Life at the Stables

Some folks wonder what it is that I do all day at the stables. I thought I'd give a run down of what a typical day is like. Times are approximate:

0700 - Arrived at the stables. Trooper Jay showed up at the same time to feed his horse. Since he usually gets there before me, he often gives hay to my boys when he feeds his own. As he got out of his truck, I complained that he was late and my horses were hungry. He laughed but by the time I'd dumped my junk in the office and walked outside, he'd already fed Apache and Duke.

0715 - Finished mucking out the horse pens and treated the wound on Apache's coronet band.

0730 - Checked my e-mail messages

0800 - Took the pressure washer out of the shed and hooked it up to see if it would start. Yesterday while cleaning out the water trough in the main pasture, it failed. I figured it was broken but gave it another try. Fortunately it started up just fine. Since it was working I decided to clean out the trough in the small pasture but needed to drain it first. While the trough was draining, I walked the fence line and noticed one of the hot wire mounts was broken. I went back to the shed to get a replacement mount and also grabbed the shears to clean brush out of the fence line.

0830 - Saw the Troop commander mucking out his horses and went and chatted with him about something. Can't remember what.

0900 - Worked on the plan for the MI HoF events and sent it out for coordination. Maybe that's what I spoke to the commander about. Started the swamp cooler in the office because it was already getting hot in there.

1000 - Called the Army Community Services (ACS) volunteer coordinator to set up a meeting to discuss our volunteer list. Made an appointment for 1630. As I was finishing up the call, a girl knocked on my door and told me that a tree had fallen on one of our horse trailers.

1030 - Backed the truck up to the damaged trailer and put a ladder on the tailgate in order to get on top. Brought the chainsaw. The trailer roof was dented and the running lights were smashed but otherwise no significant damage. Two giant branches from an old dead oak tree fell on the trailer. I tried to cut them off with the chainsaw but the wood was too hard. I eventually just pushed the branches off the trailer. They probably weighed a 1,000 lbs each but were just hanging on the edge of the roof. Decided I needed to sharpen the chainsaw.

1130 - Lunch time. While I was eating lunch, Apache began clanging his hoof incessantly on the metal bars of his pen. I finally went and put him in the small pasture along with Duke to get some peace and quiet. Answered a few e-mails and got a call from the vet clinic about their on-call roster that I had requested. Wanted to know if they could fax it to me. Ha ha.

1230 - Worked on the recruiting campaign plan for the next riding school. Traded e-mail messages with the commander on this until about 1615. Refilled the swamp cooler tanks several times. It was cooler outside the office but, of course, couldn't use the computer outside.

1330 - Visited by a former member of the Ladies Auxiliary who now works for a test agency on post. She wanted to know if we'd be interested in supporting a test involving nighttime detection of horses sometime in July or August. Sure, why not.

1430 - Finally got around to sharpening the chainsaw which I noticed sitting on the porch when my visitor left. Put some Nu-Hoof in someones shed who said they were out.

1500 - Brought Apache and Duke in from pasture, groomed them and mucked out their pens, and fed them about 1530.

1600 - Traded some more e-mails with the commander and then drove up to the meeting with the ACS lady. I waited in the lobby for a while and drove everyone else out with my stable stench. I finally met with the ACS lady and she gave me a giant stack of paperwork that needed to be filed on the volunteers in order to correctly register them. Apparently, all of our previous records had been lost. The new paperwork includes background investigations. Can't wait to tell everyone.

1700 - Headed home, at last.