I was really excited to organized my first clinic on Mexican soil and hope it's not gonna be the last! :)
I had the chance to welcome very passionate students and they made the teaching easy, by being studious, motivated and applied.
As the program shows, I divided the 2 days on 4 different lessons, with a logical sequences to the final point: Jumping a course. I made sure that all of the exercices are adaptable to all level of riders and horses, by changing or adding some difficulties. The meaning of all those exercices are important for every level, because it regroup the fondamental of jumping: Rythme, Balance, Rideability.
In between those classes I wanted to approach as well an important aspect of working out a horse for me , is the longing part. So we saw how to use body langage on a every time longe session, and as well the utility and how to use a Pessoa aids.
And to finish the days in a positive and instructive note, I introduce (by video and hopefully soon in live) to the lucky students an amazing human being who dedicated her two passions (horses and helping people) in order to help all of us to become better riders ; Annette Paterakis. She is an Equestrian mental coach, who develop a really complet programs to help the riders daily in their progression. What's make the difference with her , it's that she was a rider before, and we really feel in her tools and tips her riding experience. Annette. P establish different types of program of mental coaching to fit you and your needs the best!
So if you want to "reach your most ambitious goals, crush your biggest fears, grow into the best version of yourself or transform your riding career", I strongly suggest you to go and check out her website!! (click on her name above). And to show to the students how important is mental health in the sport, Annette and Me decide to create an offer for subscribing an online program (thanks for the gesture Annette!) so then the student could go back home with new tools to help them to keep progressing after the clinic!
Flat: Basics on how to flat a jumping horse.
Here we did a (long) warm up, where we reviewed some simple exercices to do during the week or in the warm up at the show. A horse need repetitions, to learn first, and when he learned to keep his mind focus on you, to get better and more reactive, to build muscle and flexibility.
So this first lesson was based on rythme and transitions, circle and straight lignes. The students had a little course of poles on the ground and standards to help them to be precise on their transitions, but as well for the straightness of the horse.
They have so, worked on putting their horses in front of their legs, making their reactive to what they asked by demanding multiple transitions (in the same pace or changing pace), feeling the different rythme we can have and need for jumping. And worked on circle and straight ligne those transitions.
Balance & Position: Working on the balance and position of the rider & horse on a grid.
I build 2 different lignes, coming in trot, that we can worked on different objectifs.
First grid: Bouncing jumps, to practice the rider's balance and get your horse stronger from behind, reactive and put more wait on his hind legs (which help for later to have more propulsion during the take off). I was a bit evil (hahahha for the good cause) by asking my student to take off stirrups or hands off, to make them feel different balances, it help them to find better balance after. During that time, the horses where having a work out on their own. That is the amazing benefit from a grid, it a strong work out for your horse while you can focus to work on yourself.
Second grid: 2 cavalettis, Vertical, Oxer, Vertical. I helped myself of this grid to focus on smaller details of the riders, adjusting position on bigger jumps.
Rideability: Working on some difficulties that we can face at the show on the flat.
I enjoy this part where I let my creativity have fun! So I build different exercices of poles on the ground or cavalettis that regroup what we have seen during the 2 days. The students had to ride a course of circle, zigzag, straight ligne, counting strides, changing rythme in the canter.
We first worked on each exercices separated, then we've add up all of them together to make a little course.
Those kind of practice build confidence to the rider rider and to the horse as well, in the meantime working on difficulties. Because of the low hight of the jumps, we can face problem and difficulties that we see on a normal course without starting to doubt on ourself. It also help the horse to get better without getting hurt by jumping too much, or loosing the excitement for the jump.
Jumping Course: Applying the 2 day's work
Due to the level of my students, I made the choice to build a short course, easy draw but with straight ligne, bending and a double. We finish by a single jump a bit bigger to put a smile on everyone and close those 4 lessons on a super note! :)
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