Last year was the first time I set yearly goals in writing and it went….poorly. Mostly because I changed my entire focus two months into the year and basically every goal was made obsolete. It was mildly annoying each quarter to look back and realize that nothing I set out to do was going to happen.
In lieu of grand yearly goals for 2018, my focus will be on quarterly goals. I figure that this way I can focus on where we are and where I’d like to be in a more fluid and probably more realistic manner although I still have some things I’d really like to see happen by end of year so perhaps I’ll still throw some bigger plans out to the Universe and see what happens.
Quarter 1
Gem:
1) Get back to a 2-3 times a week riding schedule for consistency. I have the arena at home now and lights. Really there are no valid excuses left.
2) Twice monthly lessons. The last two months have been rather dry due to the move and the holidays. The beginning of the year slows down at work quite a bit too which should help.
3) Switch feeds. Triple Crown has been disappointing since the sale to Purina. I’ve talked to a new rep from another feed that seems promising and with only one bag of TC remaining in my feed room (holy crap I have a feed room!!) it’s time to make the switch.
4) Figure out a good mix of flat rides versus jumps at home. Now that I have a few standards I can jump at home for the first time ever. I’m very nervous about this since I haven’t the foggiest idea about how to set up an exercise. I need to find my 101 Jumping Exercises book and get cracking.
5) Make it to two h/j shows and don’t wimp out of the 2′ division for absolutely no reason. Time for the big girl panties to come out.
6) Make it back out on the cross country course for schooling again.
7) By the end of the quarter have Gem accepting my leg at the trot and begin work on better bend using inside leg
Farm:
1) Get the left side of the property situated. There are two fence lines I want to condense to turn three pastures into one. There is a fourth pasture there too but this one needs some fence work to make safe and a plan on how to connect it through a small patch of woods.
2) Look at the right side and start some tentative plans. This half is trickier as there is a section of woods with a deep creek separating two pastures and then an open area that was used as a burn pile separating another. I’d love to plan a cross country field over on this side. Tentative planning will help future ideas.
3) Hang real cross ties in the aisle and wash rack
4) Make some early plans for the tack room organization
5) Figure out stall bedding. Having never dealt with stalls before I’m a bit clueless as to what works best. Since they are only in stall for a few hours total a day the stalls don’t get that messy. I’ve been stripping them once a week and it’s been fine. The pine shavings I grabbed at TSC are ok but there has to be a better way to buy in bulk.
Me:
1) Ride 2-3 times a week with a mix of solo rides at home and lessons
2) Continue to work on my lower leg position. I’d love to have it in muscle memory by end of the quarter
3) Learn to relax when jumping. Trust Gem a bit more and go with the flow better.
4) Gain a better balance with the release over jumps. Right now I either throw my reins all the way up by her ears losing all contact or I don’t release much at all and get her in the mouth.
By End of Year
1) Complete a HT at any height, most likely amoeba (18″)
2) Begin work over 2’3″ stadium fences
3) Have a decent canter in dressage with ability to show the BN dressage tests
4) Have all pastures reconfigured
The Roaming Rider 
Those are quite the goals. It will be awesome to see your riding time go up as you now have an easy place to do it. The field stuff sounds so exhausting but that’s probably because I can’t really see it. Plus I’d be the only one doing it. You’ve got a husband who will help. 🙂
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It is mostly just pulling down electric tape and ripping up t posts. We already have the tape down and now need to get those posts up.
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You’ve got such an exciting year ahead!! Can’t wait to live vicariously though your farm life and improvements.
re: bedding, I don’t know if you have a lumber yard or timber mill nearby, but what a lot of folks around here do is get a truck load of saw dust from there. When my horses were at Chuck’s for the month of October I went and filled my truck bed up for the stalls and it was a whopping $14. This more than filled two 12×12 stalls with 5-6″ of saw dust bedding! The 13-stall barn I worked at in HS would pay for a tractor trailer load to be dropped off periodically throughout the year; we just mined from that store until it was gone. It lasted a fair while for a barn that had horses inside half the day.
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Oh!! Good idea, I will look into that. I haven’t seen any lumbar yards around since we moved down here, but that doesn’t mean anything. Buying shavings by the bag at TSC isn’t very efficient.
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Quarterly goals always worked better for me too – short enough timelines to be realistic, but not so often (like monthly goals) to be kinda pointless.
Anyways lots of ambitious stuff here! I’m right there with ya trying to go with the flow more and improve position and balance. Some things are just constant works in progress lol!
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Goal setting in general with Gem is new to me. In the past I just winged it but then I also didn’t have anything I was striving for. Now I do! I’m sure my position and following Gem better will end up on every goal list from here until I die 🙂
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Great start! Goals should always work for you and never get done if they fall short – it’s all about striving!
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Doing this quarterly should make t easier to reach and strive for more
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This sounds like a lot of my goals with Gwyn (minus the property stuff) especially with the canter work so I can show BN this year.
Good luck to you!
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Good luck with your goals!
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Not sure if you have one of these already – t post puller – but if not, they make the job of yanking up a fence line almost easy. ;D (apologies in advance if wordpress doesn’t like my link…)
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I don’t but man that would make life easier. Thanks for the link!
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Those sound like great goals to me. I love your ring and barn and everything. I use bagged shavings and find that they are the most economical for us.
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my barn owner uses those pelleted bedding bags. They last forever and you only would need a minute amount since yours horses arent really in unless the weather is atrocious. I have no idea how expensive this is but I think you should be able to bed your three stalls in not a long of money and I am a huge fan of it now that i have been boarding there for over a year now. It really does clean up well, stays dry and lasts a long time. She just tops up as needs. It gets wet down and expands amazingly.
Worth a look (again no clue how much that crap costs but here is an example of what i have seen http://www.guardianhorsebedding.com/pinepellets.htm)
Great goals. i dont dare write down goals 🙂 HA no way Jose 🙂
OH and one big goal is for you to hop on Nashville and take him for a spin (THANKS :)) HA HA HA
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Thanks for the link. I was thinking something like that existed. It will be interesting to see the coat analysis.
Me getting in tiny little Nash will be very entertaining. I need to get him a bridle first.
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weee trails and cross country jumps!
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It’s still a pipe dream at this point, but if I don’t write it down there would be no chance of it happening at all
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I hear you. I had all these goals for this year and didn’t meet most of them. But you know what. That is OK because we did other awesome things!
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