January Review, February Goals

First, a January Goals recap:

1. Have the chiropractor out. Done.

2. Jump 2'6" in the indoor three times.  The first two times were good, the third time was not quite so good, and the bonus fourth time was a disaster. But it did get done.

3. Strengthen the counter canter. Well, I don't know if I can cross this one off or not, but I'm going to anyway. We worked on the counter canter almost every ride. He knows it, so that wasn't the challenge. His strength in it is just as good as his strength on the correct lead, which isn't much at this point, but it's better than it was.

4. Pencil out our show schedule. It's penciled alright. Very light pencil. I'm still waiting for three venues to list their schedules. So annoying. However, I am for sure doing a clinic March 30th--assuming it doesn't fill by the time my check gets there.

On to this month!

1. Build strength through longeing. My longe line sessions are not ten minutes on the line to get sillies out and away we go. Bobby spends forty minutes working--doing changes of direction, changes of gait, big circles, little circles, all around the arena circles, with side reins, without side reins, over trot poles, over jumps, etc.

2. Ride in the cross country field. Weather permitting, just to start getting him out back over terrain.

3. De-winterfy. a.k.a. no more looking like a shaggy goat. Also weather permitting. Mane pulled, a real clip with straight lines (what), and a bridle path that's not hacked out with scissors.

4. Solidify show schedule. Self explanatory.

I'm pretty disgusted with my horse right now to be honest. I don't have any desire to ride him, which is good because I'm sure if I did ride him, I'd just fight with him. He spent all week on the longe line, starting off being a complete pig, but ending yesterday like his usual polite self. Maybe by the end of the month I'll have a horse that wants to work for me again.