Not that long ago I was able to put down roots, and found a place I could settle into. I was pretty nervous about it at first, in fact when I looked at the barn’s website I immediately thought, “Nope! That place looks way too fancy for me.”
I was used to back yard barns, not fancy looking training stables. Thankfully I didn’t stick to my first thought, and called to see if they needed any part time help. At the time I needed a job, and I wanted to get back into working with horses, but I did not feel confident in my abilities at all. Shortly after I began working for them, the owners brought up the idea of me taking the Assistant Barn Manager position.
I was extremely reluctant at first! I had so many doubts about my abilities to manage a team, in addition to how little horse knowledge I felt that I had left after having been away from horses for over
five years. I told the owners that I appreciated the offer, but that I really thought they should find someone else. Despite my reluctance they were persistent, and continued to ask me to take more time
to think about the position.
Fast forward a few months… I have been the Assistant Barn Manager for a little over six months, and I have to say those doubts, and fears I faced in the beginning, didn’t end up being as bad as I thought they would be. Little by little my knowledge of horses, and how to care for them, has been coming back. Even managing a team, and handling boarder’s concerns hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it could be. Don’t get me wrong there are still days where we get on each other’s nerves, difficult conversations need to be had, and the horses act up. But what I can say, is that it has been worth it. With that said, here’s a small glimpse into the daily routine of what a day in the life of an Assistant Barn Manager looks like.
Living Above The Barn…
In the property I work on, as well as call home, there are two apartments over the barn, one of which is
mine. It took some getting used to when I first moved in over a barn of 21 horses. As you can imagine
they aren’t always the most quiet neighbors, but I’ve come to really like how easy it is to monitor them
from upstairs. Plus my commute to work takes seconds!
What I Do…
My day starts by my alarm going off at 6:00 AM. I used to hit snooze once or twice, however lately one of the horses, named Nero, has put together that my alarm going off means I’ll get up shortly, and he gets breakfast. For the last week or so, when my alarm goes off, he hears it, and whinnies really loudly to let me know not to hit snooze, because I need to get up, and bring him his breakfast! He still only gets breakfast at 6:45 AM, but it hasn’t stopped him from trying to get me in the barn sooner. The rest of the team arrives between 6:50 – 7:00 AM, and depending on the weather they will either bring hay into the barn, or put hay bags out in all the paddocks.
From 7:00 – 8:00 AM we turn the horses out into their paddocks, unless it’s a rainy day, and then we just start cleaning stalls while playing what we call “musical horses.” Really we are just putting horses on cross ties in the aisle, but when you are also a boarding barn sometimes you have to coordinate where to put horses to keep the path open.
We tend to finish stalls between 10:00 – 10:30 AM, due to a very well planned routine. Once we have
finished stalls we spend time cleaning the barn aisle, the muck tools, and adding bedding to stalls as
needed.
At 11:00 we re-hay the horses whether they are inside, or outside, and do any additional barn chores that need to get done before we go to lunch at noon.
After lunch we continue working on various barn chores, and projects until it’s time to bring the horses
at 2:45 PM, or if they are inside due to weather, we’ll re-hay and pick their stalls at 2:30 PM.
Once either of those two tasks are completed we clean up the barn aisle again, and prepare their dinner
grain for 3:45 PM. At 4:00 PM with all the horses settled in their stalls we call it a day, until one person
comes back for night barn.
Night barn is from 6:00 – 8:00 PM, where one person re-hays the horses, picks their stalls, and feeds
them night mash. I’m not really a night owl, typically I’m the kind of person who is tired by 8:00 PM,
however night barn is easily my favorite shift. Don’t get me wrong I love the day shift, and all that we
get to do all day long, but it’s during night barn that I’ve been able to bond with our horses the most.
Many of them love getting their late night scratches, and will even scoot up next to us to ask us to
scratch their itchy spots.
Once everything is completed I do a final walk through where I say goodnight to each of the horses by
name while I check to make sure that their stalls are latched, and check one last time that everyone
looks happy, and healthy.
Until The Next Day In The Life…
As you can imagine, that is only a small piece of what I do everyday. My two main focuses are caring
for the horses, and the people, which as we all know, can change at any time.
Leave us a comment, and tell us about a day in the life of your barn.
