We are two weeks into the new year and I want to share this template that has helped me a lot with my horses.

It's a simple concept: a calendar year on one page and colour coordinated blocks for anything you want to track. This way you can easily keep track of appointments, training or see patterns in your horse's healthcare.

Download "Year at a Glance" template PDF for FREE!

How it started

I started tracking my training sessions when I first got my pony Lodewijk. He was young and I wanted to keep a diary of his progress. I have years and years worth of notebooks detailing his training but also healthcare stuff. Like farrier appointments, vets visits, therapy sessions, day's documenting issues he had like lameness or other things that weren't quite right.
While very helpful, it wasn't really clear and took a lot of time searching back when he had or did something. And also, it looked kind of boring, just pages and pages of text.

Then I discovered bullet journaling. Along with my regular written pages (now accompanied with fun stickers, tape, doodles etc) I made a page with a planner of the whole year. At first it was only to keep track of the basics like when he got his vaccinations, deworming, when the farrier came, the dentist, therapist. Things like that.

Some of my bullet journals that inspired The year at a Glance template

Discovering patterns that helped recovery

When Lodewijk got really sick I also started tracking what medication and supplements he got every day, what days he was lame and how lang that lasted.
He had so many vague symptoms and no one knew exactly what was wrong. He seemed to get laminitis just from breathing air wrong.

But now that I kept track of basically everything for months and had this in a yearly overview I noticed a pattern: Every time he had 2 big 'events' withing a week he would get a laminitis. So for example if the dentist came on a monday and the farrier on a friday, by sunday he would have laminitis. Therapy and a dewormer in the same week? Laminitis. But also things like a stressful situation out of my control in the same week as a big appointment.

Now that I noticed this pattern I was able the plan around these appointments. Seems easy, but when you have a horse with several chronic illnesses you have a full agenda, specially if you need to plan at least a week between appointments. But it worked! His laminitis flare ups got less severe and less frequent. We had a very long battle against laminitis, years of ups and downs and unfortunately lost that battle in the end, Lodewijks body just couldn't handle a lot but he was fighter with a strong will to live. 
While it couldn't save him, we wouldn't have discovered the pattern that caused his laminitis episodes when I did. When you write it out in a short version it seems obvious but when living it it wasn't and I am glad we found solutions to his issues and were able to give him a few more years of a happy and pain free life.

Download "Year at a Glance" template PDF for FREE!

More pattern recognition

After Lodewijk came Raven. And after 15+ years of keeping track of everything I started a bullet journal, with my yearly overview, for her as well. Raven turned out to have several chronic illnesses as well (just my luck, but everything happens for a reason!). One of those is CPL, Chronic Progressive Lymphoedema, a condition that effects the legs of horses. I had no experience with this condition so I kept track of it on my calendar, along with all the usual things. I marked when she got new wounds on which leg, when her legs got bigger, when she got mites etc.
And here I started to notice another pattern: Raven didn't seem to handle medication well.
She got CPL flareups after her vaccinations, dewormers, after she was sedated, after she got asthma medication. Things you can't really avoid, but can work around.

Now that I know what her triggers are I can prepare. Manual lymph drainage helps her a lot. So I plan an appointment as soon as possible after she needs her vaccination or other medication. Instead of asthma medication she is doing well for now with just a salt nebulizer. When it turned out she has osteoarthritis I chose laser treatment instead of injecting. 
This way her CPL has been very stable. Another case of recognizing a pattern that was otherwise easy to overlook.

So just for this reason alone I highly recommend keeping track of any vague symptoms and events in your horses life.

More ways to use the Year at a Glance

But that's not all. Another way I really like to use this is as a planner or tracker for training. I like to keep variety in my training. Switching between strength training, agility and endurance. I will mark on my calendar when I did what type of training and how long. Than in my journal I will note more about what exactly we did and how it went. But being able to see your training at a glace helps keep that variety without a fixed schedule and without doing too much of the same thing day after day. Or maybe you do like to plan ahead, prepare for competition, or want to easily keep track of what everyone does when you share a horse.

There are so many ways you can use this simple template to get a clear view of your horses management. It's specially great for the chaotic mind, like mine.

Empty templates and a filled in one

Using our Year at a Glance template 

In the top left is space to add a bit of information of your horse, like their name, birthdate, medical information. Maybe goals you want to set for this year.
Next to this you'll find the outline of a horse. Leave it as it is, colour in the markings of your horse, or stick a photo on top of of it. It's your calender, do whatever you want! I decorated my 2026 calender for Raven with extra stickers and glittertape.

Below these sections is more room for notes. And in the bottom left is your legend, you can fill in the box however you want. I choose different colour hatches and filled in Raven's most common healthcare and have room to add more when needed. 
For example I will use a black dot in the corners of a box to indicate if she has cpl issues on a certain leg, top left her front right leg, bottom left for her front left leg, and her hind legs on the right.

Then there is the Year it self. Every day of the year has a square. Saturday and Sunday are filled in grey to find your day of the week a bit easier. Here you just mark the box corresponding to the legend you made.

Now you have a very easy overview of your the whole year! Have trouble tracking when the farriers came by last? Not anymore! Need help figuring out where vague symptoms are coming from? Maybe you can see a pattern now. Want to track more variety in your training? Here you go!

So many possibilities! We would love to see how you use it! Tag us on Instagram or Facebook when you post your Year at a Glance!

Download "Year at a Glance" template PDF for FREE!