Goals for the 2011/2012 season

Bills dam Bob with me in the 1.15m class about 9 years ago. Yikes!

I totally spent ages last night writing this post only for it to disappear in the great blue nowhere. That got me sulking and i just went to bed, but I'm not letting myself feed my horses and go to bed until this post is done. I actually hate writing these posts. not because I'm not good at setting goals, every time I ride I have a goal in mind and I finish when I attain it. Or if I have what I want instantly I move the goal posts and aim for something else, but yea goals aren't my problem. Telling other people what they are is my problem. What if they laugh at me? What if I fail? What if they think I'm crazy? It's a bit hard to set really long term goals yet because I'm not sure what comes next to be honest. This December I want to assess where I am and decide whether I sell up and go overseas at the end of the season, or go overseas for the winter and come back to my horses for next season. It's not fair for my very generous parents to keep footing part of my showjumping bill if I'm not going to justify it with a reasonable level of performance.

So then to the goals. I'm not sure quite how to format this really.

First Show- Complete every round I enter on Kate, Connie and Rascal. Assess where each horse is at to make decisions about class options- moving up or down for the next show- and what I need to work on.

Second Show- Complete every round in less than 12 faults. Cope with jumping an indoor ring 1.

Myself- Improve position- keep shoulders open and keep left hand soft when it's my inside hand. I'm unbalancing my horses with it's desire to grab. They all go less well to the left.
- Improve confidence. Trust my own ability to ride and my instincts
- Improve eye and accuracy
- Develop plan for the future

Kate- Keep her sound! Stay in tune to how her knee is feeling and when it needs to be done again
- Improve stillness and smoothness and let her canter more down the related distances so she makes the fence out.
- Get confident jumping 1.20m tracks- look at moving up when possible.


Connie- Get her show fit.
- Jump well in the amateurs and look at moving up to pro-am classes.
- Jump 1.30 track before the end of the season.

Rascal- Sell her! (Hard when no one has called. I suspect she will be here for a while longer but it's not a bad thin really. It's hard time wise but she is going really well so it just means more positive saddle time for me.
- Get her jumping confidently in the 90cm and 1m classes. Look at 1.10m classes before season end.
- Try qualify for Amateur Showhunter of the Year (This one depends on if I have enough time, the showjumpers come first for me.)

Bill- Get her out to some shows!
- finish season doing 1.10m classes.

I don't think there is anything there that isn't attainable providing everything sort of goes to plan and I'm not plagued by lameness and disaster. Connie Kate and Rascal are all feeling really amazing and giving me great rides both on the flat and over fences. It seems to good to be true almost and in a way I find it worrying because it never goes like this with horses! Until my first show is over and done I wont really know where I am at with the horses. It's all very well them going well at home, but can we all hold it together in the ring remains to be seen.

I feel like them going well maybe adds another layer of pressure, like there are no excuses for less than perfect rounds? This is not good thinking at all so I need t cut that out. I'm a capable rider with lots of lovely horses and I just need to go out and get it done. I'm not really sure whether to start Kate in the 1.10m or not, but I have done like 20 1.10ms on her now, we are more than capable, I need to just suck it up. 2 weeks now. I hope to get to Teilcey once more early next week and then there is a practice day next weekend and then the next weekend it's go time again. Already nervous!