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!

Looking ahead to 2016

I always debate on goals... I mean, I have them, but let's be real - horses don't abide by anyone's timeline but their own. A lameness, an injury, or just taking a year to figure out how to canter... the best laid plans can go out the door in the blink of an eye. So this year, I have one REAL goal:

REMEMBER MY FUCKING DRESSAGE TESTS

I am SO TIRED OF THIS.

Yup. If I can do that, I'll be pretty happy.

Then, there are a bunch of things that are out of my direct control, but that I will work toward accomplishing anyway:

1. Get Paddy sound and keep him sound.
2. Get the scores I need at first level for my bronze medal.
3. Get the scores I need at training and first level to qualify for the Region 9 championships. 
4. Ride a test at second level.

And then we have the one crazy-ass goal:

1. Get scores at second level for my bronze.

2015 was a great year, and despite starting 2016 with the Haffie in rehab, I still have Taran to ride and I'm feeling very positive. Onward and forward (with bend, and suppleness, and all those things)!

2015 Retrospective

Sometimes when I look back on the goals I set at the beginning of the year, I wonder what I was thinking. This year was a huge learning experience and overall very positive, but we didn't end where I thought we would or make nearly as much progress.

Riding goals:

• Be lighter and more obedient to the aids in dressage. Definitely, although it comes and goes. Paddy still gets bargey, I still get grabby, but I think this will always be a challenge for us. Still, looking from videos from early this year, we've come a long way.
• Be more consistent on first and second level trot work. Yes! We have a really nice lengthen trot and Paddy can really carry himself at times. There's the beginnings of a medium trot too, as well as more collection. As he gets stronger, he's able to work more over his back for more time, and it's SUCH a great feeling!
• Canter, canter, canter. Strength, balance, and we need to find some lengthenings and collection in there, along with counter-canter, simple changes, and walk-canter-walk transitions. Canter continues to be our weak spot. We started on counter-canter (shallow serpentines) since it's needed in 1-3, but they suck. We have a very good w-c transition and can do the c-w within 3-4 steps when I'm really on it. Since he's not yet balanced enough to canter normally down the long side, we haven't worked on lengthenings because he just falls apart. So much work to do here.

The Haffie Shuffle

• Laterals - we have the start, we need to solidify leg yield, shoulder in, and haunches in. Man, I love laterals on this horse. Leg yield is straight, and I can put his shoulders and haunches where I need them. There's even some baby half pass at the walk and trot. 
• Continue to have fun with Paddy and work on our partnership. I love him more every time I ride him, so really, this is the most important goal! Absolutely. He continues to be the most awesome Haffie ever, even if I did threaten to give him away once or twice (ahem). 

Show goals:

• Show at USDF recognized shows, at levels we will be competitive. Right now this means Training, I'm hoping later in the year we'll be able to go First. We weren't what I would call competitive at Training, because we're often up against pros on big-moving warmbloods. But we did reasonably well for our first rated season and scores improved throughout the year (mostly).
• Improve our scores at First level. Wait, we were supposed to show at First? Fail.
• Get off my lazy ass and send in our scores to the Haffie Registry. Seriously. Just dooo eeet! Hahaha... nope. Also fail. 

Crazy-ass dreams: 

• Qualify for the Region 9 year end championships, and go if we qualify. Yup, we did this! We also came in second to last with our worst score ever, so, er, better luck next time?
• Get scores at Training/First toward a USDF rider award. We got our scores for a Training Level Rider award, and also scores for Paddy's performance award. I just submitted to USDF for both of those, so hopefully they'll be here soon.
• Get scores at First toward a USDF Bronze Medal. Nope. We never showed First this year, although I had planned to do so after Regionals. But with Paddy's lameness issues, that didn't pan out. Boo.
• Ride 2-1, either at home or at a show. Nope. Right now we're walking exciting straight lines on the road, because that's what you do when you're rehabbing a soft tissue injury. Woohoo.

Accomplishments that were not on my list, but should have been:

• Forgetting my test at least once at every single show. WTF REALLY BRAIN???? YOU HAD ONE JOB.

In which I have yet another discussion with yet another judge over where I went wrong. 

What I'd change:

• I need to ride more during the summer. It's hard to be motivated to ride when it's 105 out at 8pm and the ground is harder than a rock. I might need to board Paddy during the summer so that I will feel guilty and go ride him every day after work, but I need to figure something out so that we don't lose the summer months entirely. We were underprepared for the fall season and the Championship show because of it.
• Remember the fucking dressage tests. It can't possibly be that hard.
• I need to look at the show schedule further out - I got stuck doing a very last-minute show that was quite a long haul, and I'd rather not do that again.
• My championship test. It sucks to work so hard and have such a crappy ride. Blarg.

