I am one of those people who likes to run through everything in my head so that I find the most efficient way to do something. When it comes to doing the horses I’ve done it so many times that I have a prep the lorry autopilot, a feed the horses autopilot etc. I bet those of you who have had horses for a long time don’t have to think about putting a rug on and which order to do the straps, we just do it.
So I thought I’d share my prep the lorry and go for a ride, get back, unpack and put the horse back out autopilot flight sheet. Catchy title huh!
The Prep:
- Open lorry, add haynet
- Remove lidded buckets (that live in there) fill them up with water, put by side of ramp with the pooper scoop
- Open up tack locker, grab tack from the tackroom. Saddle, bridle, hi-viz, helmet (in that order) into the locker.
- Grab headcollar and on the way pop in the ‘in lorry pre-ride’ feed to the feed bucket that lives in the lorry.
- Walk down to the field with the wheelbarrow, leave wheelbarrow by the gate for poo picking later.
- Catch pony, groom, tail guard, boots and travel rug on.
- Load pony and depart
The Ride:
- I put the bridle on in the lorry
- Remove all travel gear
- Unload and put the saddle on and any of my gear
- Have fun riding
Return:
- Un-Tack, offer a drink and wash down
- Put travel gear back on
- Pop post-ride lorry feed in the bucket
- Load up and get back to the yard
- Unload, pop pony in stable and administer any post-ride therapies (depends what we’ve been up to, sometimes it’s just to dry off before putting a rug back on and turning out)
- Remove tack from the lorry
- Brush out horse area, wash down with a bucket of water
- Close lorry up, put the keys away
- Turn horse out
Now if you wanted to assassinate me, you could literally decide where I’d be in the exact sequence every time I go out for a ride. I don’t think about it, I just do it and it’s the same every time. We have to do this otherwise our brains would be flooded with information to process all the time but sometimes it’s interesting to step back and see if we could tweak the autopilot, if anything could be improved, added or changed.
I guess that’s what I’m trying to get at, although we do many things easily, efficiently and well it doesn’t mean it can’t be better. For me stepping back, analysing and tweaking even the small things like the lists above make a difference to overall performance. It’s the small things we do everyday that add up after all.
Beth Endurance 