Oct. Training Results and Nov. Goals, 2010

Training area	Achieved Sept.	Goal Oct. 31	Achieved	Goal Nov. 31
Contact (accepting contact with the bit)	5	6	5.5	6
Bending	5+	6	5.5	6
Working trot	7	7	6.8*	7
Canter: Transition Carry Steer	6+ up, 4 down 5 5+	6 6 6	6 up, 5 down 6 6	7 7 7
Circles	6	6	6	7
Free walk	7	7.5	7	7
Halt	5	6	5	6
Half halt			3	4
Straight on center line	6	6.5	6.5	7
Rhythm	W-6+ T-7 C-7	7.5 7.5 7.5	6* 6* 6*	7 7 7
Precise transitions	5	6	5	6
Leg Yield	3	4	3	4
Should in	3	4	3.5	4
Me
Canter position	5	6	6	7
Relaxation	5	6	5.5	6
Sitting trot (Rogo)	2	3	3	5

Notes:

• Keep using legs and get him listening to steering with my legs
  
• * working trot and rhythm went down because we added in a lot of bending and he's still getting used to it
  

This page has our goals and results since I started to write them with Cheryl last April. She tells me the results of the goal setting at the end of every month. She's an Equine Canada judge so they should be fairly accurate. She can be tough! (but also kind)

One area I want to start seeing more results in is the contact and roundness. It is sooo important, the foundation of everything, and we haven't moved much in our results since the spring. There is improvement, but I think there should be more. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it for a long time, but it's time to get serious about it. I know a lot of people use, and over-use, side reins and I'm very ambivalent about that tool. I use them carefully and sparingly under careful supervision from classical trainers. I know they're fine in the hands of an experienced trainer, but honestly, how many young horses do you see behind the bit these days? The majority are in my experience and I just don't get that. It's incorrect even in an older, trained horse and to have a young horse tucked in like that isn't pretty or developing his/her freedom of movement. I've read the argument that young horses haven't found their balance yet, etc., so curl up. That may be true in a few cases (?), but most will stick their nose out, not in, unless they're being trained to over-bend in.
Anyway, I think I'm off on a bit of a rant, but it's my pet peeve. The rule books are clear on where the horse's head should be and you rarely see it there anymore (although in older pictures and videos you do). At the World Dressage Masters I attended last winter with the top riders and horses in the world, the majority were behind the bit most of the time. That's incorrect. Period. But some (many?) of them practice rollkur (making me iffy on going again).
Not that I have an opinion.