Progression Plan - February 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) - achieved February 2017
• Consistently good Walk/Trot test patterns - working on it, still need to add in some smaller circles on bad days. 
• Good stretchy trot circle - achieved January 2017
• Consistently good stretchy trot circle with transitions in/out - working on it, I can get good stretchy trot in lots of rides now, but still not on the really bad days. 
• Good trot circle with a few strides of lengthen/added impulsion - achieved January 2017
• Consistently good transitions within trot - working on it, when it's good it's really good, but still has tendency to race and counter-bend some days. 
• Good canter circle - achieved February 2017
• Consistently good canter circle - working on it, we've been doing a lot more cantering but I still don't canter every ride. 
• Good trot-canter/canter-trot transitions - working on it, still has a ways to go though
• Consistently good trot-canter/canter-trot transitions
• Good Training test patterns
• Consistently good Training test patterns
• Add more strides of lengthened trot - achieved February 2017
• Consistently good lengthened trot diagonals
• Good trot leg yields - achieved February 2017 - this hasn't been a major focus for me but Sandra really liked a few of our leg yields at the February clinic so I guess this gets to be green!
• 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.

I'm reasonably happy with our progress so far this year. My plan for the next month is to work on consistency for the things we can do well sometimes, so not add in any new steps until April.