Part of the reasoning behind the creation of this blog was to give our readers a behind the scenes look at what happens at the Barn. One way I hope to accomplish that will be through spotlighting a certain aspect of the Barn, whether it’s a student, horse, particular program, staff member, or staff team. In this week’s case, we’ll be rolling with the team nearest and dearest to my heart (I’m clearly not saying that to play favorites to the team I belong to it or anything): the Operations/Facility team!
Currently, we have five members in the Operations team: Barratt, Jordan, Bekah, Elisabeth, and Connor (that’s me!). The primary focus of the Operations team is to ensure that day to day operations and chores go smoothly. A large part of this involves the upkeep of the facilities – fences, trails, arenas, etc. This can range from quick fixes, such as repairing a broken fence board, to long term projects, like evening out all the dirt and filling in holes under all our stall mats. We tend to tackle more of the weekly and daily chores as well, whether it’s dragging arenas or cleaning/refilling water troughs.
However, one thing the Red Barn prides itself on is how diversified our staff is in regards to taking care of the daily duties. As you can imagine, a team of only five people would struggle to tackle the day to day tasks required to take care of 16 horses and a 30+ acre property. Luckily, the rest of our staff is always there to help with cleaning stalls, ongoing and closing chores, and other bigger projects that may arise.
There’s also a lot of overlap between the Operations team and others, too. Barratt leads several unmounted weekly groups that come out to the Barn. Jordan and Bekah are both riding instructors. Elisabeth and I often help in lessons as horse handlers or side walkers. While taking care of facilities is our primary objective, we still have plenty of opportunities to develop other skills working here. I enjoy getting my hands dirty, but there are plenty times where I want nothing more than to get back into the office so I can cook up another blog post. (I can’t help but smile as I reread this for the final edit – I’m currently covered in mud and sweating from helping a volunteer group move stall mats this morning).
Let me be the first to apologize if we’re a little smelly or sweaty at times. But, ya know, it kinda comes with the territory. We’ll willingly sacrifice our own appearances if it means the Red Barn’s property is looking beautiful.
-Connor