Work...work...work...

For those considering getting horses...

I have just spent two full days of "maintenance"...cleaning stalls, runs, scooping manure, bathing horses, putting on fly spray, treating minor cuts and bites, cleaning up hooves, change out hay bales....ugh...its not all fun and games and whew am I tired, sunburned and hot!

Horses are lots of fun to ride, but usually that is about 5% of the time you spend with them while the rest is clean up and maintenance. Not really complaining, maybe I am just feeling my age today.

And it is like 90+ degrees outside...could be worse, I could be like my mare and 10+ months pregnant

I grew up pretty spoiled in the horse world till I hit 13 and we moved onto a farm. No more staff to do it for me. We had between 7-15 horses. At 15 I got a job feeding/turning out/mucking stalls at a local stable. So on top of our dozen of horses I had another 30+ to look after. I learned pretty quick how much work horses actually are. AND I LOVED IT. Took a bit of adjusting but I must say I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the barn. All aspects of it.

I work the whole weekend at my barn alone. Twenty-five horses. I clean all the stalls, walk all of them in and out to the pasture, do all the water buckets, deal with the spooky ones, the bratty ones, the too young to know better ones, and it's hard work. But it's worth it because it allows me to keep my horse. I can't say that I love the work, especially here in Florida in the summer, but I do love my horse and am so grateful that I have this job that allows me to keep him.

Haha its all hard work, but I am a very dedicated rider and the rules are if you want to ride, your going to do the work. And I want to ride, so I am going to do the work whether it be 10 degrees F or 95. But I honestly don't mind the work at all :)

I hear you. We spent 7 hours in the tack shed on Saturday, cleaning and organizing. Then we spent a couple of hours just working on Dixie's manners, and Arizona's vices. That boy does NOT want to stand for a farrier.

None of that is including brushing, clipping, picking hooves, feeding, watering, turning out, bringing in, cleaning out corrals, etc.

I do have to say one thing: We're blessed in that our horses don't poop in their stalls. They come out and poop in one spot in the corral. Makes for easy clean up LOL

I do all that twice a day! Ariel's stall takes as long as 2-3 stalls, and blue's one.

I don't know about you guys but I personally love the work!! I love everything about being around horses! Besides the work keeps me strong, muscled and keeps me from being lazy! I enjoy cleaning stalls and feeding the horses, I do it every weekend at my barn, rain or shine, hot or cold and I love it. I can't wait to have my own farm someday!!

I live and work on my family's farm. We have about 20 head of beef cattle (thank Heaven they're self sufficient for the summer!), 2 horses, 18 chickens, and I don't know how many barn cats (they move so darn fast... going by the amount of cat poop I sift out of my horse sawdust pile, maybe 50+?? Lol.). We put in our own hay in the summer, usually over 1200 square bales to keep the cows happy all winter, plus the horses till the following summer. Two stalls get cleaned daily if the boys are turned out, 2x if they're in all day. I am my arena crew (constant rock picking, dragging, raking, and fence checking). Until this summer, we had to run buckets from the creek outside to water the horses in the barn! (Now we have a 350 gallon water tank and a hose!) I wouldn't trade a minute of it! Just today, my dad (jokingly) offered to give me a diploma from his Farm Hand Academy if I would hang around here instead of going back to college in the fall, lol.

Hee hee, I got it easy, I have only 1 horse and she stays outside in her pen. She has a run in shed with a tac room attached but she rarley ever poops in it. :) The most I have to worry about is giving her a little bit of oats & fly spray & hey in the winter. I bought her a bar-bar-A waterer so she has fresh cold water in the summer and fresh warm water in the winter with no electricity! Life is good!!! :)

^you lucky ducky you!