Lucinda Green Clinic 16.01.010

Carolien and I travelled up to Hunua together for the clinic. It was great to have a weekend away with a like minded friend.

And it was lovely that the two horses got on very well, and seemed to become firm friends from the get-go. We were able to paddock them together, and it was so funny seeing them graze in tandem, and even drink at the same time.

Day One:
To warm up, we were told to go off and trot over any jumps that we wanted to, but NO cantering....we had to keep to a trot. This was not a dressage lesson, and so we were expected to get out there and get jumping.

There were some arrow heads, plastic barrels, and skinny (and I mean SKINNY) jumps set up.

Having warmed up we were given courses involving exercises, and were to keep in trot. The skinnies were also off line to anything else, so we had to focus on keeping them straight and on line.

The one thing that we were quite simply NOT to allow, was a run out. Stops were permitted, if only because we could then make the horse go forward and jump from where it was. A run out basically takes away the opportunity to jump the jump and a whole new approach must be made.

Our group was quickly allowed to canter through the exercises, and we ended up doing arrowheads, to skinnies, slalem skinnies etc, as well as a straight forward oxer. We were not to dictate to our horses at all where to put their feet or take off - that was their decision ; our job was the line and the engine.

Another exercise was to WALK up to the barrels (plastic barrels on their sides) and jump them...NO trot at all allowed, and then to continue in canter and jump another jump. In reverse that meant cantering over a jump, down to walk and proceed to walk over the barrels.

I felt Willie grow in confidence, that he would be left alone to do his job, but he also became far softer and more attentive. I really didnt think he would walk up to a jump and do it....but he did!

The last exercise, which was a goodie for me! - was to jump an upright on one side of the arena and continue round to a triple bar ~ 1.10 (looked pretty big to me!). The object was to get a wriggle on, and allow the horses to just keep coming to the jump. No interfering, and NO TIPPING. Took me a few rounds to get it right, but I definitely felt it when I got it. Willie however was thoroughly enjoying blatting around over the two jumps with no interference from me.