March/First Quarter Goals Review and Goals for April

Goals for March:

Let Go During Lateral Work: Yes!! This one is actually going so much better. Overall I want to practice lateral work more than I did for March since I just didn't ride as much (I lost about 2.5 weeks out of the month for work, unsound pony, and vacation)

Structure Rides More Carefully: Meh, again mainly with inconsistent riding this didn't specifically get better. I would say that I'm varying work more and doing more stretchy intermixed. Mostly though I just didn't ride enough in March for me to make progress here.

Work on Trailer Loading: Unfortunately the unseasonably warm weather didn't continue and I lost at least 1-2 weeks on being in Seattle and going to the World Cup. In the end I only worked on this one day out of the month which means this was a fail.

Ride More: Meh, the goal was to be at the barn 6 days per week. This was more outside of my control than it's been though with Katai being off for a week due to #mareproblems and then off for a week while I was in Seattle for work.

Goals for 2017:

Post an average of 15 times per month: This is going SO well!
            Increase the number of pictures - Mostly I think this is way better than past years
            Increase the quality of my photos - Nope, not at all and they may be getting worse actually
            Do more review posts - Not sure that I've done more but I think I've had some good review posts so far

Buy a Trailer: Unfortunately as mentioned earlier this one is now out :(

Trailer EVERYWHERE: Still a goal but no trailering so far in the first part of the year.

Ride in Another Dressage Clinic: Haven't succeeded at this yet but things are in the works!

2nd Level Goals: This was to be able to ride all of the movements at home, not necessarily to show 2nd and I would say we're doing really well here! We've been doing S-I, and are going to start working on some beginning counter canter at my next lesson! The other movements that are still fairly new to us are Leg Yield (which is getting way better), H-I, Canter in general (so sad but so true), Halt, sitting trot, and you know, actually being able to control my pony. I could be wrong but I feel like the movement we're furthest from is the walk/canter transition. I feel like we're making great progress on this one for where we are in the year though!

Pony just has #bulldozing goals

Goals for April:

First, can I just say that I can't believe it's April! March was a weirdly off month for both of us but I think that we're both at a great place to pick things up and head into April :)

Trailer Loading Practice: Even without buying a trailer this is absolutely my main goal for the year and it will probably be part of my monthly goals for at least the next few months. I just need to get her out there and work on it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. that I can. No excuses.

Practice Riding the Lateral Work: This is something I've sort of been doing but without as much focus as I should. It's fairly new to me and it's a struggle so sometimes I just don't feel like it and skip working on it. Not that I need to drill it every time but I do want to focus on practicing this on a regular basis between lessons.

Structure Rides More Carefully: This one makes it on again as well and hopefully with a more regular month of riding I'll be able to make progress here.

Trail Ride: Thanks to not having an especially safe place to ride a green and spunky pony outside (only a narrow gravel road) it's scary to work Katai outside. However, I need to get her outside of the arena both for practice, so that I can actually handle her outside at a show, and for both of our mental states. I'd like to actually ride her outside at least once by the end of April which means lots of ground work outside first.