and veggies so we can each just make a quick salad. I dont try and physically make dinner every night because my husband and i both would rather be outside. I get up about an hour early and do my laundry and dishes then and my husband does chores in the morning or if i do them i just get up alittle earlier. I also set aside a day for each task, for example mondays are sweep the floors before i get dressed for work. Every morning i throw a load of clothes in the wash. |
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 Party Girl
Posts: 12293
Location: Buffalo, Wyoming | My SO has be living off of turkey and PBJ sandwiches for awhile, he doesn't care. He would rather us be outside doing what we enjoy instead of in the house cooking or cleaning. I do try and cook at least a couple of times a week and we eat a lot of leftovers. |
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 Unknown Drip
Posts: 5624
Location: Back in MT BABY!!! | I guess I'm one of the lucky ones...my BF usually makes dinner during the week so I don't have to. I usually will cook on the weekends...when I do I will make extra so we can reheat during the week. I also have hired a cleaning lady to come once a month to pick up all the areas I miss. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 915
Location: SE KS | Get up 6:30 ish, feed, son turns horses out before he leaves for school.
Work 8-4:30, home change clothes ride for an hour do chores. Currently have adult
children living with us, so one of them usually does supper or husband will fix it.
Relax then off to bed! |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | I've been trying to figure this out and haven't done a very good job of it. I know how much I need to ride to get my horses in shape and keep them in shape, it just seems like with my job it is impossible to stay consistent. Some weeks I have all the time in the world, and other weeks I don't have any time to spare. Then when I get home I have things I need to get done there. I do board a few miles out of town, but not very far...It just seems like there aren't enough daylight hours, but I enjoy reading everyone else's response so that I can take some hints on how to get it done! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 380
| I ride at 6pm for an hour and spend a half hour grooming, organizing my tack area, filling my grain bin. Ride 5 days a week right now and it's driving hubby crazy lol. |
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 The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | It's tough sometimes with work and I only train/haul one horse. It's a lot of late nights. Usually not in the house until after 10 pm. Multi-tasking is my friend. Ill throw in laundry before I go out to ride, soak dishes, etc. Most of the big chores, like cleaning my house, mowing the lawn, etc take place on weekends when I have more daylight hours to get things done. I commend those ladies that have little ones, work a full time job, and still manage to get 3 horses ridden and hauled. Ya'all are super stars. |
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 It's not my fault I'm perfect
Posts: 13739
Location: Where the long tails flow, ND | Love this thread, trying to find a better routine. I need to figure out more 'summery' crock pot things to make!
I try to do all my grocery shopping on Sunday to plan my weeks meals. Stinkin' job gets in the way of all the fun things thats for sure! |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | It's tough.
I'm usually up at 5:30 AM so that I can get myself ready for work, and get my 11-month-old to daycare at 7:00 AM (30 min commute to town) and get myself to work at 7:30 AM. I'm usually at work until 5:30 PM or 6:00 PM. Then I have to choose to work my 2 horses ... or go home and see my daughter before she goes to bed! I try to alternate. I board my horses so if I am working them that night, I go there straight after work and usually don't get home until 9:00 PM.
And of course, then there's trying to find time to do all those other things (cooking, laundry, mow the lawn, etc).
Thankfully, I usually do not work Wednesdays so that gives me a catch up day, or day for appointments, or whatever it may be.
Someday I will have my horses out my own back door instead of boarding, and while that will help a lot .... but it will also create more work!
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 Guys Just Wanna Have Fun
Posts: 5530
Location: OH | Can't help ya much, haven't been on my main horse in months. We are in a situation where we have built our breeding program up so much that the demands of it have overtaken the enjoyment of riding our own---it is a struggle. |
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It's not my fault I'm perfect
Posts: 13739
Location: Where the long tails flow, ND | r_beau - 2017-05-11 10:52 AM It's tough.
I'm usually up at 5:30 AM so that I can get myself ready for work, and get my 11-month-old to daycare at 7:00 AM (30 min commute to town) and get myself to work at 7:30 AM. I'm usually at work until 5:30 PM or 6:00 PM. Then I have to choose to work my 2 horses ... or go home and see my daughter before she goes to bed! I try to alternate. I board my horses so if I am working them that night, I go there straight after work and usually don't get home until 9:00 PM.
And of course, then there's trying to find time to do all those other things (cooking, laundry, mow the lawn, etc).
Thankfully, I usually do not work Wednesdays so that gives me a catch up day, or day for appointments, or whatever it may be.
Someday I will have my horses out my own back door instead of boarding, and while that will help a lot .... but it will also create more work!
Sounds just like my life, except my horses are right down the road now thankfully. I only work half days on Friday's so that gives me a catch up on housework day usally! Or appointments too.
Still a balance trying to figure out if I should make dinner quick then go ride, or ride first and eat later. Still really haven't figured that out. Harder when little people have earlier bed times. Sometimes I sneak out after bed time to go ride :) |
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