Decisions, Decisions

And all of them fun!

As you know, I’m already pretty pumped for next season with the Frankfurter. I’m absolutely giddy at the thought of getting our butts in shape and working together towards our goals.

But that means I have to define our goals. Which is HARD YO. Because we have some really great options.

Option one: stick with the original plan and work towards a move up to the Low AOs. This would mean competence at 1.20m and tentatively 1.25m for some of the bigger classics. I think this is pretty within reach for our abilities. I doubt we would qualify for any year-end shows, because the additional fees for the bigger heights would mean fewer shows, and also let’s be honest it’s historically tough for me to be any good in my first season at a new height. But that’s fine by me if we go this route. If I want to do this with Frankie, next year would be the time to do it since he isn’t getting any younger.

His first 1.20m class this past year and while he was surprised, he wasn’t particularly struggling

Option two: stay at the 1.10-1.15m and try to be really really good at it. If I did this, I would set my sights on qualifying for some fun shows- Penn, WIHS, maybe Team Finals again, etc. I’d have to be pretty strategic about getting points for these since the budget is not unlimited, but I certainly think we could have a blast exploring new options at our current height. It’s clearly well within Frankie’s abilities, and I could still send him in with AT to do some 1.20m classes to keep him really sharp (also I love playing Owner, it’s super fun).

We could try for more big ribbons

Option three: say screw it all and go for something completely different like the Adult Eq or some National Derbies. BECAUSE WHY NOT HAVE ALL THE OPTIONS??? Especially with how dang broke my horse is now, and how cute he’s learned to jump, I think we could try some different rings and have a blast. I’m leaning towards doing this in a few years though, once he wants to step down to 3′.

IF A JUNIOR CAN DO IT SO CAN I

Option four: some mix of all of these? Forego some of the shows and try to clinic with some big names? (Peter Wylde is coming to my area next June, and GM tends to roll through every fall). Try a local HT? Do other stuff I’m not thinking of?

We could just stand majestically for a while, he’s pretty dope at that.

Basically, I can’t lose. There’s certainly tradeoffs to consider, and in some cases choosing one option means closing another one off, but there really is no bad option. I’m planning to sit down with my trainer in the next few weeks to come up with a game plan for our show season, and see what she thinks will work for us.

No matter what we choose, or if we do a mix of everything, there is one constant.

I will take a thousand pictures of Francis napping everywhere we go.

SNOOZES 4 LYFE