Changing the Plan

So bad news, the show I was going to do on the little paint horse- he isn't going. The entries were due relatively quickly after we decided, and my student was away on vacation. I hate to pressure her when we have all year just because I want to show, so we've pushed that out to probably late July or August. Not a problem! It actually is fine because he needs his hocks done and more time is only going to make him score better!

All of the talk about showing the horse at rated shows this year has me feeling the itch to get TC ready to show. I'm excited to show on a horse who isn't TC, since with TC there's going to be some stress just because of his behavior at first. But I really do want to show him!

I feel like I WON'T STOP with these pictures
but they're some of the few riding pictures I have!
Soon there will be more :)

A while ago I remember writing up a plan for TC that, thinking back now, makes me slightly sad. So here's a new plan for him now that I have more knowledge:

2016 (5yo)- rehabilitation and general training, get him off the property a few times for clinics (ideally hitting 2-3 barns out of hopefully GG, Greenville, ASH, my parents' place, VR, RG, and maybe going back to HPW if I'm feeling like driving a lot) and teach him to be a normal horse in new situations; maybe show Training 1/2 at the end of the year at Greenville if I'm feeling extremely ambitious and his canter is magically fixed in rehab.

2017 (6yo)- in the spring, lots of off property trips, including some overnight ones to Tracey's barn and Heidi's barn; by summer showing solidly at Training; by fall, move up to First 1 unless I need more Training scores for some reason.

2018 (7yo)- in the spring gather scores for First level (championships, freestyle scores, etc); in the summer, debut First level freestyle if I so choose; in the fall, move up to Second 1 and maybe 2, put on lead changes over winter, maybe first Alfredo lesson.

One day I'll look up and one day this trot is going to be freakishly
amazing instead of just amazing

2019 (8yo)- in the spring gather scores for Second level (championships, freestyle scores, etc); in the summer, debut Second level freestyle and probably move up to Third level for the remainder of the season. Put lead changes on over winter if I didn't over the winter before.

2020 (9yo)- in the spring, finish up gathering Third level scores and start showing Fourth 1 as well as Third freestyle. Finish up three star rating for centerline. If he isn't getting the pirouettes on, sell him this year. If he is, ideally go PSG by the end of the year, or at least Fourth 2.

2021 (10yo)- bravely start the year with one Fourth 3 so that I can do a freestyle, spend the year gathering freestyle scores (4) for my Silver bar and showing PSG.

2022 (11yo)- finish up any PSG stuff I want to do, maybe get scores for championships if he's competitive (not likely), put up for sale if he isn't going to make it to I2, or go I1 by the end of the year. Finish up four star rating for centerline.

2023 (12yo)- use the year to get him ready for GP, do a couple I2s but make the move to GP to gather more scores. Finish up my five star rating on centerline. Put up for sale after the five star rating is achieved. Or win the lottery and keep him forever.

I forgot about this behavior... 

Obviously none of this is going to happen. Something will happen to derail us or he'll go faster or slower or he'll never come back from his injury. But I'm an obsessive planner and like to do things like this.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some goals knocked off though. One being doing a freestyle at each level required for the freestyle bars (there's only a handful of people who have all three bars and all three medals, so that'd be so cool!) and riding at CDS Championships (which switches back and forth between SoCal and NorCal- I'd only do the NorCal one because it's a lot cheaper for me to get to and hey, I've got friends in the area with cute dogs). I'd absolutely love to win an all breeds award for him, I need to look into that further.

I also need to look into the horse performance certificates for the lower levels too. And I want to finish up my centerline stars, since I'm seriously lacking in those because I couldn't afford to show a bunch at Fourth and above because I was in grad school.

All of this will depend on finances since I will be limited there (I much prefer lessons to shows, my trainer charges a LOT for lessons too) and obviously TC's soundness/talent and general luck will factor in as well. I have a tentative rule where if it starts to take more than a year a level, I'll sell him. I'm obviously hoping to get him to Grand Prix, but I don't want to spend 5 years trying to get a clean change on him or trying to get him to sit down to do a pirouette when I could sell him to someone who would enjoy him for what he's capable of and let him live a less stressful life.

How to tell your pony is on the forehand? Look how far
back his front legs go under his body. Basically going to hit
the ground face first soon.

But the horse has the mind for dressage (or at least had, hopefully he hasn't completely switched over to competitive horse swimming) and well, I've done it before?

I'm just about dying not having him back yet. MUST. BE. PATIENT. A week from today I'll be on his back. Or writing a blog post about how he almost launched BRH trainer and that I won't be on him for a while.