Time to Ride

When will I find the time to ride my new horse so he will learn and start improving? The other question I am asked is "How do I find time to keep my competition horse in shape?" The hours I spend on the phone with some folks out there that don't have time to ride their horse might tell you where I am leading this subject. NOW ! is the time to Ride !
Growing up in Kansas was the best life I could have asked for, minus the hours in the seat of a tractor. Growing up in rural America on a dirt road that was 3 miles to concrete and 30 minutes to a town of any size, everybody knew their neighbor. My Dad could just leave the school bus driver a message on his answering machine (remember those?) which field the tractor and plow were parked at. I would get out of school and get dropped off on that tractor seat for the daylight that was left and send my school books home with my sisters. My horse did not get a ride on those days very often, and you and I have those days still that life doesn't fit in one 24 hour time-frame. When the school bus dropped me off at the long drive way, my horse was only minutes from being saddled. Today my clients, and even my wife wonder how I can get a horse and saddle him as fast as I do. I'm up on the horse and warming him up while others are picking out the color of pad they want to match up with today. Conclusions are made, Brian has saddled so many horses today that he's just warmed up. Maybe Brian's days as a wrangler, saddling his string of horses every morning before breakfast made him fast. I can tell you that it might just be the kid, still living inside me, that is so happy to get out of the tractor seat and in a saddle that makes me so motivated.
My brother had a plan to ride on those days that we knew the hours of farming where to numerous ahead to see any light at the end of the day. He said that the lights in the machine shed would be enough to saddle the horses, and early in the morning he would wake me up in time to get at least a half-hour ride in before breakfast call that was at 6 a.m. It was a good idea, just not enough time to ride for us though.. I still get an anxious feeling remembering the worry in our ears hearing the dinner bell ringing across the creek bottom. Oh.. no... we're late for breakfast again.
I just suggested an idea to another hard working friend. You may not get to ride for as long as you would like to today. Time yourself when you get out of your vehicle from work, get your horse out and saddled, mount it and ride around the whole barn yard one time. Then get off and put your horse away and call me with that time. You now have the minimum riding time calculated for to set your riding goals in the future with. Just the minimum is better than the tractor seat !