Ian Roberts Clinic Day One

I am falling so behind in basically everything right now! It has just been a blur of house showings (which means constant frantic house cleaning because a family of four plus animals can destroy a house in minutes) all the while trying to do real life with kids, meeting the demands of an ever-increasing work load and sneaking off to visit my horse.

My fluffy yak pre-body clip :) So. much. hair.

 Have you ever headed into a clinic with a clinician you did not know? I have been to enough clinics to know that the experience can greatly depend on the style of the clinician and how that meshes with you personally. Honestly, I just need a clinician to simply be nice. I do not learn from tough love--I am more likely to crumple into a fetal position and cry.

Post-clip pony! Do not look too closely--the clip is sketchy :P

So when I found myself on a horse that was possibly doing a magnificent piaf (if only this was a dressage clinic!) mixed with canter sidepass, I was happy to discover Ian Roberts was indeed nice.
He took Shiraz by the rein and led us around some scary things just to get her moving forward. That was enough support to get us both a bit more settled and I was then able to get Shiraz trotting around with the rest of my group.

Trotting through the scattered poles with some pretty cute springs!

Once everyone was warmed up, we started with an exercise over scattered poles. This was geared to getting the horse thinking about their own feet. We were to ride on the buckle and allow the horse to lower their head and figure out their own path. We progressed to riding down the row of poles with our eyes closed to emphasise our role of setting direction and pace, and then leaving their horse alone to do their job.


Settling and thinking while I leave her alone.

Then we tied in a log jump with the pole exercise. Shiraz settled nicely and I noticed the more we jumped, the more relaxed she got.


Heading towards the first jump of the day (AND happens to be the biggest jump we have done together!! What is that, like 2 feet high?!! HUGE!!!)

I was impressed with Mr. Roberts' ability to quickly assess a horse and rider, know how far to push and give clear instructions without making anyone feel overfaced or stupid.

The result for me was a feeling of pushing past my boundaries and seeing real advancement in Shiraz while not ever really feeling like what we were doing was too difficult.

By the end of clinic day one, I was completely exhausted but smiling from ear to ear because we had done the thing, no one got hurt and best of all there would be a day two!!

Jump Show Clinic



I am exhausted, so sore and I think my knee no longer functions as a hinging device, yet none of that matters because pony did the thing guys!! The jump show clinic this past Sunday was a success in so many ways for me and I definitely feel 'progress' which is all any of us really are looking for at the end of the day, right?

 

All I know is I got a lot of cookies! - Savvy

 

We started with warmup at 11:30 and got right into our first classes right away at 12:00 which was hunter flat classes and all the varieties therein. There were seven other horses in the clinic and Savvy handled the other horses wonderfully, even when we were asked to halt and a young rider rear-ended us. She pinned her ears but did not get dirty while I moved off to give us some space.  Then we got into the hunter over fences classes.

 

Starting with ground poles, we all did 'Hunt Line' class and I placed 8th out of eight riders. I don't know how I trashed a step-over-poles class so bad, but really to my defence, Savvy was very spooky/looky at all the people suddenly. I think she had become comfortable with the 'herd' and now suddenly we were heading off on our own around the arena and she was worried about that. So the result was much zig-zagging, some calling out for her new friends, and lots of trying to turn her head to look everywhere but forward.  

 

 



Our first 'hunt line' class placing 8th.

 

Moving on to cross rails, we improved slightly. I was able to get Savvy a bit more focused but we were still wiggly and she never actually jumped any of the fences, just stepped over at the trot.

 



We placed 5th this time so yay for improvement?

By this time I was really looking forward to verticals as perhaps I would actually be able to get her jumping instead of stepping over things. I was determined this time to focus on straightening Savvy in between fences and thinking 'forward' and we really improved a ton for the 'low verticle' class.



So much better this round and placed 4th.

 By the time we did our last class of 2' Hunter, I was feeling much more confident and thought I would push for as much canter as Savvy could comfortably handle. Neither Savvy or I have the 'eye' for where to take off from at the canter (Let's be real, we only cantered towards a jump for the first time last Thursday so we know nothing) but the only way to develop it is practise.




And then we placed 1st!

Most of our canter through this course happened where I could ask for left lead as that is her easiest, and trotted lines where right lead canter should have been because we never could quite get that right lead. She jumped beautifully though and I was so pleased with how it went.

In all it was four and a half hours in the saddle, nonstop. All of it was great experience for Savvy; being at the new venue with the business of a show atmosphere, exposure to the courses and even down time where she had to learn to stand and wait patiently was great for her. By the end she figured out it was much easier to use down time for sleep rather than prancing and pawing on the spot.

I am feeling much more prepared now for our real show on the 22nd, not only for Savvy's training progress but for my own progress on the psychological front. There were times Savvy was very up and worried and I managed all of those moments easily. I also felt myself spending more time planning how to ride a good, forward round rather than getting caught up in butterflies approaching the first fence.

We may not look very pretty yet, but the progress is real.

Clinic Day Three - So What Now?

Regular non-horse life has been very busy since the clinic. When I had the chance, I researched more about Legerete proper as well as reflected on what I had learned at the clinic. I wanted to see what was pure Legerete versus Muriel Chestnut's own style, which seemed to be a bit of a melting pot of her own learning from various styles.

I mentioned before the clinic how excited I was about seeing french classical mixed with natural horsemanship. Muriel had specifically studied Parelli which I have not delved into much beyond the seven games, level one on my own using a friend's dvd set. I am not sure what I was expecting, perhaps some education towards a magical blend of high level movements done at liberty? Instead, it was simply use of phases while applying the Legerete in-hand work. Makes sense, but I think I deflated a little.

Day three was much of the same as day two, and I particularly enjoyed watching everyone else throughout the day working on movements that were above my head to say the least.

I left the clinic wondering where to place this new-found information into what I already was doing. Would I take it on full throttle or discard it completely? Frankly I had no idea. I liked a lot of what I had learned, yet some aspects made me a bit uneasy. If you have looked into Philippe Karl at all, you might pick up that he is quite passionate about his training style and it is quite tightly controlled.

I am far from good at horses, but I have become quite open-minded over the years about training style. If you have trained more than a couple of horses, you will know that not all horses are the same and training goes a bit easier with flexability, creativity and a willingness to adjust to the horse you are working with.

I know for myself that I am happy to be the adult ammy, puttering around the sandbox on a horse I trained and I want that horse to be my athletic partner, my well-loved pony that gets too many treats, and a safe friend that can do some fancy when asked.

So with a bit of time to reflect, I am quite happy I dipped my toe into some new information. There is so much about this school of training that appeals to me.

For now though, I think I will take the few little tidbits I liked and add it to what I am already doing.  I will not be donning a Fedora and working on my French skills just yet.