Musings



Photographic proof that my horse is not always a jerk face just seems to be a winter trend.

 Thoughts on the clinic:  Some of you may have wondered why I would pay to ride in a clinic when I out right admitted that I knew that Steady would not be cooperative and it wouldn't go well.  Yes it is true that I did know this when I agreed to ride in the clinic but for the last nearly 3 years I have felt like I was living in a equestrian black hole.  I have tried to find and meet anyone in the area that rode english let alone evented.  So when my friend told me that she was going to bring in Nad to the local college barn in my mind I had two options. 1) enter the clinic, pay $75 to have a wild ride in front of an audience or 2) donate my $75 and audit the clinic.  I did not feel I had an option to not support the efforts of getting a good trainer to this area.  For some reason #1 seemed a little less insane at the time.  All in all I am pleased with how it ended up.  It helped me gain a bit more confidence to push through some of these issues that we have been having.  Getting bucked off did start the tiniest bit of fear in me of getting hurt.  And I am NOT a fearful rider and I didn't want to start down that road.  But reality is if I get hurt who will take care of my girls and farm?  Anyways he helped me think through it better and pounded into my head that forward is my friend and when he starts in with his antics that making him gooooo is my best defense.  Using the analogy of a bucking bronco that the ones that come of easiest are the ones that stay within 6 ft of the gate and the ones who stay on are the ones who use the whole arena.  At the time all I heard was bucking bronco and neither of those options sounded remotely appealing.  Now that I am safe on the ground I can create a plan of action for next time.


Pictures are of Steady and I in a clinic with Peter Atkins last May that was far more productive than the past one.


The exercises he had each group do were quite challanging.  I mean challanging for everyone not just if your horse was a fire breathing dragon.  He started us off with some flat work.  Each group was differnet in what he had them focus on during the flat work.  My friend S and I:  he had us as we were going around the arena do a 10 meter circle then to the rail and do a shoulder in for a few strides then 10 meter circle and repeat.  I have to say that I was quite proud of our shoulder-in's.  I have never been instructed how to do them and I have only ever attempted them at my house in a field where there are no walls to work off.  It is a little more difficult to gauge movements in an open field.  Nad seemed happy with them.  Then he had four poles set up on a circle, the inside of the pole was probably 25 meters making the outside about 35 apart.  He started by having us trot over them on the ground.  Then he raised them to small 2ft jumps.  For every group it was the same the jumps never got over 2ft even for the training group.  Then had each group canter the same exercise.  It was basically jumping 4 jumps on a 30 meter circle.  I thought it was fantastic for straightness and collection.  By going out to the college barn I got to make some super awesome connections in the area that I think will be a huge benefit down the road.

I stuck around to audit all of the lessons but one, when I had to run home to pick up Steady.  One group in particular had 4 young girls in a starter/BN group.  And by young I mean 16-21 young.  For a reason that Nad saw I am sure he had them spend a lot of time up in two point.  As I watched these young girls ride around and struggle to stay in two point for even a couple minutes I couldn't help but get a sense of, 'damn I am a badass old lady, I could put these young thangs to shame on their two point.'