Well, That Business Plan Didn't Work!

I am pondering changes to my Fell Pony business plan due to ongoing drought. Business plans, of course, need regular review and updating as times change. Some elements need to be added, some modified, and some removed. At the moment, mine needs to change because procuring suitable hay and stewarding our grazing resources are ever more challenging with exceedingly dry conditions. But it is an element of my first business plan, written about 20 years ago, that I am also reflecting upon. Back then I didn’t adequately address the role of bonds, and I’m not referring to the financial instruments, though they have played a role with their regular predictable income.

The problematic element back then was the plan to sell off middle-aged mares, proven for breeding and trained to ride, as younger ones came up behind them. I had watched Cumbrian breeders practice similar strategies, and it made sense to me. To continuously improve one’s breeding program, one needs to not only review and update a business plan but also review and update what ponies are in the herd. Some stay, others go.

What I didn’t consider in my business plan was the depth of relationships that I would form with my ponies and that they would form with each other. This past winter starkly illustrated for instance that I treasure my bonds with my older mares. We have been through a lot together in the past twenty years, and we know each other well enough to anticipate how to navigate joys and difficulties together. It is awe-inspiring. At the same time, I didn’t anticipate the strong bonds that form between my younger ponies. When one left recently to its new home, I could see what looked like grief in a pony who spent lots of time with the departed one. Though brief, it was heartbreaking. I’m also watching two young ponies who regularly mutual groom but who never knew each other before they came here. Their mothers are half-sisters. Could they know that?

I couldn’t have known about the problems with that element of my business plan when I wrote it because I hadn’t spent enough time with my ponies. I couldn’t have even anticipated the problems with that element of the plan as recently as five years ago. Back then we were all going through a major transition to a new place and climate. How we navigated that transition together made me appreciate my older mares greatly because they managed it so well and therefore helped me manage it better too. Our bonds grew even stronger.

There are people who will say that you can’t think about these sorts of bonds when putting together a business plan. I would respond that, on the contrary, one must think about these bonds for a plan to be truly effective. So as I update my business plan for our current drought conditions, I will also update it with this new appreciation of bonds, the emotional kind.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2026