I won't lie - it sure kept me busy! BUT I had a lot fewer ponies then and for a while I didn't have a truck - so when I went places with friends that did (we often did combined vet/feed runs,equine event runs and several out of state runs), I took braiding with me and would sit in the truck passenger side and braid away. Even took it with me to my one daughter's piano lessons one year and would braid for an hour while waiting (like some women crochet, embroider or quilt, LOL). Still take stuff w/ me to the DR's office, too. Two of my horsey friends (don't see them as much now since I'm 20 miles away) - I would sit and untangle haystring from round bales while we sat outside on their porch visiting, then use some to make a collar, usually.
I often braided while sitting on the couch watching movies and when I knew I needed it and my hands were used to the braiding, i braided a girth and wrap strap overnight before using it the next day when we went to a different farm with a whole trailer load of ponies in 2010... Still using that harness (well really haven't used it since Oct 2014 when everything packed up during our "quick" move). Now that we have wood look, vinyl flooring that's easy to sweep/mop - I've several times already brought hay string in and just untangled it and then swept up the mess (if it wasn't washed first)...
I currently do a variety of things while watching movies - braiding, looming (haystring mostly, starting some yarn projects too), shredding paper by hand (magazines, ads come in mail box, catalogs) that we are now putting under manure that will be going on the sand in areas for planting our fruit trees and going into raised beds around back yard. Generally get to watch a couple of movies a week. I DO also fold laundry while watching movies, too (u kno - normal people things,
).
I will untangle round bale string while waiting for water tanks to fill IF I'm not grooming ponies. I try to swap back and forth so that I do a little of each - every day. If the string is "really messed up" - the ponies seemed to catch it in their teeth/chew on it, it's really frayed or for some reason doesn't look "good" or it's caught up with a lot of weeds - I throw it in the burn pile.
It's amazing what the braided haystring harness has held up to. In 2010 we started a total of 4 ponies in harness - all the way to hitching and driving. In 2011, we worked 3 - 2 yr olds - Kechi, KoKo, Kreature (ground driving) as well as continuing to use the original 2 harness's on the drivers. I did get our first pair of work (collar/hame) biothane harness. Let's see - we started Bell, Bit, Cassie, Cupid, Flower, KoKo, Kechi, Koalah, Kreature & Stuffy in it. We also worked/started several others in it a couple of times, but then went right to other harness (beta or bio - pleasure or work type). I need to make/replace the first set of traces - they have worn out. The new set is started - it's a double layer and buckles with buckles instead of conways - but it's not done yet... With our hurried move in 2014, I'm not sure where I packed the incomplete set of traces... They don't appear to be with any of my other braiding projects.
I have a bunch of youngsters to start again now. Classy, Shamrock (2012 mares), Bunny & Echo (2013 - mare/stallion), Rio & Dandy (2013 geldings - TINY), Wizard (2011 stallion)... Cheri & 'Clipse - an older bay tobiano, larger mother/daughter pair that have already worn the beta harness a bit, but not really had any ongoing or serious work yet. And have 4 babies (late 2015/mid-2016) that are old enough to start wearing bridles/harness and ground driving. They are SOOO tiny, too! Lots of adjusting of harness...
WOW, until I wrote this up, I didn't REALIZE just how many we had here ready to start working - YIKES! Anyone want to come visit for a week??