Nadia Saklou
I wasn’t looking to learn how to make my horse side pass to open a gate, walk over a tarp, how to not spook or how to work cows. I was looking for holes in my heart to be filled – regain confidence, enhance my relationship with horses that was wounded from personal defeats unrelated to these individual horses. I was not looking for a good weekend of riding, I was looking for a set of skills and life-long nourishment to my horsemanship. What I found, was that and more.
Robbie is not interested in teaching you how to make your horse do things. He is interested in teaching you that your horse already knows how to do things, and anything he/she doesn’t already know, they’ll be willing to do if you have the ability to express your needs and expectations with confidence and clarity. He doesn’t teach you how to appear as though you have confidence, and how to speak with clarity – he teaches you how to find your confidence and how to find your own clarity.
Sometimes you experience it right away, maybe even just for a moment, but the effects of these riding and horsemanship clinics aren’t 8 hours for 2 days, they’re forever.
Let me tell you what I have experienced from the Robbie Potter clinics I have attended.
First, it is important to note that I am a relatively skilled horseman that underwent a riding accident that nearly hindered my career and also my ability to continue working with horses. I invested in multiple horsemanship clinics with Robbie Potter in order to give me a safe place as well as a skilled horseman to help me just be on my horse. For a long period of time, any action that wasn’t completely calm (dare I say “dead”) would cause me to have severe anxiety internally. As we know, this translates to the horse and, in fact, everything that we do.
I’m writing this after returning from a group horse-camping weekend. I went with my mare that has a tendency to spook and really forget that I am there as her partner. She hadn’t been ridden in almost 3 months. I didn’t “warm her up”. I’m not proud of this lack of conditioning, but am saying it to express where my horse’s mind might have been – you’ll understand if any of you have gone multiple months not riding your horse. During this trip, I went on trail rides 2-3 times per day with different groups – some small, some large, some fast, some slow. We had to keep up with the gaited horses, we crossed streams and maneuvered through scary terrain and even passed a small herd of cattle, with a bull staring us down. It wasn’t that my mare was never jazzed up or never did behaviors that weren’t ideal – it’s that I had the tools to work through all of the suboptimal instances. As we passed the cows, she was very scared, and I responded to her fear with giving her the tools to get past them. This mare is TERRIFIED of these giant, devious monsters. Since my mare is small and has a very short stride, she had to trot for much of each ride to keep up with the gaited horses – this never rattled me. When I wanted her to walk, she walked. If she didn’t remain walking, I was able to get her to walk without any waivering in my confidence. We passed farming implements, mail boxes, waving flags, trash blowing in the wind, deer jumping from the woods, all the things. I never had to “desensitize” her once, and I never felt nervous. She looked, she sometimes stopped, she didn’t offer any misbehavior over spooky circumstances.
My horse is not bomb-proof. Our relationship is strong. When people see us ride, they always ask how I found a bomb-proof horse, they offer to buy her, they express jealousy and want one just like her (it does help that she’s the cutest thing in the world). But what they’re missing is that she is very spooky, she does all the things they don’t want a horse to do. But we have built our relationship to provide her the skills to remain calm and responsive to me in every type of situation.
Robbie Potter Horsemanship has provided me more than skills to ride a horse. It goes beyond the clinic time. Find a way to save up and invest in yourself as a horseman. It’s worth it.