What I hope will happen in 2017

Goals with horses are a tough thing. They get hurt, they don't stick to timelines... sometimes they progress by leaps and bounds and sometimes they plateau for months. Those things are really out of my control, so that makes it hard to set goals. Plus there's me... sometimes I get new concepts quickly and sometimes it takes me forever to retrain my body to do it right. Combine those things and it makes me wary of setting goals.

Having said that, I'm kind of a goal oriented person. If I have shows on the calendar, I'll be damn sure to get in all the lessons and ride 5-6 days a week and have A Plan. But at the same time, I don't want to expect too much, you know? So this year I'm breaking my goals down.

Absolute must:

1. Keep Taran sound, healthy, and happy!

Hopefully Pretty Doable:

1. Qualify for Regionals at first level again (need 1 more score)
2. Qualify for Regionals with a first level freestyle (need a freestyle)
3. Get my bronze medal scores at second 

Stretch:

1. Qualify for Regionals at 2nd level (2-3 looks impossible right now, ack!)
2. Qualify for Nationals with the first level freestyle (last year I think 4 of the 5 first level freestyle riders in Region 9 scored over a 68%, so maybe there's hope?)

Oh but hell, while I'm at it...

Really crazy:

1. Figure out how to do flying changes
2. Ride a 3rd level test 

NopeNopeNope:

1. Get bronze scores at 3rd level

Oh and if you're wondering about how I did with last year's goals? My one big goal was to memorize my damn tests. I only went off course once in 2016, so I'll consider that a success!