“There cannot be a crisis today; my schedule is already full” -- Henry Kissinger

So it turns out I actually really like scheduling things. I'm such a geek >;-P

But seriously it's one of the more entertaining aspects of my job -- both of them. How to fit in all the pieces, in the right order, in a reasonable amount of time -- particularly challenging when you don't HAVE all the pieces or enough time. hahaha For GRS it's how to fit in all the lessons and the shows and the schooling sessions, and preferably all at times when people can actually get to them AND when I don't have to be at my other job. Tricky. And of course how to reschedule things when the weather gods get snarky. hahaha Life's not a box of chocolates; it's a giant puzzle. And some people play w/ more pieces than others *g*

hahaha I remember when I was doing my coaching prereqs one of the things I was supposed to be evaluated on was my ability to have and implement "Plan B" -- and how hard I laughed when I saw that. Plan B (or C or D or W) is all that *ever* gets implemented! hahahaha I can only dream of the day when I go to teach a lesson and the stars actually align well enough that I can teach the lesson I intended. Private lessons occasionally get to do plan A, but group lessons? Yeah right. Plan to teach a particular course, and then get there and discover that one person's horse wants absolutely nothing to do w/ fence 3; another rider can't for the life of her ride a 15m right circle (so that roll-back is simply *not* going to happen); while a third pair has no breaks. All of a sudden the lesson becomes restructured to flat work -- let's learn to turn and stop before we jump shall we? and how to train scared/confused/difficult horse to go over what he's pointed at. This SAME group might've been perfectly ready for this challenge yesterday (hence why it was Plan A) but simply *because* it was Plan A it's guaranteed not to be appropriate today. And honestly, it doesn't matter *how* simple you make it, Murphy says Plan A never happens. I remember a beginner lesson (w/t/indivd canter) for which the planned topic was walk/halt transitions (it really doesn't get any easier than that) being entirely destroyed by an unintentional dismount (oops) that led to a mental meltdown that restructured the lesson into getting on and eventually walking unassisted. We never *did* get to the walk/halt transition that day. The trick is to make sure that while Plan A is guaranteed to help the student reach goal in intended amount of time, so do plans B C and M. Cause really, they're the ones you're going to be using :)

Ok back to my scheduling games now. Wish me luck :)