Charlottesville High School has many clubs, sports teams, and activities to be a part of. Each of them offers different things to different students. However, one sport that gets overlooked is equestrianism. Horses have been seen by non-equestrians not as a sport but as an easy and/or fun activity, despite being in the Olympics for 120 years. One thing among equestrians that we all can agree on is that it’s a hard and demanding sport. If you throw homework and other after-school activities into the mix; things can be hard to manage.
I ride 3-4 times a week during the school year. This year, I have a senior release to get to the barn earlier, especially since we have hit daylight savings time. I also work part-time for my riding trainers. During the summer and on weekends, I would work about 4-6 hours a week including in the morning, evening, midday, and late evening. Now in school, I work about two hours a week max as I either don’t have time or the barn is fully covered. The show season has come to a close at this point, with the last 2-3 shows finishing this weekend and the next. This means my trainers are in less need of extra help as they aren’t traveling as often. This doesn’t mean I can’t work, and I still do late evenings on Mondays where I just spend an hour making sure the barn doesn’t self-destruct. I also will top off water buckets, give some extra hay if needed (however, my trainer comes down at 8:30 to do an official night check and does hay), walk the dog, water plants, do laundry, or just clean up whatever is still left out after everyone else has left. On the weekends, I do similar tasks and in the evenings, I help with feeding and putting the horses out in the field. It’s exhausting but pretty fun, and honestly, walking horses through our little wooded path to their fields is my zen time.
When I compete in the spring and late fall, I often do homework after getting home on Sunday nights. However, if I have to miss school to go to a show, then I will try to do my homework before I leave. Honestly, my homework is fairly light on the weekends so it’s usually not a problem.
All of this makes me manage my time and plan when to do my homework. If I am gone all day, that eliminates a huge chunk of my time. I have my 5th period in the library for study purposes, so I can have an hour in the library every day plus Tuesday and Thursday BKTs so that usually is ample time to finish most of my work during school. Sometimes I will have extra work to do at home but it’s not heavy. So homework doesn’t affect me too much.
Having horses can be a lot, as you have to take care of a 1200 lb animal. I have two horses so it’s double the work. However, I view it as a partnership that can last a handful of years. One of my horses I have had for seven years at this point and my grandmother’s horses I have known for 16 years and I still occasionally ride them though not that often as they are getting older now. Fun fact my mother competed one of them when she was way younger then. I think horses have made my time management better. Horses have changed the way my life works and I wouldn’t want to imagine life without them.
