A Day in the Life

4:10 am: My first alarm goes off. Blearily, I press the snooze. It continues to go off every ten minutes.

4:40 am: Second alarm joins the chorus. I spend the next twenty minutes rolling from side to side to press snooze.

5:00 am: After finally dragging my butt out of bed, I spend five minutes staring angrily into the mirror. I am not a morning person, in case you can't tell.

5:25 am: Dressed and ready for work, I get on the road.

6:25 am: I arrive at work and spend the next thirty minutes to an hour answering emails.

9:00 am: Breakfast time! I spend fifteen minutes eating a banana and writing down details about my ride the night/day/session before and detailing goals for my ride that night.

9:15 am: Back to work.

11:00 am:  Lunch time, take a mental break, and read a book. Sometimes it's dressage theory, sometimes it's pure entertainment.

11:45 am: Back to work.

3:00 pm: I start thinking about getting on the road. D.C. traffic is not too bad if I leave by 3:15 pm.

4:30 pm to 5:00 pm: Arrive at the barn sometime in this time frame. It always depends on whether there's been any accidents. And whether it's Friday. Occasionally, I even get there by 4:15 pm. First change out of work clothes into riding clothes. If I'm jumping, I go down to the arena to set up fences. Bring in Dante, groom, tack up, get on. Choices are generally jump, hack, or flat, although I'm about to throw trailering out for lessons into the mix too. Lessons will be late nights for sure. Untack, groom, and clean tack before I can leave the barn.

(Middleburg sunset hack.)

7:00 pm to 7:30 pm: Leave the barn, arrive home 7 minutes later. Thank goodness I live close by.

7:30 pm: Watch The Daily Show and Colbert Report and possibly a sitcom if I have time while eating dinner. Set out all my work clothes for the following day, make my lunch, and reset my riding clothes gym bag.

8:30 pm: Get off the couch to go shower and get ready for bed.

9:00 pm:  Bed time! Read a book until I fall asleep around 9:30 pm.