While I always make sure to have paper records just in case something were to happen to my computer records, I spend quite a lot of time organizing and planning my training via calendar. It's a simple Word document, but I can spruce it up any way I want, and by having it organized page by page I can get a good visual of incremental training.
The first two months of 2010 in a snapshot:
Here is what a piece of May 2009 looked like:
Annnnnnnd here is what January 2011 looked like:
Right. Well, maybe this time next year I will look back and laugh.
I live by the calendar. I know when she is due for anything, when to alter or increase my rehab work, what I did on a particular day last month, when she cut her leg on XYZ, everything. When she was in serious work, I had a training schedule all set up week-by-week, and I always knew what we had worked on and what I was planning to work on. I planned things out ahead of time, mapped out my show season, and worked backwards from there. When she was in rehab, I delicately mapped out every incremental increase in her workload, and had everything perfectly planned for weeks in advance. Obviously, there isn't much of a use for that kind of meticulous planning anymore.
OR IS THERE! With Marti set to arrive this Friday (3 days!!!), I can actually satisfy my crazy record-keeping goal-setting urges once again! He will of course get his own set of records:
I can't wait to get started with him. He's never really been away from the stable he's grown up at, save for a few times, so this may likely totally blow his mind. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the situation. He is really quite a baby and he is a very big boy. Honestly though, all I can think about is how totally hellacious Gogo was at his age. She was a nightmare! I couldn't ride her alone outside of an arena. I couldn't ride her at all outside of an arena! She would put her head between her legs and bolt for the nearest horse. She couldn't steer and she couldn't take a contact. And she had an opinion about EVERYTHING. She broke crossties and halters left and right. She fussed horribly for the farrier. And she tried to kill Nicole once by galloping straight into the horse she was riding while I sawed her face off trying to turn or stop her, neither of which I had any ability to do. I really think there is NO way on earth that Marti could POSSIBLY top some of the crap she dished out!
Tonight, it's absolutely pouring and temperatures are scheduled to drop into the teens with windchills in the negative numbers. Sleet, ice and quite a lot of snow are all forecast for tomorrow, so Gogo is tucked away in the barn out of the weather with a nice pile of hay, two blankets, and a fresh pair of wraps (she hasn't been wrapped in nearly two months but she's been stocking up whenever stalled so I opted to wrap her and see if it helps). I trimmed her yesterday, and the changes in her feet are REALLY interesting. With all the snow and wet we've had, her feet have gone back to looking a big Connectict-weather-like, but before that they were so hard, slick and shiny that they actually looked like polished marble, frogs included! When you tap on her frog with the end of a metal hoofpick, they sound the way knocking on hoofwall sounds - solid and HARD. And as expected, she is exfoliating her sole! I'll have to get pictures, it's totally wild - and the sexy sole underneath is gorgeous. Her cuts are all finally healed or healing, no amount of grooming gets her clean (although god knows I try), and she is also putting on LOTS of weight from being on pasture all the time. I see a grazing muzzle in someone's future...
Snowmare.
Proving her heart of gold and guts of steel at the 2009 American Eventing Championships
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69.7%, Reserve Champion first time at First Level!
Encore H.T. 2008 - Gogo's first real event!
10 comments:
IMPRESSIVE! very impressive calendar. I printed it out to show to my trainer, just to let him know that there are more meticulous people than me out of here ^-^ HAHAHA
Has Gogo ever been easy? She is so lucky to have you as her owner. Imagine whta would have happened if she felt others people hands???
I keep a calendar like that too, though I print out the calendar templates and then fill them in by hand, meaning that I get to spend a lot of time when I'm reviewing what I've been doing trying to decipher my own handwriting! Your system looks HIGHLY superior in comparison.
I kept a calendar like that (on paper) for Scotty. I loved the color coding so you can tell at a glance what is going on. With Nina it has been more along the lines of 'let's see if we can accomplish anything today' and document it after, but I think those days are over and it's time to get serious and start one for her. I spend more time on the computer than I used to, I may try it your way. Thanks for the Get Organized reminder.
His name is Shaken Not Stirred? Love it! That's the name of one of my favorites at Bettina's. Good luck with him, he looks absolutely adorable.
His name is Martini but I thought Shaken Not Stirred would be an AWESOME show name for him. Also it matches Gogo's James Bond Girl-esque name perfectly. Tell Bettina that we miss her very much, I heard about all the drama at you-know-where and it sucks, and to tell all the ladies I said hello and I miss them too.
Love the calendar... I am determined to make more detailed records for myself this year and I may have to borrow that theme, LOL. But I will have to be creative since my netbook is very bare-bones and doesn't have any MS Office programs on it.
My goodness, I LOVE your records. I have to keep records for Pony Club, and I'm way more elaborate than most people, but the part where I fail is the day-to-day health and riding log. I can keep it up for awhile, and then I slip...you've inspired me to start it up again and keep going!
Where will Marti live?
At the barn where Gogo lives.
I keep records of milestones and noteworthy lessons, but planning to do something in a certain ride on a certain day just doesn't happen for me.
When I get on my horse (or any horse), I feel pretty quickly what we need to do that day and if I had plans, I usually forget them. I do have a picture in my mind of where I want to go long-term, but the day-to-day stuff is in the moment.
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