The Horses vs Homework Dilemma

When it comes to time, I have been spoiled since before I can remember. When I was in the 6th grade my parents decided that my sisters and I were going to be homeschooled. My mother did a phenomenal job keeping our school time structured and directional but let's face it, I'm pretty darn smart. So between not having to worry about wasting 10 minutes between classes to change rooms, an hour of needless lunch time, and moving on from a lesson when I get it rather than waiting for every kid in the class to get it, my class day was extremely short.

The other cool thing about being homeschooled is that my mom didn't really "do" science, so we got to go downtown at least 3-4 times a month to the Museum of Natural Science and take super fun science classes! I got to take my dog on a walk whenever the mood hit me. I worked a 40 hour/week job so I could pay for my horse. I played basketball and we had practice in the middle of the day. I rode horses when my mom could take me out to the barn.

College is a lot like homeschool because, depending on the number of hours you take and where you live with respect to campus, you can set your own schedule and literally give yourself DAYS off. Days to ride, and sleep, and ride, and run errands, and ride, and ride! Unfortunately I didn't have a car right at first so I just did the sleep thing with little to no complaints.

At one point for almost 2 years I did have a full time 8-5 tedious desk job but I didn't have horses (or any other real time consuming hobby to speak of) so my lack of time during the day really wasn't a concern for me. I returned to college to finish my degree this past January and shortly thereafter jumped head first into the shallow end of the horsey baby pool, reinjuring that part of my brain that thinks about money logically (HORSES FOREVER OMG!!). I work a part time job, half my classes are online, and I am a bar tender by night. Compared to most, I still have the luxury of time, just not as much as I used to back in the highschool era.

So how do I manage horses and life some might be inclined to ask? Well, it's not the horses I have to manage, it's the life part. Like most horse people, when I'm at the barn time is a non-measurable, non-existant entity. One second it's 3:30 and I'm starting to clean stalls, 2 seconds later it's 7 and I still have 2 horses to ride. And my "20 minute exercise rides" turn into hour and a half chat sessions. My poor boyfriend will get a call that informs him that all I have left to do is feed which should take 15 minutes and I'll be ready to eat. 2 hours later I show up apologizing because I took a look at my leather grooming halters and realized they hadn't been cleaned in days.

I have started wearing a watch out to the barn now to TRY and keep track of time. I think that's helped a bit. I've also had to make a riding schedule because it's easy for me to feel guilty about riding only two out of the three horses. The biggest thing I've had to come to terms with is the fact that if all I do is turn the horses out, clean their stalls and feed them, they will be ok. They really will. They don't need to be groomed to within an inch of their lives every day. If I don't pull Marvel's mane even when its 3 inches too long, no one is going to scoff at how "unsightly my sway-backed nag looks" because it's just a mane and the barn is laid back.

But in all honesty, my biggest suggestion is to just do your homework BEFORE going to the barn. Inevitably time will escape you, someone will always want to chat, there's always something else you need to do (another piece of tack to clean, another aisle to sweep, etc), and getting home after riding and cleaning doesn't leave a whole lot of motivation left to do something so terribly un-fun, like homework.