A Rolex(ish) Weekend

My last visit to the KY Horse Park featured slightly smaller equines 

I had really wanted to go to Rolex this year but when I had the opportunity to pay off some credit cards (and save some money to do some more dressage shows this year) I decided to do that instead. However, I didn't give up completely and decided to plan a fun weekend at home.

Rolex weekend happens to occur during the same weekend of our local horse expo so I'd taken Friday off at the beginning of the year and have had fun planning some other fun things over the past few weeks.

For Friday I'm planning to go to the horse expo and shop the tack swap. It may not be Rolex shopping but it is cheap! I found my Baker show sheet there for $15 and a pair of pony sized no-bows for $3. Mostly it's just sort of fun to dig through piles and piles of tack for pony sized deals. I'm also getting my tack locker dropped off here by my dad which means that I'll be able to work on that this weekend!

This could be fun to watch at the expo

Some of the other things I'm planning to do are;

• buy vegan versions of my favorite fair foods and make them at home
• shop for some of the things that I need to finish my tack locker
• shop at my favorite local tack shop which won't be at the expo but will be having a 20% off expo sale
• ride and spend a lot of time at the barn :)
• watch as much expo footage as possible
• work on memorizing my dressage tests for the show at the end of May
• possibly do some online shopping for a few things I need 

It may not be Rolex but it's going to be a really fun weekend!

Goals for 2017

Goals for 2017

I'm going to take a crack at this again and will put my big goals for the year here and post more about some of the smaller goals as I go.

Increase Blogging Again

I'd like to post even more this year. Again I'd like to set the goal to post an average of 15 times per month. If I can do that I'll have at least 180 posts next year and that would feel good! I'd also like to increase the number of pictures, increase the quality of my photos, and to do more review posts. Honestly just being able to show more and travel with Katai more would create more interesting things to post about!

This is how Katai feels about having her own trailer

Buy a Trailer

Yes! This is finally on the list. With all of the financial stuff I've been doing including moving to a place with cheaper rent, moving Katai to a barn with cheaper board, and (the surprise blessing of the year) getting rid of my car payments in trade for a slightly uglier car this is finally on the list

Trailer EVERYWHERE

More specifically to shows but I couldn't care less what type of shows they are. There are a lot of "fun shows" in the area that are attended by a more western crowd but with $2-$5 entry fees per class, a relaxed but busy atmosphere it's such a good way to get Katai used to showing just being an ok thing! Of course I also hope to do some dressage shows, trail rides, and hunter paces.

Maybe if we really practice at some point
we can ride here, at the KY Horse Park!

Ride in Another Dressage Clinic

I'm hoping that towards the end of the year Katai will be comfortable enough with trailering that I could think about riding in another dressage clinic. I'm not in any hurry because I'm just learning so, so, so much right now from Jane but I just enjoy participating in things like that and hope that I can do occasional clinics moving forward.

2nd Level Goals

We're working on some of the movements from 2nd level and I have complete confidence that even if our progress hits a huge wall (and I know it will stall out at some point here) we'll be able to ride all of the 2nd level movements by the end of the year. Not sure that showing 2nd this year is a doable goal but I'd like to be completing all the movements at home even if they aren't all pretty :)