Do you make an advanced plan on what you're going to do with your horse (s)?

[Fools Motto]

Like some sort of timetable. Monday hack, Tuesday Lunge, Wednesday school etc...? OR do you just go with the flow and do what suits you at that time?
Also, for those with young horses (or in the process of backing), what do you do to vary the 'entertainment'?!
Thanks in advance.

 

[kathantoinette]

Yes and usually to fit around work and the weather. I prefer to school or lunge if it’s windy and save the hacking for better weather. I also try to avoid multiple days in the school. I keep a diary of our activities every day noting which routes I’ve hacked, exercises I’ve worked on when schooling and how the sessions have gone.
Can’t comment on young horses as I only have the one horse and he’s 10 but I do vary the school work with poles, jumping and flat work ?

 

[windand rain]

No not that rigidly we do plan things round the weather and the pony's age and trainng level. Plan the steps of training again in order of age and life skills. Leading, loading despooking wearing tack long reining and finally sitting on but there can be huge time lapses between doing stuff. Sometime decide to reinforce earlier lessons sometimes new stuff sometimes sits in the paddock being a pony for months. The plan is in place just doesn't have a timescale

Once ridden away it still depends on time and availabilty of a rider sometimes hacking, sometimes playing in the school, sometimes lessons and jumping. Even sometimes back to ground work and the baby stuff.

 

[catembi]

I have just backed my Shetland. We are going with the flow. Sometimes I lunge then ride in my school. Sometimes I go on the concrete drive behind the house, like tonight to get out of the wind. Sometimes we do some little jumps in-hand. If she's looking cheeky or it's windy etc I lunge first. I can't hack as no saddle & she really is too small, & I limit riding to 10-15 minutes for the same reason.

 

[Callieann]

I never make any plans. I tend to see what my horses are like on the day and take it from there.

 

[Sail_away]

Yes, I always plan but they’re flexible. Mostly because there’s things I want to fit in and I need to juggle my schedule around - eg, if I want to hack three times, flat twice and jump once in a week, I need to see which days I have time to hack properly, and which days it would be better to flat in the indoor where I don’t need to worry about the light.
They’re pretty flexible though. This week I’ve changed my plans totally because I don’t fancy jumping in 50mph winds, for example.

 

[Jango]

I need to book the school if I'm riding in there and if Im hacking mid week at this time of year I need to block out until 9.30 in my work calendar so I always plan. In the summer it's more flexible as I can hack in the evenings or school on the field, so will sometimes switch things around. In normal non covid times I usually see friends a few nights a week so plan riding around that too. I am a planner though, I plan all my meals a week in advance too ??

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I plan not to plan!! I try and school 3 times, lunge once and hack at least once. It really depends on the weather for me.

 

[throwawayaccount]

sort of, I have an idea in my head of what i'm going to do that week- but can be scuppered if I end up having to put my mare on FL, due to work emergencies, or going down and finding her without a shoe!

 

[TGM]

We generally have a rough plan that revolves around the weather, but it is flexible. For example, the weather yesterday and today was forecasted to be terrible, so we made sure all had plenty of work earlier in the week so they could have these two days off. We try not to do the same thing two days running so alternate hacking, schooling, polework, loose-schooling, jumping etc. with regular days off in between. Daughter events so we do have to do some planning of the fitness schedule, especially this year as there has been no hunting in the last few months.

 

[jnb]

I don't really plan apart from what day I'll ride, I don't have a school and can't travel to one currently so I hack, or hack, or......hack.
Weekends and one lunchtime a week as I am allowed an extra hour from work (i.e a 2 hour lunch).
Although soon I hope to be able to ride after work, it's tricky as I am straight out onto a commuter village access roads and the villagers tend t use it as a race track before and after work.
When we are not in lockdown I have a lesson once a week in the week unless it's the dead of winter so I can at least get out of walk!

 

[Annagain]

If I make plans, I beat myself up for not sticking to them, so I don't even plan to ride any more, I just get on if I feel like it and don't if I don't. Since this lockdown started at Christmas, I've been in the school twice. The weather's been so bad the school's either been flooded or frozen most of the time and with nothing really to work towards, I've really enjoyed just hacking and getting to know Charlie. My confidence on him has come on in leaps and bounds. If I had pressure to be doing something I'd be bothered if I wasn't doing it and it would be counterproductive.

 

[SEL]

One isn't sound enough to make plans really - I judge how she is in the morning and decide then. Although this morning I just settled for the fact that I wasn't flying a kite in the school. Could barely stay upright!

