Progression Plan - April 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 (this one is a little late, sorry):

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
• 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 - achieved March 2017
• Good stretchy trot circle - achieved January 2017
• Consistently good stretchy trot circle with transitions in/out - working on it, I really should have separated this into two items because we have a consistently good stretch now, but still need to work on smooth transitions in and out
• Good trot circle with a few strides of lengthen/added impulsion - achieved January 2017
• Consistently good transitions within trot - I've been focused on doing more test pattern riding, so I haven't worked on lengthened trot recently (I'm not practicing first level tests)
• Good canter circle - achieved February 2017
• Consistently good canter circle - working on it and this keeps improving, but I'm not quite prepared to say I've succeeded yet
• Good trot-canter/canter-trot transitions - working on it, right now when she does quiet transitions they aren't on my aids, and when she transitions on my aids, it gets a bit fast and hollow, we'll get them both together at some point
• Consistently good trot-canter/canter-trot transitions
• Good Training test patterns - working on it, but until the canter transition is good, the test isn't fully good 
• 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
• 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.

No green this month. I had a lot of good rides in April and I feel I've made good progress on the items I'm working on, but it takes time to build the consistency. I'm more and more confident we can achieve these, it just needs a little longer to happen. 

Have you ever had a month that you felt was really good but it didn't quite translate that way on paper or when comparing it to your goals? I think it's important to remember that not all progress can be measured.