Planning It Out

The second half of January has been all about getting the ponies back into a routine. Bridget's actually been far more wild than Sophie, although Sophie has her moments too and is back to being the most spooky bolty pony ever. I feel a lot more confident after last summer and fall of normalcy with her though. There is now that precedent set that with a regular work schedule she can be a solid citizen. 

While I think we all needed the break, the getting back at it stuff is a bit painful from my perspective - both of them managed to forget their manners and are quite dedicated to attempting continued world domination. Fun! 

The weather continues to be as dismal as this clip job.

Anyway, I thought I would outline our (very) tentative 2022 schedule here.

Feb:

Continued back to work exercise. There's a good free guide to that here. Basically I am hoping to be back to where we left off in early December by month's end and have at least a couple of outings to the local equestrian club grounds under our belts.

March/April:

- resume monthly local dressage clinics for 2022

- tentative weekend on Vancouver Island for a 'cowboy' clinic

- water installed and arena base installed at home

- organize (and participate in) online dressage test day (local)

May:

- Bridget to Vancouver Island for breeding

- Mountain Trail clinic in Vancouver 

June/July:

- move horses home

- Bridget back to Island if needed

- Vancouver Island dressage show (or ToC show)

- possible semi local xc clinic day (small poles and logs for Sophie)

August/Sept:

- Girls weekend away - clinic on Vancouver Island

- dressage show Vancouver Island

- Tentative Vancouver show

Oct:/Nov:

- Install footing and arena landscaping at home.

- End of season for local monthly clinics.

TL;DR version:

We've got a lot of fun girl's weekends and clinics planned this year, plus I'd like to get out to a couple of shows. I'm eyeing up the ones in the Comox Valley this year because it's 'just' a ferry ride there and back and I wouldn't mind trying something new. There's an outside chance we'll get to one of the favorites in Vancouver but at the moment that's very tentative - it's a longer way to travel and a bigger commitment with a greener pony. I don't entirely know what to expect from her at shows yet. The more low key island ones might be a nice starting point and they're ones I've never personally been to.

Recent view over to the island. It's about a 1.5 hr ferry ride from here and the route usually runs pretty reliably in the summer.

Bridget's getting bred to this guy:

Cross your fingers for me!

And I hope to have our tiny property ready for ponies this summer, arena completed in fall, ability for remote lessons shortly after that.

New ring is going on top of that nice muddy mess I've made driving in to pick up hay this winter. We're going to need some fill and drainage installed.