She’s riding into 2021. Sandra Campos is a fashion mogul who spends her mornings working with rescue horses, which means when she’s not analyzing the market for Dior saddle bags, she’s lugging actual saddles to her barn.

“Horses are such special, empathetic animals,” says the Texas native, who served as CEO of Diane von Furstenberg before creating Fashion Launchpad, a digital master class program for the style industry. “And because of COVID, their care has been really compromised, [and] many get sent into a slaughter pipeline. I want to raise awareness about that, and obviously help as many horses as I can.”

That’s why Sandra’s launching her new business from Sugar Bear Farm, a 44-acre reservoir that helps rehabilitate and rehome mistreated or neglected horses—which account for 25% of all animal abuse calls in the U.S.

Here’s how Sandra is balancing her new business with her mission to rescue more animals. Want to help? Visit Sugar Bear Farm to learn more.

5:30 A.M. I’m up! And I don’t really need an alarm. My body has done this naturally for many years. In NYC, I would get up and go to a 6 A.M. workout class, but now my workout class is my horses.

6 A.M. Getting dressed for the barn is very different than getting dressed for the office! I wear Carhartt overalls and a Patagonia fleece. My boots are from a website called Savvy Horsewoman—I’m not kidding!—and I wear insulated gloves from the local Agway store. They’re worker construction gloves. They’re rubber, so if anything pokes through, it doesn’t hurt.

6:30 A.M. You know how some people sing in the shower? I actually sing to the horses. I have a “good morning” song, and when they hear it, they know I’m coming! So I sing it, and as I’m opening the barn doors, I do “neigh” sounds to greet them… We have 8 horses right now, including 2 baby miniature horses. I’ll muck out their stalls first, and then I give them breakfast. They get grain and hay, and I mix in supplements from the vet. I like to think they’re happy to see me, but of course, they’re also happy for food!

7:30 A.M. Before I leave for the morning, I check out each horse. Sometimes, they’ve had an issue develop overnight, like if they’re rubbing against their stall doors—“cribbing”—they might get scratched… Or sometimes the mare is moody, so she’ll get different supplements to help. One of our boys was injured, so I had to wrap [his leg] twice a day. I’ll talk to him while I’m doing it… Horses are so sensitive in so many different ways. Once you start to get to know them and how they respond to you, it really makes a strong bond. I’m honored by it, honestly.

8 A.M. I have smoothies every day. I’ve made my own for a long time, but recently I started picking up a “Detox Box” from a local restaurant. It’s so easy… But really, I’m a snacker. I make “Power Balls” out of oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chips. I love granola. I wish I could say I eat fruit, but I do not! I will do Greek yogurt. I have a collagen powder I love from Copina Co. in chocolate. I throw it into everything.

9 A.M. I like my shower scalding. Scalding. Then I’ll use arnica cream on my hands, because pitchforks are not ergonomically friendly! Bailing hay has caused some stiffness, and being at the barn has changed my skin. There’s a lot of everything—dirt, dust, hay—all the time. So I use a Kiehl’s mask every morning and night to clear out my pores. Then I use Wella on my hair, because I’m trying to maintain my highlights. Trying!

9:30 A.M. Getting Fashion Launchpad off the ground has been so exciting, but it has a lot of moving parts, so I prefer to have total silence when I’m concentrating. My kids are in the house, too, but I have an office that’s away from everything, and I face the barn, so I can see the horses from my window.

10:00 A.M. I do a lot of international work, so my calls are really spread out. I’m on a few boards—one in Israel, one in the UK—that require me to be on the phone early, and my web developer [for Fashion Launchpad] is based in Germany. Then I also have California and West Coast calls! Plus, every week, I’ll talk to a women’s community like Luminary, or Stanford’s graduate school, to help guide more women in business.

10:30 A.M. Right now, I’m focused on everything about fashion’s digital landscape—how is that transforming companies, brands, and businesses right now?… Now that there are so many bankruptcies in retail, companies are looking to grow their business online. There are more than 100 marketplaces out there—Farfetch, Walmart, Zulily—and they’re all growing and expanding… I try to look ahead to figure out how things are changing, and what tech will be important in that change… and then it’s my job to help lead the way toward that change.

11 A.M. Checking in on the horses means, essentially, making sure they’re happy. They’re all from different situations—some were in the slaughter pipeline, some were very underweight and severely neglected and mistreated… we have a lot of love to help offset that, and I think you can tell when you look at each horse’s progress. They’re all so amazing. They make it easy, even when it’s freezing out. (And when you’re reading this story, it’s probably freezing out!)