Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in work mode. The physical work of owning and rehabbing horses is taxing. Getting up early for morning feeds, and going to bed late, after a full days work, late dinners, feeling tired but accomplished. Sometimes I briefly get caught up in the work, and lose site of the reason why we are doing it.
We currently care for twenty six horses, ponies, and a donkey. Some are here long term for rehab, some are listed for sale and ready to leave at any point, and some are personal animals. What our day consists of, caring for them is getting up early, checking water troughs, collecting all the feed buckets, filling the feed buckets, taking them all out to be wet down and letting them soak for about 10-15 minutes, and then taking them all out to the horses in their individual pens. It also entrails addressing any issues with the horses that may need tended to, like bandages, etc, patching up. In the afternoon, I go out to the farm with my kids and we are there to do any clean up, work that needs done, pony rides, etc. Destini is usually riding horses by 3:00 pm and if any horses need training time, that usually begins in the late afternoon into evening. We often have a lot of horses needing ridden, so they get rotated throughout the week.
Danielle, filling up water 
Ollie, lazily supervising 
Jonathan desensitizing Luna to kitten rides…
On into evening, we begin making the rounds to collect feed buckets. Most all of our horses get two feeds a day, but there is one pen that gets one evening meal, along with their hay available all day, mostly consisting of ponies and easy keeper horses. Then we go around and check the water troughs. Especially on these hot days, it’s always important to keep those water troughs readily full and available. So, we have a system of filling them all up, and a series of hoses that go along and can be connected or disconnected for convenience. Then I check the rehab pen up front and make sure they have full water troughs and hay, and get their grain buckets. Then the process from morning is repeated, filling up each bucket with the right amount for their nutritional needs, and adding in any supplements they may be on. Carrying them out, once again, to be wet down. And then they get loaded in the skid steer bucket and a few of us hop on and ride through the property passing out their feed for the evening. It saves time and a lot of walking with a wheelbarrow!
The horse market is always slow in the heat of the summer. People don’t like to come out and buy horses, or take on a new horse to take care of in 100 degree weather. So, the workload is higher because we have a lot of equine residents to take care of, and the feed bill is high, and the amount going to new homes is fewer. It usually picks back up in August. But it makes things seem slow and sometimes discouraging, wondering if we will have horses rehomed before the next sale. Or the funds to be able to rescue as many as we usually do. Don’t get me wrong, even if we can only bring home one or two it is worth it. But we like to be able to do more, and unfortunately don’t have any magical money trees growing on our property. 🙂 We have lots of money burners though!
When I got discouraged one day, I scrolled back through my facebook photos and began to smile… I realized just how many amazing memories we have made this year with our family. Yes…There’s been a lot of dirty, gritty, hard, repetitive work. But my kids have had so much life experience this year because of it. We took on some orphaned kittens, and my kids learned how to take care of them and have loved every minute of it. We experienced calves being born. Summers full of popsicles and riding, and kittens and ponies, and dirt and sand. These kids are living the life.
In reflection, I realized how much we have grown as a family. My own work ethic and strength as grown, my daughter Destini is doing amazing things, and with her own riding improving is able to further help train horses. She does a lot, and is a great rider, and I see her dedication on a daily basis. Nathaniel has worked and worked and worked to make my personal dream come true. I’m surrounded by horses of all shapes and sizes, able to help horses in a bad situation, and turn them around and get them into good homes. He’s been cleaning up the property, making an outdoor arena, working on a new quarantine area for our sale barn horses, teaching our kids to ride, training horses, doing things that I know a few years ago, he would not have thought about doing with horses because he loves me, and I had big dreams. His love for me shows through every day.
Over this summer, I have watched my daughter start showing and growing a huge collection of blue ribbons in her room. She shines every time she enters the show ring, and if something does go right, she walks out with a smile on her face and a good attitude and speaks of rider error. She has also helped Elijah learn a lot this year. Elijah is eight years old and has started riding Cupcake and plans on showing her. His very first show, he trained with Destini every evening with a rescue horse, Liem’s Luck. He got a fifth place ribbon in a green rider over cross rails class. To watch her inspire others is an amazing thing.
I have also noticed, our children’s screen time has gone down immensely. They are spending hours outdoors, helping with chores, riding, and using their imaginations. I have seen homemade bows and arrows at the farm, digging in the sandy arena and attempting to make sand castles, the joy of discovering we have clay dirt underneath the old barn’s foundation that has been torn down… I have been asked a couple times by doctors this year when our kids had appointments, how much outdoor time they have, with them ready to give me the speech about how limiting screen time and making them play outside is important, to have them stopped short and shocked that our kids spend six to eight hours outside a day. I would not change that for the world. They are healthy, and happy, and not constantly glued to youtube or video games. At home, they exercise with me, play video games/ tv in the morning and afternoon they help clean the house, and then we go to the farm. Beginning of September, we will add in their home school routine.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, or seem stuck in the rut of every day work… Look around you, or go back through the things that have made you grow this year. Look for the joy in the little things. The little things like, taking a pony ride with a kitten, splashing around with the water trough, your kids doing cartwheels. Look for the moments when they were grinning ear to ear and giggling. Maybe it’s the moments of a new experience, or a first time one of the kids or yourself tried something you haven’t done before.
The sunset, animals, horses…they all inspire joy. For me, one of my favorite activities for the year has been chasing cows with Jester. He is SO slow, but he perks up the moment he sees cows, and we have gotten somewhat decent about chasing them back in to where they are supposed to be and have both discovered a fun hobby when the cows manage to escape, which is not as often anymore. Despite your circumstances, just take a look around at God’s blessings, and you will be reminded that there is joy to be found.
We are preparing for our sale on Monday that we will be rescuing from. After looking through memories, and past horses that we have done, a renewed fire of compassion once again in my heart, I am looking forward to rescuing the ones we can. With it being slow this month, I’m unsure how many we will be able to bring home and I am anxious to see what the prices are again this month since they have been high all summer. If you don’t follow us, make sure to check out our FB page @ Aldrich Equine Adventures and our instagram @aldrichequineadventures.