Goals, stretch goals, falling behind on goals

One year ago, Kat and I were doing all sorts of jumping in preparation for Vegas Nationals, which we didn't end up going to. This week, we've been keeping our workouts sub-thirty minutes and mostly working on walk-trot transitions.

This is literally the most recent photo I have of her because I wanted to show off how homeless she looks

It's not her fault - she has spent the last seven weeks essentially on stall rest following a cut, stitches, an abscess, etc - but it IS disappointing.

In fact, reading Alli's post about the slow climb to greatness hurt a little bit, it felt so close to home.

I've gotten so much more education this year. I've taken lessons this year from SEVEN different trainers and learning something important and good from each of them. (Nine trainers if we count Dec 2015 too).

Tracey has 'upgraded my magnifying glass' and is teaching me SO MUCH about nitty gritty details, allowing me to be a better rider than ever before, and I'm super stoked to see how she continues to help me learn how my body works in the months to come.

Trainer N taught me about trusting Tango in a way I'd previously been incapable of, and her lessons brought Tango from this to this.

And there's more I could write about, from my lessons with Dumbledore to my larger understanding of what makes a good lesson, things I've learned about how to better teach my students, and yawn yawn yawn.

Megan and I have also been talking about how spectacularly bad humans are at predicting the future, how we sometimes set wildly inappropriate goals and sometimes are too conservative. I was looking at the local event schedule for next year and I realized this:

There are 15 weeks until my favorite facility hosts their winter event. That's a lot of time and also no time at all if we're being honest with ourselves.

My stretch goal will be to enter Kat at training - our dressage is or will be up to snuff to get us through the test, and it'll mostly be a my-confidence and horse-fitness thing determining whether we do training or novice. But our stretch goal is to do training, to start the year off confidently, to see what happens.

I was thinking I'd mostly focus on dressage this year, but the fact of the matter is that the mare loves to jump and I think I do too (I am being completely honest when I tell you I'm not sure I remember the last time I jumped anything bigger than 2'6") - and if she loves it, I can't drill her forever in a sport she's only tolerant of. It'll be fun.