Nov 12, 2010 at 05:50 pm #342993

Anonymous wrote:

Any chance of getting one in KY in June-ish? Or is there any one else that would be interested?

I also had a question about any of the clinics in general (whether they’re on the road or in Stephenville).. Do you allow time (maybe the day before or before it starts in the morning, or maybe during a lunch break) for people to school their horses under saddle in the “new” location to acclimate them before getting on them as a whole group? I don’t have problems cantering him, even in groups, but I could foresee having a new location, surrounded by all new horses, getting them fresh out of the stall, and cantering off as a group could possibly add up to be enough change to mentally overwhelm and panic him. If I could possibly have the chance to school him and get him acclimated into the right mindset without disrupting the clinic, then I really feel it would set him up for better success.

In any clinic situation, you are always going to begin the day with groundwork. Usually the first day is all groundwork (as this is the day where any “issues” with the new area or otherwise are going to show up), then the next two days are groundwork in the morning and riding in the afternoon. So by the time you get to the riding part, all the horses are using the thinking side of their brain and paying attention to their riders. Just like when we are at home, because we all do our groundwork *cough cough* before we ride

Of course, if someone hosts a private lesson, things could be done in a different order, but I don’t believe any clinician would ever allow someone in the group to ride if they felt the horse was too fresh or not using the thinking side of his brain.

Melinda

I'm not telling you it's going to be easy; I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.