August Goals

So what it's the 4th? I have plenty of August left to work on my goals. I think in the future I'd really like to do goals for more of my students, but for now I'll include just the one I co-own a horse with.

On the horse front...

Tango:

 

-Develop a quiet canter. As in... Every time I ask, I get a quiet canter. Not half the time, like today.
-Slow the trot, shorten the trot, relax his back.

Danny:

-Work on lengthening and shortening the trot
-soften and develop better leg yields through spirals and other various exercises
-Get a real walk-canter down
-Maybe improve the shoulders-in? I have a mental block about that exercise, so we'll see.

Camou:

-Introduce leg yields, because he has no understanding of moving off the leg... At all.
-Improve the lead issue
-Introduce the indirect rein as a method of turning

Jimmy:

-Fix the go problem. His accelerator broke with all the kids riding him. I'd like to tackle this by training the crop independent of the leg as a go aid, then reinforce the leg using the newly trained crop aid.
-Alllll the leg yields.

Bert:

-In all honesty, I don't get on this horse that often. My main goal is to get on him four times this month. He's a school horse, yes, but he is SO CROOKED and I really don't think his training was ever that high of a caliber to begin with.
-When I get on him, I'd like to fix his go and stop a bit, as well as work on leg yielding.

Harley:
-Another school horse that just doesn't get the love he deserves. My goal is to longe him in the chambon twice, and get on him for two "this is how we halt" lessons.

Able:
-He used to be my star lesson horse. Now.... Something is wrong. I'd like to work towards identifying that problem through riding and bodywork.

And on the person front...

A.L.: my partner in Camou, she's a darling girl whom I adore! However her aids are often sloppy and her hands aren't soft over fences. So her goals...
-Differentiate between calves for quicken/upward-transition and heels for lengthen.
-Engage the core and frame of her torso to enable better lateral work.
-Quiet the hands over fences by reinstating a formal mid-neck release. Not a crest release, but somewhere to rest her hands so she can rock back into her heels
-At least two longe only lessons.

Myself!:
-Take copious notes from my riding lesson with *eek!* Anne Howard this weekend. If it's as amazing as I hope it is I might really be stretching things in order to take regular lessons. I need them.
-Survive Spokane to Sandpoint. I have to run 14 miles in two days. Yuck.
-After the run thing, I'd like to work on doing more exercise. Not running, because I don't like that. But... I need to workout somehow. I'm heavier than I've ever been before.

Woohoo! I definitely stole the goal idea from Carly. I went overboard though.

Cheers!