Weekend Clinic

sorry there are no photos to accompany this :(

I really enjoyed the clinic this weekend. Things were kept simple and basic, but the drills (or stations) were things that were helpful and also were ones that I'll be able to set up at home and practice.

The first day we started off introducing ourselves and our horse, giving a bit of background on the training/competing level of both. Then we took turns going through the barrels 3 times each with KB watching but not commenting until we were done.

The first time through was at a jog, the second was at a lope or run (depending on where your horse is at in training, there were some totally green horses there) and then the third time was at a walk. KB likes to finish at a walk so that the horse doesn't get sour or feel too pressured.

After that KB pointed out what she liked and what she thought each horse/rider needed to work on.

I knew what one of my major 'fixes' would be, finishing 2nd. I didn't realize that my set up for 3rd was as bad as it was (I knew it needed work but I didn't realize quite how much!) I also hadn't noticed that I was getting into a very bad habit of looking down. Not just at the barrels either, but looking down A LOT during my riding! :o (baaaaad Lisa!)

One drill that I found very difficult the first day was the circle with two barrels. KB used cones to mark a circle with two barrels across from each other. The idea was to lope (or trot) a circle around the cones and when you get to the barrel you lope a nice, smooth circle around the barrel. Not a wide pocket, come out narrow like a barrel turn. A nice CIRCLE. (circles are my nemesis!) To make matters even better (yes that's sarcasm) we started to the right. To the right I flat out could NOT do it the first day (we repeated it the second day and I did it!) To the left was better but not great (again on the second day it was better).

Another drill I found useful was the four barrels. The barrels were set up in a square. You ride to the middle to start. To go right you ride up the middle and to the right making a right hand circle around the top barrel. When you come out of the circle you'll be on the inside of the barrel. You ride straight across to the top left barrel and make a right circle around it. Again you come out on the inside, now you ride down to the bottom left barrel, turn right, come out on the inside and ride straight across to the bottom right barrel. Right hand turn, come out on inside and proceed back to your first barrel (the top right).

Wow, that sounds confusing! I really wish I had a diagram for that! lol

The easy way to say it is that you turn all barrels in the same direction, coming out on the inside of the square for each one and proceed on to the next.

Another four barrel drill had the four barrels set in an offset square (kind of like the "zipper" exercise) You enter the pattern and turn right, run across to the next barrel and turn left, run across to the next barrel and turn right, finish by turning the last barrel left.

With these exercises KB was able to point out better positioning for our horses, better hand positions for the riders. Little tweaks like exactly when to look for that next barrel.

By the end of the second day my second barrel was being finished better and more consistently, my third had improved dramatically and I was looking UP and AHEAD! I was very pleased to have KB tell me she liked my hands but not too surprised to hear that I need to work on my confidence.

I really liked that KB was very down to earth. This is a lady who has raced at all levels, from our little provincial club up to pro (she's even been to the Calgary Stampede) She is very much in favour of training your own horse and working your way up. After all we all have little (sometimes teeny) differences in our riding that may make one smokin' hot horse not work that great for the next person.