Best moments:

• Every time someone would comment on how cute Paddy is. Seriously. I may not have the fanciest (or, ahem, best behaved) horse there, but he's really adorable so who cares.
• Unrelated to dressage, but... hearing a crowd of 3500 people cheering my husband and Paddy on at a joust up in Columbus, Ohio. That was one hell of a road trip, but damn, it was fun!

Picture Perfect Paddington

• Drinking wine out of the stemless wine glass I won. Wine glasses are the best prizes EVER.
• Cheering on friends and my trainer at shows. I'm not really a part of a show "family" since I don't ride with a big barn and my trainer doesn't show much, but it's really great to see people you know and cheer them on. 
• Realizing how lucky I am to have such a wonderful, supportive husband. He's just the BEST!
• Seeing Paddy's adorable face every day. I'm a total sucker for that face and I luff him to pieces. 

Also the adorable teeny-tiny earz.

Goals, hopes, and crazy-ass dreams for 2014

I started writing this post back in mid-December. I had plans to do crazy things like go Beginner Novice this spring, at a recognized show. While I think we could still accomplish that if I were riding 6 days a week with a good trainer, that's not something my schedule or my budget allow for right now.

So instead of focusing on shows and such, I thought hard about where our strengths and weaknesses are, and where I want our partnership to be at the end of the year. Right now we have a solid beginning to an amazing relationship, but we're not ready to go tackle the world just yet. Paddy doesn't need show miles just for the sake of getting out to a show atmosphere - he needs basic work at home on strength and obedience to leg, seat, and hand aids. He can jump the moon, but needs to learn how to relax and think instead of charging full-bore at everything. Shows will come when we are ready for them, not because of some schedule.

With that in mind, I've overhauled my original goals and come up with these instead:

• Be lighter and more obedient to the aids in dressage. 
• Work on first and second level trot work.
• Solidify canter leads until there's no doubt he'll get what I ask for. 
• Work on balance and collection in canter. A 10 meter canter circle by December would be a nice Christmas gift. :)
• Work on steady rhythm up to and after jumps.
• Focus on balance after the jump - no barging around on the forehand.
• Trust him over the fences enough to release him without collapsing my body like the jump is 4'. 

Before the end of the year, I'd love to:

• Have a great working partnership built on trust and good basics.
• Put in a first-level dressage test, either at home or at a show, and do a good job of it.
• Canter a full stadium course (at whatever fence height is appropriate) with a steady rhythm and good balance. Bonus points if we do it at a show.

I will hit all the local schooling dressage shows that we can, at whatever level we're working on at the time, because they're close, cheap, and good experience. I'll also attend the local schooling horse trials at whatever level I feel that we can rock. If that means we stay at GAG all year, fine. If we can magically move up to BN, that's cool too. Whatever is appropriate, and only if we are ready to go out and absolutely rock it. In fact, I opted not to enter the HT on the 19th, deciding that our time and money would be better spent with another dressage lesson, because that's where we're at. I'm good with that.

Haflinger registry goals:

The Haffie registry has a number of year-end awards that we have signed up for. Might as well promote the Haffies, right?

• Complete at least 200 hours of ride time in 2014 and qualify for a Recreational Rider award. This means riding roughly 15 days/mo for an hour per ride. Good motivation to get my a$$ off the couch!
• Be the Riding Performance Division Champion or Reserve Champion Riding for 2014 (Sounds grand, doesn’t it? But there aren’t many people who point hunt in the haffie registry, so we’ve got a chance!)

Crazy-ass dreams:

• Go BN at a USEA recognized event. Seems unlikely, but if we're ready for it and I think we can score well enough to be competitive, we'll do it!
• Show at a recognized dressage event. Again, seems unlikely now, but we'll see how the year pans out!
• Do 2'6 jumpers at a H/J schooling show. Because we sure as heck don't belong in the hunters, lol!
• Put together a 1st level musical freestyle and perform it at our local dressage schooling show. Performing a musical freestyle has been on my bucket list since... oh, like 1999. It's time to do it already, and if we can get the canter together, I think we can do one.

I hope everyone's year is already off to a great start with their goals. Let's do it, y'all!

Paddington is totally ready to rock-n-roll… right after his nap!