Setting Goals Leads to Improvement!

I have always been very successful at setting and achieving goals. If you have the motivation to improve yourself, goals help to focus that motivation and create measurable results. I came up with this list after analyzing videos of my rides, figuring out what Amber repeats the most in my lessons, and from experimenting when I ride outside of lessons.

For 2014, my goals are to:

1. Ride between movements, don’t take a break in the corners!
2. Upper arms parallel to torso, thumbs up with firm grip on reins
3. Don’t pull back on reins-- it doesn’t do anything useful
4. No bending wrists, bend the elbows or squeeze fingers instead
5. The first halt needs to improve… don't run down the centerline!
6. Less rider movement= a better ride
7. No more rider meltdowns in the warm-up

Here is a great illustration of the straight elbows and flat, loose-gripping hands that I need to fix!