Bye, Bye Daylight

Very big sigh. If your arena doesn't have lights, you know what I am talking about. JL has lights so lessons will continue, but my after work rides at my barn are going to be really short for the next couple of months. After last night's lesson, I walked home and untacked in the dark

In anticipation of the end of daylight savings time, I have been practicing streamlining my afternoon barn visit. It looks something like this:

• Get out of car with barn bag and grab Sydney's dinner.
• Balance dinner in arm as keys and iphone slide to the ground.
• Squeeze through the pass-through door without dropping barn bag as hay falls down my shirt.
• Toss barn bag in barn aisle so that my hands are free to shove hay into Sydney's Freedom Feeder.
• Return to hay stack to retrieve iphone and keys.
• Scoop fallen hay from ground and toss to Speedy G who feels left out.
• Turn on Sprinklers.
• As I return to the barn through the back door, scoop beet pulp and soak.
• Turn Speedy out (or Sydney, depending on the day) and move sprinklers out of the way of galloping feet.
• Clean stalls while Sydney eats.
• Groom and saddle Sydney.
• Turn off sprinklers and retrieve Speedy G.
• Tighten girth and then change into riding boots and half chaps.
• Tighten girth again.
• Retrieve helmet and bridle.
• Ride.
• Unsaddle.
• Return Sydney to his stall.
• Turn sprinklers back on. Return through back door to mix rice bran into feed.
• Continue through tack room with feed buckets.
• Pour feed into the correct buckets and then rinse.
• Return bridle to tack room door. Stop in tack room to log today's riding notes. Sit and remove boots, helmets, and chaps.
• Continue through back door to put buckets back in feed area, and close rear tack room door.
  
• Grab barn bag and close front tack room door.
• Just before exiting through pass-through door, sweep cross-tie area.

I never go anywhere in the barn now without carrying something, rinsing something, grooming something, or leading something. I've also cut back on some of the barn chores in an effort to save time. I sweep and rake and groom a whole lot less. Right now, I simply sweep the brush over tack areas and knock loose anything that appears stuck on.  Who cares about being shiny when there's no sun to reflect?

Here's to efficiency in the dark!