2016 Goals Review and 2017 Goals

2016 got off to an interesting start.  I made a lot of goals at the end of 2015 and then went to visit my favorite dressage judge.  She promptly scratched all of my goals, put Stinker and I on a walk only plan, and he got hind shoes (and fronts because he had been barefoot) put on to give him more support behind.  Oh and I dropped all my money on a custom saddle, but I have zero regrets because I adore it (and so does he and that is what really mattered).

Paid almost 3x as much for saddle as I did for the horse #worthit

My best decisions of the year:

• New saddle- he previously would not walk under saddle.  Immediately started walking with the new one.
• Hind shoes- when he loses his balance he goes faster.  Having hind shoes helped to give him a little more support behind and I could actually slow him down instead of everything snowballing faster.
• Only walking- this took the pressure off him and we started building a strong relationship so when things got hard he tried for me instead of panicking and checking out mentally.

Once, I got over my pouting about being put back to just walk work, I made us some new year goals.

• Happy healthy Stinker (he is happy when I shovel timothy in him and I refuse to comment on the other one)
• Happy healthy human (human is having some life freakouts)
• Build up muscle in the correct places (I am quite pleased with how he looks.  Sure I want more but who doesn't?)
• Build up strength (we are back to cantering so I am calling it a win)
• Consistent walk/trot with leg yields (I wouldn't call us consistent in the trot yet, but we do have leg yields in both gaits and both directions)

This used to be a regular response to legs

I am very pleased with how we are ending our year, despite my frustrations at the beginning of the year (freaking out at legs anyone???).  I am trying really hard to not freak out over every little thing and really focus on our overall progress.  I used to not know what I was going to get on any day and most days it felt like I was sitting on a powder keg.  Now we have a working relationship.

Not to mention we survived our first show together.  I haven't shown since 2004 and I was always a bundle of nerves.  Not only did I manage to keep myself calm and collected, but I also managed to keep him together.  Plus we now have our first ribbon and I give zero shits that we were in last place by about 10 points.  That little piece of satin stands for so much more than what the judge saw.

Quarter 4 goals

Human goals

Hahahahahaha!  I failed miserably at these.  I was supposed to see a physical therapist because everything was hurting from running.  Instead I stopped running.  I had a couple of freaky incidents with guys in cars following me and asking weird questions (like where can they get pizza).  Then I had a super freaky incident where a guy tried to open my car door on the road I typically ran on.  So yeah the running stopped and because the running stopped they pain stopped and I failed at my goals.

Stinker Goals

I have been doing a pretty good job of maintaining the relaxation, but I am starting to think that I will have to give that up to really be able to improve the trot and then come back to establishing the relaxation.  This really depends on the day and I need to have a heart to heart with my favorite dressage judge.

I ended up not putting the canter on hold under saddle.  I am only doing it once a week and it is typically in the jump field where I can keep the figures larger.  I am going to count this as a success because it is happening and it isn't quite as bolt-like.

I would say we are doing fairly well on the mobility and ride-ablity.  We still have our off days, but overall I can move his haunches and shoulders around.

Now on to the fun part.  The new goals.

More traveling and more shows please

2017 Year Goals

Stinker

• Solid WTC
• Travel new places
• Schooling shows
• Happy and healthy

Human

• Improve my position
• Get my stress shopping under control
• Improve my fitness

Quarter 1 Goals

Stinker

• Keep up the steady progress
• Focus on the trot
• Keep doing ground poles
• Keep working on breaking up the tension

Human

• Please for the love of god stop stress shopping!!!
• Keep working on my fitness
• Be more active in my riding instead of so passive

Always have fun (and use your human as a chew toy)!