Horse Clinic

After my whirlwind trip to Saskatchewan, I soaked up some horse time.  On my way home I stopped in the small town where I used to live for a quick visit with the rancher I used to ride with.  At the time, I had no idea how lucky I was to learn from him.  His knowledge has given me a leg up and shown up in horse clinic after horse clinic.  At the time, I took what he gave me and used it but I had no real understanding of what major foundational training skills he was giving me.  Now I do.

The next morning I rolled out of bed.  Early, very early to load up the horse and head to a nearby arena where I would be attending day 2 of Geoff Hoar's Working Cow Horse clinic.  I spent the morning watching the "experienced" group ride and listening to Geoff's coaching.  At noon I hopped on my mare for the first time in a week and began to warm up.  I was prepared for a hyper tense horse and was pleasantly surprised with a soft, supple willing partner.

The "dry" part of the clinic left me feeling frustrated with no individual attention from the clinician.  I had a question I wanted to ask, so I circled, and circled, and circled him while he worked with someone else.  By the time he moved on (to the whole group) I had forgotten what I wanted to find out.  We quickly moved onto cattle which is the fun part.  Bacardi worked her cows fairly well, while I tried to figure out what I needed to be doing.  When I asked for clarification he didn't understand what I was asking and didn't answer it.  So I took the time during my second cow work to reframe the question to better get the response I was looking for.  The second work was much, much more useful.  I actually figured out what I need to work on and the direction I'm going to take the horse's training.

In the future, I won't take part of a two day clinic.  I not sure if the disconnect I felt was because I missed bits from the previous day or if the clinician was just not a good fit for my learning style.  Or maybe because the dog clinic the day before was stellar.  I don't know.  It's too bad because this is a person I've always held in high regard as a skilled horseman.  Perhaps a private lesson would be a better plan in the future.

On Sunday, I entered in the Ranch Cutting at the schooling show and had complete blow out rides.  But that's okay because the purpose was to learn.  I had someone tape me while I rode.  This I plan to show Jason and have him help me through some issues.  The clinic made it incredibly clear how lucky I am to have him in my life because I've learned so much from him.  He is truly providing me with a high quality foundation for my cutting aspirations.  I'm somewhat amazed at how much more I understand now, compared to the start of the summer.

Here's a couple of pictures from the clinic.

Not sure why I'm making that face...