Better Rested equals A Very Alert Driver

My boy, Valie, shows me what I should do before driving to the barn - as seen here, he wakes up from an afternoon siesta, on an unusally warm winter's day!

Early last week I made my way to the barn and although it was late afternoon and it was still "daytime", it quickly began to get dark and the story goes downhill from there!  When I began the drive, I was exhausted and by exhausted I mean that I was probably in danger of dozing off behind the wheel on the way home.  However, imagine my surprise when I found myself nodding off on the way there and as such, I then knew that traveling to or from anywhere had been a mistake!  But, on the other hand, I know that had it occurred to me prior to leaving the house, my desire to be with my horse would have been stonger than my inner voice of reason.  I know that isn't a responsible way of looking at the situation but being that he lives quite a distance from me, a 50 mile round trip, it's hard to get to him as much as I want and many times, during the course of a week, I find myself missing him so much that it hurts - as for my non-horsey friends, they tell me that they just don't understand how I can miss him that much! 

The truth is that, from time to time, I envision moving him closer to home but I always worry about creating change for him.  What I mean is that Valie is happy, he's never looked as good as he does right now and has several equine buddies that he truly depends on.  In other words, I would worry about how he would adjust as he is truly a creature, errr, I mean a "horse-of-habit, he thrives on a schedule and unsettling that schedule would surely cause a mood shift but there's also something to be said about being in closer proximity to him and that would mean more "face" time for both of us!   But, in the past, prior to moving him, I always worried about such things and he always surpirsed me by settling right in to his new home! 

In the interim, I have made a promise to myself and that is to be better rested before I drive to the barn.  In the scheme of things, that's a small task for me to accomplish if it means keeping me safe and my horse happy -  better rested equals a very alert driver!