Faced with alarmingly over-scheduled lives, it’s easy for horse people to feel the pressure to subjugate their equine interests to “more important” facets of their lives, such as spouses and children. But a little creative “activity combination” can help satisfy all of life’s responsibilities withouttaking anything away from your barn time.

This guide provides just a few valuable suggestions for making the most of yourday by combining horse-related tasks with those other less attractive everyday duties. It’s by no means a comprehensivelist, but merely a starting point from which you can formulate your own creative solutions to your unique set of scheduling challenges.

Be advised, though, that the author, the Chronicle and its employees assume no responsibility for the physical or emotional repercussions of incorporating these tips to you, your family members, coworkers, horses, possessions or pets.

Children, Plus Horses

Thelwell, Breyer, My Little Pony?nothing goes together like children and horses.

What little girl hasn’t put “a pony” at the top of her Christmas list at one time or another? With this natural connection already established, much too little attention is paid to the potential for melding together a busy parent’s childcare duties with those tasks beckoning from the barn.

Those underutilized minutes spent bathing your child can be maximized by simultaneously soaking your stirrups and pads, bits or other hard-to-clean tack items. Since there are murmurs of bustling black-market trade in a “no more tears” version of Murphy’s Oil Soap, an old wisdom has been revised: “Don’t throw the baby out with the tack-cleaning water.”

Not all children’s birthday parties have to involve Barbies, dinosaurs, Matchbox cars or Winnie the Pooh. Consider a “petting zoo” theme for your kid’s next bash.

A few hay bales arranged for fun seating outside the arena and some willing barn cats and dogs allow for exciting animal encounters under your close supervision while you hop over a few gymnastic lines. Little currycomb favorstied with festive ribbon are a great addition, especially for spring birthdays, which coincide nicely with your animal’s peak shedding days.

Sure, off-the-track Thoroughbreds may be a touch more flighty than the average pygmy goat or sheep you’d find at those cold, impersonal commercial petting zoos. But with the staggering increase in childhood obesity occurring in this country, the youngsters can learn valuable lessons in agility and physical conditioning while they avoid the occasional flurry of equine hoofs. And they can participate in exciting party games like “Roll the Wheelbarrow to the Manure Pile” and “Sweep the Aisle.”

As your children get older, they’ll be faced with tough course loads at school and even tougher decisions about their future career paths. Once again, time spent at the barn can be a lifesaver.

We often underestimate dressage for its value as a geometry teaching aid. While you master your 10-meter circles or lengthening across the short and long diagonals, your child can gain a greater understanding of tangents, angles and symmetry.

Faced with a multitude of career choices, kids benefit immensely from internships, apprenticeships and other introductions to job options. Boot shining is a perfect segue into a future in the competitive and rapidly growing field of cobblery.

Significant Others, Plus Horses

Does your spouse or significant other feel neglected due to your commitment to your four-legged partner(s)? There’s no need for them to be left out in the cold when horse involvement provides such rich opportunities for the two of you to share special moments together.

No time for dinner and a show? Poppycock! What’s more romantic than a moonlit schooling session lovingly performed for your spouse as he or she feasts upon a delectable repast of fast food while reclining in the truck bed?

Remember, the term “roll in the hay” didn’t materialize out of nowhere. If the barn is quiet, the horses are busy munching their dinner, and your partner is willing to help you top off the water buckets afterward, why not?

Competition weekends provide the perfect opportunity for some budget-conscious quality time with that special someone, as long as they can hot walk a horse and wipe off a pair of boots. The two of you can spend carefree, blissfully uninterrupted hours together as you haul a trailer to exotic, far-flung locales miles from the chaos of your workaday lives.

If you squint your eyes and dub in a little tribal background beat, temporary stabling could almost pass for a large Tahitian circus hut–but with the thatching on the ground instead of the roof.

Your hubby can while away the afternoon on a beach chair by the warm sand of the practice arena, listening to the soothing crash of the water on the wash rack–at least until you’re done with your ride. Then he’d better get his butt in gear and have a flysheet and a sweatscraper at the ready.

Other primates show affection by grooming; so can your spouse.

And who says quality time can’t involve a pitchfork?

Daily Commitments, Plus Horses

With spare time at a premium, it’s wise to multitask, multipurpose and capitalize upon wasted moments during the course of your day. It’s time to maximize the precious minutes often squandered on mundane tasks.

Think of all the time and money you can save in gym memberships by getting a good workout at the barn. Some people actually throw good money out the window paying for access to equipment that merely simulates the real-world activities you unconsciously perform every day. Who needs a Gazelle Elite?

A few hay-bale squats, water-bucket curls, push-broom lunges and a jog out to the back pasture, and you have yourself a fitness routine worthy of Denise Austin.

The family dog can also get some much-needed exercise by accompanying you to the barn, and he can cut clean-up time in half on days the farrier comes to visit. Why pay money for chew toys when those tantalizing excess hoof strips are just begging to be gnawed?

Streamline your day by taking care of your morning barn duties on the way into your place of business. Picking out stalls in work clothes makes horses feel special, like you’re dressing up just for them, and it later helps bolster coworkers’ immune systems by exposing them to low-level environmental antigens. They don’t even have to know you’re providing this valuable service if you generously spritz yourself with a fabric-deodorizing spray before stepping into the office.

Go into the attic and retrieve that unused ultrasonic jewelry cleaner your aunt gave you for Christmas 10 years ago. Your stirrup irons and spurs will gleam like never before.

Are you conditioning for a three-day event or an endurance ride or just in the mood for a leisurely hack? Pony Express it to the post office or dry cleaner while you’re doing your intervals, or use the time to catch up with friends or contact business associates by utilizing one of the many hands-free cell phone adapters that are on the market now.

An especially time-effective executive with a string of horses could dictate correspondence or other notes to a dutiful administrative assistant who’s lashed to a second steed they pony off of their own.

It can be a challenge for any parent to provide well-balanced meals for the family, even harder if you have an equine family to tend as well. Fortunately, there are some overlapping nutritional requirements that can help condense your food shopping trips and preparation duties.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, right? And what horse person worth his salt doesn’t have a five-pound bag of carrots in the vegetable crisper?

This handy snack item can be a boon to your family’s eyesight, with your children boasting beta-carotene levels that put their classmates’ to shame.

For special occasions, you can even double up on your horse’s favorite cookie recipe and let your kids have some too.

There’s nothing like a nice, big batch of bran mash whipped up on a cold winter morning, what with the documented benefits of flax seed transcending species lines and all. Although, for the sake of preventing human rebellion at the sight of a large, steaming feed bucket in their place at the breakfast
bar, perhaps it’s best to let Wilford Brimley and the folks at Quaker Oats handle your kids’ version.

Then we come to perhaps the most dreaded of all equine husbandry tasks–sheath cleaning. You can easily combine this seemingly unseemly duty with. . .

OK, who am I kidding? Some things are best done on their own.