The barn implemented a Google Calendar! On it, they track lesson times, clinics, the show schedule, farrier/vet visits, and anything else that happens at the barn. I have my phone set up to give me a run down of my day's itinerary from my own Google Calendar on my lockscreen, so after I added the barn's calendar to mine, I can see without even unlocking my phone whether or not the indoor arena will be open today, and at what times.
For a semi-private barn like ours with a lot of lessoners and very few boarders, this is invaluable. Probably 3/4 of all of us live at least a half hour away, with the longest drive being two hours, so being able to easily stay on top of things at the barn from home is wonderful, and it makes us feel more connected.
My idea for this post came from the CoTH thread "Anyone used an online scheduler for lessons?" We don't have need for that, but I was interested to hear that products like this exist. Do any of your barns have an online calendar or lesson scheduler?
Great idea for a busy barn... One barn I was at did that - they did a lot of lessons with kids, so I was able to dodge the busiest times.
ReplyDeleteThe barn where my daughter is a working student uses Google calendar - it is considered a training barn, so their day is filled with lessons and training rides.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping our barn goes to something similar. While we are small, we are gaining 3 new boarders and lessons are stepping up as well.
We drive 30 minutes one way - if the weather is nice, no worries. But if everyone needs to use the indoor...