Clinic Recap

It has been seriously forever since I have participated in a clinic! I was SO nervous for our clinic on Saturday - worried about riding with a new-to-me clinician, worried about Jetta behaving, worried about whether the money had been well spent, etc.

Luckily, I needn't have worried about any of those things! This was actually my first time auditing JW but I had heard nothing but 100% positive things about her from quite a few people, which I feel is rare in the horse world, so I felt fairly confident diving in without seeing her teach first.

I got to watch the two lessons before me and I thought she was very fair and encouraging. I had heard that she was blunt, which worried me because sometimes people who are "blunt" are actually "mean" but JW was awesome. But I also don't want someone that tells me how amazing my horse is while we're failing around, I really appreciate honesty while at the same time providing structure for how to improve. I've had bad experiences with clinicians who tell me I'm "ruining my horse", but I've had good experiences with very blunt clinicians who will yell at you until you follow their directions, so it can be a mixed bag of what works for me.

I did get a little bit more nervous watching people in front of me because she liked to use a leg yield at the canter to get the hind end more under the horse and engaged, and recently that has been a sure-fire way to get Jetta completely amped up and running away from me. Luckily that wasn't an exercise she had us do.

Anyways, Jetta was on her best behavior. We had a TERRIBLE ride the day before, mainly because I got the idea to try a new bit on her - just a plain loose ring french link that was slightly fatter than her Myler - thinking that maybe she just didn't like how thin the Myler was. Hahaha you would think that I had put the harshest torture bit possible in her mouth. She hated it. She finally got to the point that she could somewhat put in work, but it was not a very good ride as a whole.

At least we were matchy?

And puppy was perfect for her first trip to the barn!

At the clinic we did a brief warm up and she was paying attention to me fairly well. I didn't canter but we did some trotting, counter bending, shoulder-in, and threw in a couple halts. JW called us over and I told her a bit about Jetta - 12 year old Thoroughbred, had almost a year off for a baby, then has been under saddle again for 3 months. Not currently riding with anyone, we've been having trouble with our canter-trot transitions and lengthened trot. Currently riding first level. She's fairly hot, forward, heavy in the bridle and likes to anticipate things and get wound up.

She watched us go for a minute and started right in on our issues. While I normally find it annoying if a clinician gives me the same exercises that we've been doing at home, this time I felt it was more reassuring than anything that I was on the right track with her, plus she did it in such a way that the exercises were building on eachother plus I had a person on the ground to tell me when I was letting Jetta get away with doing stuff only part way.

We did some transitions in the trot - she had me start with a big working trot, only a little bigger than what we'd show with. JW labeled this as a "5" trot, then had me slow her to a 4, 3, 2, 1, keeping her rounded and on the bit. The main thing I've been letting her get away with is not keeping her round on both reins. I have her nicely on my inside rein, but let her drop the outside rein. We kept playing up and down with this scale of trotting, and JW would occasionally call out a number for us to go to or tell us to make a 10 meter circle.

At home, we've been doing lots of 10 meter circles, figure-8's and serpentines. We've also been doing bending and counter bending. This theme was reiterated in our lesson. JW had us exaggerate our inside bend and counter bend, getting Jetta to accept my leg. That's the other thing that we really need to fix is her not accepting my leg, instead she's running away from it. I've been trying to work on it at home, but I guess I haven't been as committed to it as I need to be.

Then we really got to work. Enjoy my artwork of our exercises:

First exercise at the trot

Second exercise with canter-trot transitions

We did these until we were getting more consistent transitions. Still not great by any means, but Jetta was staying rounder, definitely trying to do things correctly, and the quality of her trot had improved quite a bit. JW ended by saying that while I think Jetta likes to come up with avoidance techniques for everything (and while I don't try to let her get away with it, she still does in some capacity), she liked how Jetta wasn't resentful about anything. I'm just needing to expect more from her, focus on keeping her round and on the bit at all times, keep my leg on in transitions and circles (especially my outside leg!).

Some favorite quotes:

• "Good struggle!"
• "Don't fight with them... think of it as a clarification of expectations"
• "Why do you let her do that?" "I don't know" "Well figure it out!"
• "Is she bending on both reins?" "No" "Then why haven't you fixed it already?"

Overall, I enjoyed the lesson. I like that she didn't go easy on us, she seemed to easily pinpoint the two underlying problems we're having. Her exercises made sense to both me and Jetta and didn't make Jetta upset or make things worse. She wasn't mean though and seemed to think that I was competent despite my many failings and that Jetta was a nice horse. I would definitely ride with her again!