Small Goals.

Last time I was out, Gali seemed almost 100% sound.  That was on bute, though, so I'm not sure what he'll be when I go out to check on Wednesday.  The thought of a sound horse has my heart racing, and I'm eager to get Gali back to work.  We have our big goals of the year planned out - 65% or higher at bothIntro B and C, moving up to Training and going through all three Training tests, competing at the Draft In Hand and Draft Ridden Trail classes at DVHA (and maybe some Draftkhana...), and a hunter pace in the fall - but all of those goals are far away, and it's hard to stay encouraged if there are no small goals for me to meet.  So, in the spirit of the Year of the DoStuffWithMyHorse, here are my "small" goals for the next two weeks.

• Well, first and foremost, the goal is soundness.  To facilitate this, I'm going to start taking longer walking warmups and cool downs when I ride.
• Ride in bareback from the field.  This sounds silly, but it just dawned on me that I haven't ridden Gali bareback since he's been at Been There.  Ridiculous, because we used to spend one day a week at Nouv working bareback, and I just realized how much I miss it.
• Work on mounting manners.  Easy to do, and easier to forget.  Seeing how enjoyable Max is at the mounting block really motivates me to get on Gali's case about his manners again.

That's it.  Those are my goals for the week.  It'll be a light week, and Gali will have the weekend off (unless Bekka takes him out) while I'm in NYC for the Geographer's Conference.

This is what Gali thinks of my goals.