Exhausting Holiday Period

Thank God it is January! The Christmas and New Year period was nothing but exhausting, and not for the general reason of having to buy presents, cook food, eat too much and entertain annoying family members. No, it was exhausting because I was working on the yard by myself for nearly two weeks.
I let my student Will go home for Christmas to be with his family, and since mine aren't here this year I could work every day. No Christmas lunch for me! While everyone was complaining of putting on so much weight over the holiday period, I'm lucky because from running around with the horses all day, plus my poor excuse for lunch (the biscuit tin being the main provider of sustenance) I didn't have to worry about over-eating. Although I'm sure living of chocolate digestives didn't help the appearance of my bum in breeches! I just needed energy in the form of anything, that didn't take longer than two seconds to eat or could be stored in my pocket for a snack on the go. And hey, chocolate biscuits are so much nicer than almonds ;)
When I was working at Talland I did a lot of work too, but didn't feel as bad as I do now. It makes me realize how useful having a nearby muck-heap and the ability to use wheelbarrows is, as opposed to mucking out into buckets and carrying them to a trailer. Not only do the buckets kill your back to lift and carry, but when we have to take the trailer down to the muckheap with the quad bike, we have to tip it ourselves so it can't be too full otherwise we have to stand in it and shovel most of it out before we can tip it again. So I had to do that all by myself - lifting, carrying, tipping, and shovelling for just over two hours - uh it was gruelling! Give me ten stables at Talland to muck out any day!
Then after that there's the riding to get done. I struggle to ride with a lot of effect if I'm feeling weak or tired, as I don't have the strength to sit in and hold myself strong. I tried to rotate their work with some Pessoa and some riding, so I didn't have to ride five horses every single day.
I'm sure some people would think "oh five horses, that's nothing" but then they have to ask how much time and care are they putting into each horse? I have always remained that my yard will be small, so that there is no excuse not to give quality care every day. Every horse gets groomed, a good 45 mins to an hour out of their stable when worked as well as a hand-walk (or turn-out if weather is good) in the afternoon, they are kept trimmed, their hooves kept clean and healthy with regular HiBi scrubbing and purple spraying, and they are always in a clean environment in their stables with a constant supply of hay. So for one person to keep on top of all of that is quite a task! And lets not forget scheduling in trips to the feed store to buy feed, or taking the lorry to load up with hay or shavings. On the days I had to go away from the yard to do that, my stress levels were through the roof.
But honestly, being able to look after my horses entirely myself has no comparison to letting other people look after them. Finally, Seb looks absolutely hench with his super condition and muscle, and Julius is keeping his weight and topline even though he is off work. Those are two things I could never achieve with those two, but now it is completely under control. If one of the horses start to get a bit fizzy, I know exactly what I've changed in their feed that caused it (often the addition of balancer!) so I can easily fix it. I know if they are leaving something in their food which they don't like, so rather than keep on wasting the food (which is often what happens when they are on livery, because no one really notices) I can take it out and replace it with something else. Their beds are as clean and as deep as I want them, so every time I go into the stable I don't ever think "oh god it's so dirty" and I'm much more relaxed.
As you can probably tell, I'm very OCD about my yard and my horses, and in some ways I wish I wasn't because it is so stressful for me to make sure everything is working well in order, and trying to trust other workers to do the right job is a nightmare for me. However in some ways I like that I'm OCD about it all because I know my horses will never be left in a mess and anyone that comes into the yard will be pleasantly greeted with a clean, tidy environment with well looked-after horses. It makes it a much nicer place to work in too, though the standards must be kept!
Thankfully, Will is back so I'm trying to relax a bit and sort my body out. It feels so crippled, I need my osteo to sort me out and then go for a long sports massage and hopefully I'll feel better! I can't relax that much though, because I have a small competition tomorrow and Addington High Profile next week so I need to focus on getting Seb up to scratch.