Take 100 envelopes and number them 1 through 100. Now place the amount of money that is written on the envelope into the envelope. That is one of the most painless ways to save $5,000!!!
Before my husband and I dove headfirst into owning a trail riding facility I was a science teacher. Each year I would place a massive hand drawn elephant on my wall with a question posted above it that read, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer was posted below the elephant that read, “One bite at a time.” I then had several plates drawn that took up a lot of the front of the room. Each plate had “grade level expectations” also known as GLEs. Each GLE was an objective that I was assigned to help every child reach mastery. After each unit, as a class we would tape a plastic fork on each GLE to represent the bite we took off everything they had to learn for the year. We started each unit with the plate of GLEs and ended each unit with a recap. The students got involved in the process. If I ever forgot to place a fork on a GLE, they would let me know. One student even brought in plastic forks because I had run out. There were roughly 110 “bites” we had to take each year.
If you lost one pound per week, at the end of a year, you would weigh 52 pounds less. You know what else weighs 52 pounds roughly…six gallons of milk!!!!
The point of all these stories is that small continuous progress can make POWERFUL POSITIVE CHANGES!
No one is getting any younger. We all need to ride safe mounts. The question is, “How do we make our mules, donkeys, and hinnies safer?” The answer is the same as how you make progress in your life in all aspects: small continuous progress.
People in general do better when they have to report to someone else. NASMDA (North American Saddle Mule and Donkey Association) has a Versatility Trail Program (VTP). In this program, you turn in your hours accumulated for all seat and driving time, except while showing! There is a one-time fee to join VTP. All you must do is keep a yearly membership with NASMDA. After you reach 50 hours, you will get a plaque with missing time indicators. As you progress there are new hourly milestones to reach at each step: 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1,000, and 2,000. Once someone reaches 2,000 hours, their name and equines names will be added to the plaque.
You may ask WHY? To improve the mulemanship of your equine, to go from good to great, to be able to continue to ride and decrease risk of injury, and for pure fun and enjoyment.
NASMDA wants to help you do all of this in 2021. Contact NASMDA at nasmasec@gmail.com to get started! You and your equine have nothing to lose and everything to gain.