New year, new house, new challenges!

2015 has turned out to be pretty eventful for the Allen family so far. I just got a new job as head designer at a petroleum company and now have a few days off per week! Woo hoo! Also, our landlord, who we love, unexpectedly broke her hip before Christmas and after multiple surgeries and PT, she isn’t able to return back to life on the farm by herself. So, she’s moving in with her daughter and selling the property. Which means we have to move out!! I’m looking forward to having more than one room, but I have been completely spoiled with our current 10-stall barn and large riding arena.

After a TON of searching, my husband found a great place for us that’s still fairly close to our current property and has 10 acres and a barn! The house is bigger, but the barn is much smaller and there isn’t an arena. When I called our new landlord, I found myself asking so many questions about the barn that I finally said, “well, I guess my husband probably wants to get more info about the house too…” which made him laugh. I know all my fellow equestrians understand!

Long story short, I have a barn but the barn doesn’t have any stalls. Which brings me to the first new challenge of the year (besides moving of course): barn makeover! I’ll post pics of the process once I get started. Oh, and I have to take down the current electric fencing and put up new electric fencing on the new land. And put in a grooming stall. And set up the tack room. And….

Well, moving is hard work! But there are other things I hope to accomplish in 2015. I’ve divided them into horsey/barn goals and personal goals.

Horsey/Barn Goals:

• Barn makeover
• Put up electric fencing in pasture
• Install a dressage arena (will post more about this later)
• More riding time!!!
• At least one lesson per month on Dancer with my trainer
• Save up for a horse trailer of my own

Personal Goals:

• Work out at least 3x per week
• Eat better & start doing meal prep for the week
• Finally make that family binder with our important info & keep it updated
• Organize my office (yep, I finally get my own office at home!)
• DIY: fence in the backyard
• Get more freelance design work

I have 11 months to complete this list. I’m determined to do it this year! What are your biggest goals for 2015?