The Importance of Clinics

It's been awhile since I blogged, but I really feel it is important to be reminded how much a different eye can help each and every one of us in our riding. This is why I think clinics are so important. I know some of us have trouble justifying spending the money for a clinic because horse shows are so expensive and what about regular lessons? Then we think about wanting another opinion at times and wouldn’t it be nice to ride with a person who we have seen do well in the top shows in the country? What about learning new training techniques or seeing if someone else has some new way of saying something that helps you? These are some of the reasons I decided to go to a clinic with Leslie Law this weekend.

               I was put in one of two upper level groups and even though we had a wide range of competition experience I quickly found Leslie had no problem helping each of us. I’ll admit I was a bit apprehensive about what I would take away from this experience, but was reminded that being open-minded and adaptive can prove helpful in many situations. The first day was about holding your line and staying quiet through some rather difficult cross-country questions. In warm-up Leslie gave us a great exercise to help get the horse to soften and use their back. He asked us to use one hand and hold both the rein and the breastplate. This keeps us thinking about where our hands are as well as naturally making us softer as well as steadier with our contact. It allowed the horse to come forward from behind and push while stretching out to the rein. Back to front people!

 After warm- up we transferred over to Cross-country where we did have a blow by at the difficult coffin question due to a spooky jump over a big ditch. Leslie reminded us that carrying your eye on through the combination will help you have a better ride. Too often people end up looking down into the ditch and then the third part of the element is a bit hairy. While we all had trouble to start, by the end all of the horses were successful at jumping through the combination. The other thing we worked on was riding an offset (bending) line both with a bend and straight. We all know I have a lingering fear of corners (thankfully Mira doesn’t share this) but with Leslie’s helpful reminder to “stay quiet” and “look at the next fence”, not only were we successful, but the ride was fun!

Chatt Hills scary corner!

 

Sunday was show jump work. This is where Mira and I have yet to mesh appropriately. Bless him, but Cameron was never really a good showjumper. Mira however is excellent. I just need to learn to ride her better. And let me tell you, when you don’t ride enough and you hardly ever go without stirrups and then the clinician asks you to go without stirrups for about 10 min, you won’t be walking well for a couple of days. The theme of the day was “staying quiet” and “keeping the horse straight”, two things I do not do well. At the end of the lesson there was a triple combination with a bending 5-stride to a vertical over a Liverpool. We biffed it a couple of times, enough that Leslie had to come to the beginning of the line and remind me to quiet my hands and stop trying to life Mira over the fence. He reminded me that holding her up was actually making her dive down more.

Leslie also mentioned that while Mira is good with her front end that she isn’t so tidy behind. He mentioned trying some Doda or Veredus Pro boots to see if it has any effect on her jumping. I’ll admit I am excited to try them seeing as any little edge that will help us is worth it. We all know how cantankerous I can be about gimmicks, but if someone makes a good argument I’ll usually try them at least once….ok….some of them. If you try to get me to try a horse psychic/natural herbal mare fixer/shoeless Joe the “horse spine specialist” person I am probably going to laugh at you. But if it is a tool that has some good science backing it, and it won’t harm my horse I will at least do some research it.
                                                                              Doda Boots Below

                                                                        

Clinics are an important part of our training regimen. They get us another set of eyes who we don’t see weekly. It’s another opinion, a way of seeing if someone can tell you something you haven’t heard a million times. Or even better it may be the clinician says something that is similar to what you have heard, but the way they phrase it is different enough that it clicks with you. At the very least it’s a chance to say you have had a lesson with an Olympian… and who doesn’t want to be able to say that?

I'd like to say a specails thank you to Tracey Corey for arranging the clinic, Leslie Law for coming to Kentucky in the cold to teach, Martha Lambert for allowing her facility for be the clinic site, and to Don (Tracey's husband) for being such a big help in fence setting and the like. It means a lot to those of us who attend!

So now that I am trying to get back into this blog thing I’ll let you know that I do have some fun stories that I haven’t shared in quite some time and am excited to share these rare gems. I will be posting my plan A-F for the competition season too, to see if there is anyone who wants to ride-share out there. You know, me and my delusions of grandeur and all……

Signing off~
Mandy