Winnie Bagel's 2022 Diary

This isn't going to be the typical New Years Resolutions blog post (I don't make them and if I did I would never stick to them!). Instead, I want to show you something which I do every year and find super helpful.

Firstly, Iet me introduce you to my horse, Winter. Fondly nicknamed Winnie Bagel.

I have owned Win for almost 2 years and she is definitely my heart horse!

Every year Winnie gets her own diary. Nothing fancy, just a basic week on 2 page one with a notes section. This is the one I used last year:

This diary contains EVERYTHING Winnie....and when I say everything, literally everything.

I start by jotting down some important info in the notes section:

• Normal routine

• Feed

• Insurance details

• Phone numbers - vets, farrier, emergency contact

I then go through the diary and fill in anything I need to get done at certain times:

• Worming schedule

• Vaccinations

• Insurance renewal

• Field maintenance - spraying etc.

I find it useful to just get this written in at the start of the year - its an easy mistake to miss a vaccination by a few days just because you had complete forgotten it was coming up. If they are already in the diary you don't need to worry.

At the start of each month....

• I put any competitions/clinics/lessons I want to attend.

Finally, everyday I fill in a few bits of info - it only takes a couple of minutes. The things I might include are:

• Exercise - what type of exercise she has done that day (flat work, jumping, hacking, lunge, in hand, day off). I also use an app called Equilab to track ridden work so I know what distance we have covered and how much of each pace we have done.

• Turnout - how many hours turnout she has had and what time the turnout was. eg. half day, 8am-1pm.

• Behaviour - anything notable? eg. galloped around the field for 10 minutes like a lunatic or appeared lacklustre when ridden or was upset by fireworks.

• abnormalities - if she has had something like an upset tummy or not eaten all her hard food/hay or has an injury.

• Anything else which seems important! - for example, if I am making a change to her feed I would note down the day I started introducing the new feed. I also add things like when she is clipped or if she comes into season.

Here is an example:

(I use abbreviations to make writing things down quicker. T/O is short for turnout)

Having everything written down makes life so much easier. I can easily and quickly check back to last month to see what day it was I started her on a new food or flick forward to see when she needs her feet trimming. It also helps you to recognise patterns, for example, you may be able to link a behavioural trait to when your horse is in season. So I strongly recommend getting your horse a diary and giving it a go; honestly its so simple but so useful!

Claire :)

PS. just for your amusement.....here is Winnies favourite past time (sound on!!)