Susan's Amarillo Clinic Report-Long but Incredibly Well-Written!
Hot June Saturday Morning in the Texas Panhandle..AM...a bunch of Texans (and one insignificant Missourian [aoiM]) started listening to Jenny explain the 7 Games. Jenny's human demonstration horse was the soon-to-be-famous Nichole, Jenny's five year old daughter. The Texans (aoiM) played the 7 Games with each other. We then played quick draw. Instead of a ball, each team had to hit a paper plate. The first to hit the plate with the carrot stick savvy string won.
I got to meet and take my lovely borrowed horse, Elfin. Elfin is a Missouri Fox Trotter owned by Pam Girrad from the Texas Panhandle. I fell in love with Elfin during the clinic and still miss her. Everything Pam sez about her on her Internet page is true plus 5 times.
This is the horse for a beginning rider.
This is the horse for a beginning rider who mistakenly started with a two year old.
ELFIN
The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent on the ground playing games. The two level two wannabees were given more complicated instructions than the rest. The aoiM barely followed the rules and often times took off on her own imaginative tasks. Before the break for lunch, my borrowed horse was following me as though she had an invisible rope. We walked forward, backwards (yo yo at liberty) and my specialty is to have the horse turn on her hindquarters toward me.
On the lunch break, I was at the trailer with Elfin and three auditors came hurridly walking up to me. One of them wanted to know my name. She was excited to be meeting me. I wondered why...as I'm only famous on a small Internet list. She exclaimed over all the things I had done with my horse that morning. She asked me how long I had owned my horse. All three woman were stunned when I told them that I had just met this horse this morning! I was stunned to learn that in their minds, I was a great horse trainer. I didn't tell them that I was but one of many from the gene pool trying to swim upriver!
Late in the afternoon, we got to ride...with one rein. Boy is that hard. I spent the afternoon trying to let my horse know that she didn't have to hard trot if I didn't hold on to her head. I was teaching her to stay in her flat foot walk or fox trot, pretending to be bridleless. I used the carrot stick most of the afternoon to teach Elfin to listen to my eyes, belly button, leg and Learning Accelerator (carrot stick). As did Velvet, Elfin thought that any pressure from my heel meant, GO FAST. We worked on learning that slight heel touches mean to change direction and leg squeezes mean GO FAST!
All the people in the clinic possessed good horsemanship. Jenny did not have to take control of anyone's horse and be drug across the arena...her idea of a successful clinic. She got to sit on a horse borrowed from Brent and just teach away. HAY! Those Texans are good people!
Brent, the chef, fixed us breakfast and lunch (both days). Those Texas cowboys can do it all!
The next morning we played kickball with some Walmart balls. Our horses were 12' behind us. Some of the horses did not want to play kickball. They thought the Walmart balls were horse-eating monsters. All of the horses got desensitized in some part to all the commotion and horse-monster balls.
Kurt, who became boyfriend #3, made a flying body lunge to hit an air ball. Unfortunately, the ball flew by without contact with Kurt. Kurts entire flying wedge body was in orbit too few seconds and he made a fantastic splayed out splat. You could see his great form for a while after that, because he didn't move for a few seconds. He got an ovation from the rest of us. Kurt owns a lovely, smart 5 year old palomino mare that is for sale. I would buy her in a heartbeat if she were a Missouri Fox Trotter. As it was, I suggested that he give her to me...to cement our relationship, but he regretfully refused, naming his wife as an excuse. sheesh!
We were pleased to learn that we got to ride with two reins on this day. We got to play point to point. I rode Elfin with two carrot sticks for this exercise. I didn't touch the reins. She was picking up on the idea of following my focus and following my leg aids. Following my eyes and belly button was asking too much in this short amount of time.
Elfin and I made significant progress in staying in gait during this day. Which would you choose...a hard trot with a body bouncing up and down on your back, or a soft fox trot with no Banging-pain from the body on top. She was beginning to get the idea. By the end of the day we were sailing around the arena with loose reins, both of us loving it!
We then played a scary game after lunch. It was a scary game because it was the controlled catastrophe game. Jenny (on her horse) with a plastic bag on her carrot stick was the catastrophe. (Luckily, I had started out the day with Elfin showing her that a plastic bag wasn't anything to be scared of...and she tried to believe me!)
Horse and rider's job during this game was to always face Jenny and her horse. Several people thought that they would avoid the catastrophe and tried to follow Jenny's horse. One rider tried to stay on the outskirts of all the horses...keeping at least two horses between them and Jenny. Nice try, this was...but Jenny managed to get close to everyone. I would like to report that no one bolted, but several people were certain that death was just around the corner. I bet that they play with plastic bags now; everyone came to understand that facing the catastrophe was a wise decision. Whew...we all survived. Elfin is bomb proof, so she got to rest during this exercise.
We got to play the carrot stick toss game. Lots of these riders didn't know that they could catch a carrot stick and throw one at the same time. Guess who got to teach them that? Would it be the aoiM? I tried to throw Jenny a carrot stick with my opposing arm and about took her head off. Guess I'll keep throwing the carrot stick with the arm closest to my intended victim...er fellow catchee/tosser. Lots of riders were just as stiff as their carrot sticks when they started out, but they soon changed to much more supple...in self defense. The auditors got to have fun too. They got to pick up sticks, throw sticks, catch sticks and try not to get run over. Elfin remained a continual good spirit about all this weird stuff! We got to go really fast and throw/catch our carrot sticks.
Then we played Walmart Poloball. We divided into teams. We all started in the middle. We had to race to our team ball at the end of the arena (opposite ends) and take turns hitting the ball through the goal at the other end of the arena. Guess who plotted to run over and hit the other team's ball out of bounds...yep Kurt and Brent who were on opposing teams. Luckily, Jenny was smarter than her students and added the rule about not touching the other team's ball.
Jenny was surprised that none of the riders turned into a predator. Everyone managed to keep their human competitiveness under control and think about the horses. Eflin was pretty disgusted with me. She got me right to the ball but my hits didn't knock it very far.
That was the end of two perfect days. I neglected to mention that we did stuff like stopping, backing, turning on fore and hind quarters, sidepassing etc...
I certainly had a good time and was sorry to see my good friend, Elfin, walk out of my life. sniffle
We had 3 people pass their level 1 and two people came close to being halfway through their level 2...That would be my #1 boyfriend, Brent and my #2 boyfriend Steve!!! It's not every weekend that I can pick up three new boyfriends!!!
yours truly
Susanfxtrt@aol.com
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