Setting the goals is the easy part!

I even used a free calendar to write down what I should do each day to maintain my progress on my 2009 goals. Sundays, ride. Mondays, yoga or pilates. Tuesdays, lesson. Wednesdays, run. Thursdays, yoga or pilates. Fridays, ride. Saturdays, ride AND run. So far, so good. I even did a yoga podcast Monday night in my apartment. We'll see how good it is when I try to motivate myself to get to the gym to run (since it's sleeting/ freezing raining outside)...

After the boot debacle two weeks ago, I tried to muster the motivation to ride, but with the holidays and general craziness I did not get on Henry until last Friday. I rode Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and had a lesson last night. He wasn't too bad, considering his time off. We worked on keeping him forward even in halts and down transitions, and using this forward momentum to keep his withers higher than his butt, so that he doesn't fall apart on the down transition. These are UGLY exercises, but they will help build his strength so that he can carry himself through all the time, not just when we're going along at a constant pace.

We also worked more on shoulder-in, leg-yield, and haunches-in. These weren't great, but as long as I keep my upper body UP and maintain my half-halt (while remembering to keep my hands closer to his mouth than to my belly) he gets that I'm asking him to move his body around, not GOGOGO! My trainer says I need to be much more picky about these movements if I want them to be useful, and I definitely agree. I had some success last week doing them down center line so that there was no wall to tempt him, so I will try that again this week.

Homework!

• Canter-walk transitions, keeping him forward and UP in the shoulder/wither/neck area
• Meticulous practice of leg-yield, shoulder-in, and haunches-in, holding my half-halt position to help keep him slow and focused
• Trot lengthenings keeping his front end UP so as to avoid sprawling
• Halts with clucking (yes, clucking him into a halt) to keep his forward momentum and trot promptly out of the halt (should work as long as he was forward into the halt!)
  

We also got a delivery from Dover, which included new bell boots (so I could throw out the three on his stall - the green without any velcro straps, the red with only one velcro strap, and the black that was thisclose to being torn in two), Thrush Buster, Healthy Hair Care moisturizer, and a brand new BRIGHT YELLOW bucket. I love this bucket. My boyfriend thinks this is HILARIOUS. He has never heard anyone be so excited about a bucket in his life. I think it's great. The color makes it easy to see when Henry's water is gross (although it is a pretty safe bet that it will be disgusting at any given time, as he is a "dunker"), it is actually still bucket shaped, and it's sturdy. LOVE this bucket.

And I still get to shop Dover for another generous $25 thanks to Stacey of Behind the Bit! I'm not sure what I'll get yet, but I will be sure to post when I figure it out.