July 13, 2021

What I Did While Connor Was Gone

When I told my husband I was sending Connor off for training for two weeks, and that I would be completely horseless at home this time because I didn't have an Aeres I could borrow, his words were "Um...you need to find a reason to go to the barn every day. Please. And take Meatloaf with you. I know how you get when you can't ride and have to sit around the house all day."

What can I say, we both get the crazy eyes from too much at-home time

So I hung a new saddle pad rack:

swapped out some coat hooks for proper bridle hooks by the crossties:

pressure washed the wash rack:

Massively cathartic, let me tell you

cleaned up the landscaping in front of the indoor:


Pruned these bad boys so they'd come out with a second set of blooms, and they did!

cleaned my truck out so my Pony Cup Crew doesn't die of dog hair inhalation on the drive over:

On the one hand, I absolutely hate having a black truck with black interior, even if it was a good deal. On the other hand, I've never spent so much time cleaning any vehicle as I have this one, so maybe it's a good thing...

and rebuilt my tack locker:

Before, kinda

See, when I built my tack locker out of an old kitchen cabinet and scrap wood in 2013, I was a much less patient and skilled woodworker than I am now. Plus my husband was unemployed at the time, so I made decisions more in the interest of saving money than making a quality cabinet. But I've spent the last seven years staring at all my bad decisions every time I open my locker, so it was well overdue for a rebuild.

I rebuilt the entire door from scratch (with non-scrap wood this time!), swapped out the galvanized gate hinges for a brass piano hinge, replaced the broken white corner trim with stained pine, replaced the broken handle, replaced the broken cork boards, sanded everything, and painted the whole thing with the leftover cabinet paint from the laundry room. Which still doesn't photograph well, but if you want to see what the color really looks like, look at the bottom of the cabinet in the third picture.

Husband has to help me with outside miter cuts because my spatial reasoning skills are uh non-existent

The bottom of the cabinet next to the corkboard is the true color

I'm still waiting on my new monogram for the front, so I'll share the finished product later, but it's back at the barn and in use for now!

Had to completely trash the color in the rest of the photo, but this is as close as I could get it!

Anyone else get super productive when they find themselves unable to ride for a while?


  1. I'm the opposite. If I'm not riding, I sit around and wonder what is the point of anything. Then again, when I'm not riding it's bc something has gone wrong. Might feel different if I wasn't riding bc my wonderpony was at grad school.

    1. It definitely changes your perspective, that's for sure!

  2. I always THINK I should be super-productive, but end up not utilizing my time as best as I could. But then again, I'm always in 'Rodney's Saga' territory; I'm not riding because something has one wrong. Definite de-motivator.

  3. Nice work!
    Usually if I have nothing to ride, I still have horses to care for, but during lockdown I did not. And I was also super productive. I finally set up a craft room and finished furnishing four other rooms. Still not done, since horses are back in my life... but it was a very productive time!

  4. You have been so productive! Life and work are always creeping into my riding time so there is never a hole to fill when I'm not riding. Maybe it's time to schedule in a personal barn "tidy up" day. I do self-care at my neighbor's barn–just me and my daughter so there's lots to keep up with. Thanks for the inspiration :)

  5. If you ever are looking for a working vacation give me a call!