What is Covered in a Clinic?
Day one will begin with an explanation of the relationship I work to achieve with horses. I do not believe in trying to be the leader of the herd. I want an individualized relationship with each horse that resembles the one that the horse had with his dam when he was a foal. As humans, we are the only other creatures on earth that can offer this type of relationship to the horse. A relationship like this ended for him the day he was weaned.
Participants will spend some time at the start of each day doing some specific groundwork activities that will begin to foster this type of relationship. These exercises are not the typical activities involving bending, flexing, and disengagement of the hindquarters that we usually think of when we consider groundwork. I encourage the horses to be straight, balanced, and forward. Only then can we begin to have the relationship that the horse lost on weaning day. We will work at this on the ground for about an hour each morning.
The remaining time will be spent building this relationship from the saddle by doing specific activities to help the rider find the horse’s feet while riding. Learning where the feet are allows the rider to ask the horse to meet our requests only when it is easy for the horse to do what we ask. He then learns to trust our judgment. This, in turn, builds his confidence in us so that the need for things like desensitization are no longer necessary.
Some of these exercises will be but are not limited to:
Turning on the forehand only when the outside hind is about to engage
Encouraging forward motion and hindquarter engagement for all maneuvers
Maintaining straightness and balance
Keeping a correct lead at the walk and trot
Backing a straight line so the horse changes leads with each step while backing
Asking for the canter only when the horse is on a correct lead at the trot and only when the outside hind is in position to engage into forward motion
Downward transitions without losing the proper lead so that straightness and balance are not lost
Turning on the haunches only when the outside hind is engaging the inside shoulder to lift that foot off the ground
Riding half circles away from the rail to change directions
Riding full circles away from the rail to continue in the same direction