The little pony needs to do more but weather and work are getting in the way so I've given up planning because I just feel like I'm letting her down if I don't manage to do anything

 

[Austen123]

i like to make plans for the week and i usually base it around the weather. she had yesterday off and i will lunge today

 

[Tarragon]

I have goals rather than plans, such as this week "I need to have another go at trying this exercise" or "next time I do this route I want to make him trot up the whole hill".
Weather and other people all tend to get in the way of achieving a set timetable of plans!
I do keep a daily diary, have done since 2007, where I write down both what I have done and what I want to do next. It does make for interesting reading! If I have a moment, I will look back at today's entries 2 years back, then 5 and then 10. It is a good way of seeing progression/

 

[Alibear]

I have a range of things I want to work on with my horses, from bits around grooming , bathing, standing still, in hand work, introducing her to new stuff/desensitisation, lunging, ridden work on the paces , flexing and bending (in hand and ridden), obstacle pole work, hacking, trailer loading etc
So on any given day I asses how we've been doing and just how is she on that day in front of me, then I pick something I think is suitable from the list. With the winds I'd already scratched riding before arrival this morning and she was fairly wired and stuff was blowing all over the place so I scrapped in hand work too and just got her to stand nicely whilst I re-did her mane plaits instead. That was still quite an ask of youngster with the racket everything was making in the wind, other horses kicking off.
On Saturday I made an obstacle course ish in the arena with poles, barrels and a pretend gate as she'd being do so well on the paces work and bending that she was feeling a bit bored so that seemed to perk her interest again.
I used to plan Mon/Tue/Wed etc but I was too rigid with it and got myself into some daft situations so I find the above approach is working much better for me.

 

[sportsmansB]

I try to plan but it is weather dependent. My annoying horse won't stay out long in bad weather, so I actually try and give him his day/s off on the best days so he will stay longer out (!). Then I just try to make sure that the other days are not repetitive, so if I end up in the indoor doing flatwork one day, I'll make sure that the next day I am outside doing poles, or whatever. I can't hack in the week as I haven't time with riding before work so I always hack at the weekends. It tends to shake down ok, the only thing I am strict about is not two days in the indoor doing flatwork one after the other as neither of us have the patience fo that, If the weather is terrible and I need to be inside a few days in a row I will lunge or free school him just for a change.

 

[sherry90]

I use a diary and often will plan the week out roughly to coincide with work commitments or family commitments. During normal times I can often have travel and stay away so I’d plan his days off around this so the diary helped keep track of eg birthdays or social events I can schedule his workload round that. Really helps with horse/life balance!

I also now make real brief notes of how the session felt after or if I noticed anything different (good or bad!) in his way of going. Helps keep a tab if there are any patterns of concern OR patterns of progress!

 

[sherry90]

Forgot to add - I find it massively helps to keep variety in the work, can often get stuck in a rabbit hole of not schooling for a few weeks if the weathers lovely (hahahahah!) and just hack or if the weathers rubbish sometimes do more school work than I’d like so it prompts me to mix if up with poles or in hand work if I notice we’ve not had much variety due to weather etc.

 

[scats]

I try to, but the weather/life generally gets in the way. I find it works better for me to have a rough idea in my head, but to go with the flow depending on weather and other uncontrollable things.

 

[Suechoccy]

Yes at the moment as I signed my 2yo old up for the Top Barn 12 week challenge (bronze 2.5 quality hours (not grooming) with your horse per week) and my 11yo up for silver (4 hours a week) which ran from early Jan and finishes on 28 March. Sounds easy but when you also have a job and other responsibilities, and weather is awful (we've had floods, snow and ice), it's been a proper challenge to work out how to fit it in, how to make good use of tiny amounts of time (eg Four days of daily 2 x 20 min sessions in a stable or yard in-hand will give you the 2.5 hours for bronze) in daylight and dark!

 

[Cragrat]

I use a diary and often will plan the week out roughly to coincide with work commitments or family commitments. During normal times I can often have travel and stay away so I’d plan his days off around this so the diary helped keep track of eg birthdays or social events I can schedule his workload round that. Really helps with horse/life balance!

I also now make real brief notes of how the session felt after or if I noticed anything different (good or bad!) in his way of going. Helps keep a tab if there are any patterns of concern OR patterns of progress!

I do this too - I find it also helps me actually try and make progress, rather than doing the same hacks at the same speed, I can aim to repeat certain hills, or increase the proportion of canter etc. And I try to have 3 'intentions' for each week, which might be to improve w-c-w transitions, or square up the halt etc, then review at the end of the week.

Sounds time consuming, but it really only takes a few minutes - I don't write essays