Progression Plan - January Update

I made a progression plan in December to try and keep up the forward progress we were making. I'm finding that this is a great tool to keep my rides focused so I'm going to give regular updates on where we're falling on the list from month to month:

Legend:
Grey - achieved previously
Green - achieved last month
Yellow - working on currently

Definitions:
Good = relaxed + rounded topline + even rhythm + slow tempo (not overly slow, but not running) + correct bend in neck and body + acceptance of bit (eventually this definition will expand to include more, but this is what it means right now)
Consistently = means the movement is confirmed enough that we can achieve it every ride, even when it's a "bad" day, it doesn't have to happen on the first attempt though 

• Good walk work - achieved in 2015
• One good 10-15m trot circle - achieved in late 2015
• One good 20m trot circle - achieved in spring/summer 2016
• Consistently (every ride) able to get one good 10-15m trot circle - achieved in December 2016, this took a long time, but the clinic in November gave us the final keys and we finally got there and were able to move on
• Consistently able to get one good 20m trot circle - achieved in December 2016
• Multiple good 20m trot circles - achieved December 2016
• Consistently able to get multiple good 10-15m trot circles - achieved December 2016
• Good trot circles with good walk-trot and trot-walk transitions - achieved December 2016
• Consistently able to get multiple good 20m trot circles - achieved January 2017
• Consistently able to get good trot circles with good walk-trot/trot-walk transitions - achieved January 2017
• Good Walk/Trot test patterns (circles, large arena, diagonals, transitions, direction changes, etc) - I think we probably could do this, but several of my recent rides have had someone else riding or lunging in the arena which meant it was easier for me to stick on my 20m circle rather than practice test patterns
• Consistently good Walk/Trot test patterns
• Good stretchy trot circle - achieved January 2017
• Consistently good stretchy trot circle with transitions in/out - working on it, I had a few rides with good stretch but still need to work on transitions in/out
• Good trot circle with a few strides of lengthen/added impulsion - achieved January 2017
• Consistently good transitions within trot - working on it, I had one ride with multiple good transitions but still need to repeat and confirm them. 
• Good canter circle
• Consistently good canter circle
• Good trot-canter/canter-trot transitions
• Consistently good trot-canter/canter-trot transitions
• Good Training test patterns
• Consistently good Training test patterns
• Add more strides of lengthened trot
• Consistently good lengthened trot diagonals
• Good trot leg yields
• Consistently good trot leg yields
• Good canter circle with a few strides of lengthen/added impulsion
• Consistently good transitions within canter
• Good long side of lengthened canter
• Consistently good long side of lengthened canter
• Good First 1 & 2 test patterns
• Consistently good  First 1 & 2 test patterns.

Repeat media, but shows what our good looks like!