Discussion Board: Riding During ‘Rona

It’s been forever and a day since I did a any sort of post, let alone a DB post and I HAD to break the cycle of horse show posts!

Gah, I love horse shows

Pre-Pandemic, my routine was gym from 6-7, work from 8-4, then ride from 4:30-6:30, then home. Then two days before the shutdowns, we moved from 20-25 minutes from the barn to across the street and everything came to a standstill.

Hard to sit and do 1st grade school work when you know the horses are RIGHT. THERE.

Except riding. Being that in that close proximity and having literally no other place to go saw me riding like I’d never ride again. Since I just could now just pop over and I was working from home, I started taking 2 lessons/week with Dressage Trainer K in addition to going up to Trainer B’s to take 2 lessons/week on Leo, who was staying with him until the end of May for a smooth transition.

Someone turned fancy during the pandemic

So many lessons at Trainer B’s

So then my schedule looked more like:

5:30-7:30: Work

7:30 Wake up kids and get them started on school

8:00-10:30: Work

10:30-12:00: Lesson or ride P

12:00-2:00: Work

2:00-5:00 Drive to Trainer B’s for Leo

5:00-7:00: Work

7:00: Dinner, bed, etc.

Now things are a bit more tricky. With the kids having to do live virtual classes, it’s impossible for me to leave or to get my own work done during the T.D.’s 1st grade block of 8:30-10:10. And with Leo back at my home barn , going to Trainer B’s requires more time than it took me to zip up there in my little car. So now my day looks like:

5:30-7: Wake up, either work or crossfit; depending on deadlines

7:00-8:30: Work

8:30-10:10: Tiniest Dictator’s school

10:10-12:00: Work

12:00-1:30: Ride*

1:30-4:30: Work

4:30-7:30: Kids taekwondo (M-Th; I have to take them if Husband’s out of town, which he usually is)

* Lessons at Trainer B’s require Husband to be home

So that leaves me with basically one slot per day to ride. And Leo typically takes that slot, except on days off, which means he gets worked 5-6x/week and P gets ridden 1-2 days, unless Husband is in town. But Husband has been traveling so much (these last 2 weeks he’s been gone 7 out of the last 10 business days) so the weeks P gets more happen, but not frequently.

How I feel doing 1st grade “school” and sitting through 3 hours of taekwondo

It’s kind of a bummer, watching my riding time dwindle down, but I guess it’s really no different now than it was when the kids were in school and I was at the office, though seems like a distant memory now.

Back to riding under lights, I ‘spose

So how has COVID impacted your riding? Better, worse, or the same?