Miraculously, I actually succeeded in most of them without remembering what they were. My year just happened that way, shaped by Connor's progress and Nick's unemployment. They were:
Complete at least two events - one unrecognized and one recognized.
This is going to happen. I am going to have a competition season for the first time in my life, with a real eventing barn that has a real event team full of fun people (no kidding - they are awesome) and a coach to help keep my nerves in check and walk the course with me and ask me where my armband is before I go.
Success! I did exactly that: one recognized (GDHT), and one unrecognized (Leg Up). GDHT felt monumental as our first-ever event, but was just the kick in the pants both he and I needed to step up our game.
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| What Pony thinks about showing. |
Make a general riding plan weekly that includes lots of variety so Connor doesn't get fried (again...)
I admit it, I OD'd on the sandbox this year, especially with a young Cob. Luckily I and my trainer realized it, fixed it, and things got better than ever before. But I learned my lesson and never intend on repeating that mistake again. Even if my lesson plan is vague, or if it includes doing the same sport two days in a row, it needs to be interesting and varied. Sorry, little buddy.
Success! I didn't write a weekly plan out or anything, but I learned a lot in 2012 about keeping it interesting for him. We get out at least once a week, and are able to switch back and forth between jumping and Dressage without one or the other falling to pieces now. Plus, he's mentally matured and more interested in the work now, which makes it a lot easier than it did when he had baby-brain.
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| Getting outside, our recipe for not getting fried. |
Pay off my car so that I can eventually stop doing stalls on Sundays/eventually be able to go to a Sunday event.
After we pay off my car we will still have, um, a rural Indiana mortgage's worth of student loan debt from my husband's engineering degree, but damn it, I've decided that I'd rather be in debt an extra year and spending time with him than adding another 8 hours to my 45+ hour work week and losing a weekend day. Paying off my car makes keeping him without doing stalls a vague possibility for the first time since I've owned him. I'm also not giving Connor a quality ride after that much time doing chores, and I'm serious about bringing him along this year.
Success...sort of. My car is paid off, but I was pretty bullish about our finances when I wrote that, before Nick lost his job and the new job ended up being part-time. I'm going to be doing stalls until the student loans are paid off, most likely, which is 5-10 years away. Rough, but worth it, in any case.
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| Can't complain about reliable transportation that's paid off! |
Ride with Connor's breeder at least once every couple of months! (This goes hand-in-hand with the previous goal...)
An hour and a half drive never seemed so far, but there's really nothing like cantering young Welsh Cobs through the dense Indiana forests with a good friend and "other mother". I miss it, and want more of it in 2013, and getting rid of doing stalls will make that possible.
Hey, change this to "Hang out with" instead of "Ride with" and we actually got this one accomplished. :-)
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| Baby Castleberry's Filigree sleeping in the show stabling after her first in-hand show! |
I definitely want my daily ride goal to be more present, I have a hard time with that sometimes. Great job on meeting most of your goals!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It's hard on the daily rising goal. I feel like you don't know what you're working with until you get on, so having more than a general idea of what I want to work on is mystifying to me.
DeleteYeah goals!! I keep playing around with numbers so that I could board without doing stalls, but then it always circles back to me being tight fisted. Oh well. Someday.
ReplyDeleteThat is so, so true. I think about it too, especially in the cold, but I just can't stomach spending four figures per month on my hobby, when it comes down to it.
DeleteWhen goals just happen is the best -- means they're a good fit for who and where you are. Congrats on paying off the car! My goal in life is to never have a payment on a daily driver again. Tow vehicle that I will keep and coddle forever and ever, fine. But daily driver, no.
ReplyDeleteTotally, same here. It made sense when I got the Fit, since they were impossible to find used, my current car was on its last legs (literally, check engine light came on as I drove to the dealership) and the ones you could find were within $1k of new, but I'm not doing it again if I can help it. Now a truck on the other hand....mmmmm....with you on that.
DeleteThat's awesome that you got most of your goals done, even with having a curve ball thrown at you!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It was a wild year for sure. Hoping for less surprises next year.
DeleteYou did a great job achieving these goals!
ReplyDelete