Sleepy Mondays

a freshly organized feed cart: ready for the week ahead

Mondays: for the horse show crowd, means a sleep in, a slow breakfast, and a day off while the horses rest. But horses still need to be fed and watered, and what does the plucky show groom do with a slow day dedicated to leaving the horses completely alone? 

As a high powered, thrive - under - stress kinda groom, I find Mondays incredibly tedious. I like to leave the horses relatively alone, allowing them time in the paddock and alone in their stalls to sleep, which means I am often faced with an empty barn, an empty ring and chores that are done far too soon. 

While picking stalls and scrubbing buckets on this tedious horse’s day off, I compiled a list of five above - and - beyond tasks to fill your time, but don’t completely suck (looking at you, paddock picking).

1. Scrub Every Bucket: This takes me a while to do, and do well. Today, when doing my morning chores, I dumped feed, water, and took the grain buckets off the wall, and scrubbed everything, with soap, inside and out. Then, I sprayed them down with a horse-safe disinfectant and rinsed them after the appropriate amount of time, leaving the buckets in the sun to dry.  I took the time to inspect for any cracks, and fix any double ended snaps that were breaking. On the same topic, I dumped out the manure tubs and wheelbarrows, and scrubbed and disinfected them as well. 

2. Wash the Blankets: It has been relatively cool at night, but nice and warm during the day, so the horses can go for the day without their sheets on, and I take the opportunity to wash as many blankets as possible. I like to wash and dry my blankets, also inspecting for defects, tears or breaking buckles, then making sure each one is well labeled and ready for wear. 

3. Clean Often-Forgotten Leather: There is something just so elusive about leather halters and spur straps, and I am constantly forgetting to clean, or worse, ensure they are properly conditioned. I like to take the time to gather my forgotten leather pieces and deep clean, as well as condition them. While you’re at it, go ahead and whip out the metal polish and shine up some name plates and spurs. Not only does this take quite a bit of time, but the difference between a dull, dry halter and an oiled halter with gleaming brass is incredibly satisfying. 

4. Reorganize your Supplement Shelf: Another incredibly gratifying task lies in your feed room. I like to pull out all of my supplements and put them aside, then thoroughly scrub and disinfect the shelf. While that is drying, I take some time to clean all the dust and grime that settles on the top of the containers, re label, and refill. I like to sit down at that point and take the necessary steps to order whatever we are running low on. While I’m in the feed room, I’ll double check the feed chart, and often rewrite it, to keep it tidy and organized. 

5. Set your Stalls up to Dry: Most days, horses are in and out of their stalls so frequently that it is pretty difficult to leave the stalls with shavings pulled to the side, mats swept, and fans on to dry out the pee spots completely. Today, I turned all the horses out early, then thoroughly cleaned the stalls (like normal), then pulled all the shavings to the sides of the stall, swept the mats, and switched the fans on. Once the urine spots dried completely, I pulled the shavings down and added fresh on top. This always improves the smell of my stalls and makes them just a bit cleaner for the morning.