functional fitness · Horseback riding

Farming is a Physical and Mental Workout

Diane Harper

I board my elderly horse Fancy in a rural part of Ottawa. She lives outdoors and someone else feeds her daily so I don’t get out there very often these days. The exception is haying season, when it’s all hands on deck to get enough hay stored to keep the horses who live inside fed through the winter.

Farm math: over 30 percent of farm workers in Canada are women. The real number may be higher as many women may still be taking on informal roles alongside male operators. But the number is increasing and being documented as more women get operations and bank loans in their own names.

The place where Fancy boards is almost entirely women-run. Ingrid owns the operation. Jen is the manager. It’s a co-op where almost all the boarders are women, so they pitch in every day to do chores.

More farm math: on Saturday we stored the last of the small bales of hay for the season. Ingrid and Jen had to figure out how much to order to keep all the indoor horses fed until next year. They got just shy of 3,600 bales, or six big trailer loads worth. Then they had to figure out the odds it can be cut, baled, delivered and stored before it rains, coordinate all that with the farmers growing hay, and with the people who were going to put it away.

Once it was delivered the team needed to figure out the geometry to get it stacked with no collapses, how many people we needed to get hay off the trailer, up the elevator and into the barn, and how many doing the stacking with minimal waiting around.

Diane in a pink shirt with part of a trailer full of hay to her right. In the background, you can see the elevator leading to the barn. There is a single bale of hay at the top. She looks very hot and is grateful to have a break while the trailer is moved into place for unloading.

I’m glad I only had to do a couple of hours of grunt work. Even if it was hot, sweaty, dusty grunt work.

Saturday’s delivery was two trailers full of hay, so probably a little under 1,200 bales. Each of those bales weight 40-60 pounds. It took 11 of us (8 women and three men) a little under 2 hours to unload both trailers, move it up to the top of the barn using the elevator, then stack it.

I couldn’t lift the bales much higher than my waist. I am in awe of the people who were able to toss them to people working up higher.

A backlit view of team barn after the last bale was in place. If you look closely, you can see just how sweaty the two people in the front are: their shirts are soaked. Photo by Mel Donskov.

In case anyone is wondering, the outdoor horses get those giant round bales that need to be moved by tractor. How many bales, and the cost of a tractor, is a whole other set of farm math.

Published by Diane Harper

Diane Harper is a retired former public servant who lives and swims (and bikes) in Ottawa. In her hobby life, she is Siglinde Harfnerstochter, a 6th C Merovingian housewife from the city of Metz. Her primary interests are cooking, textile arts and bonecarving. Siglinde lives in the canton of Caldrithig, Barony of Skraeling Althing, Kingdom of Ealdormere.

One thought on “Farming is a Physical and Mental Workout”

  1. Wow. I am in awe of Team Barn! Y’all should get T shirts. Thanks for posting this– an everyday and important piece of the reality of many women’s lives.

    Reply

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