Tell me everything I would ever want to know about clinics! (hey area II crew!)

[PetesMom]

happy thanksgiving all -- this is yellowrose but posting under mom's name (home for tksgiving!)

Soooo i just got a new job and part of it is organizing clinics and events at the new facility. It is brand spanking new and amazing. It's convention time (yay!) and i need to rope up some clinicians for the following year. Of course I want to hire my friends but maybe that isn't what the majority of the population wants :confused: so tell me.. what do you want? answer these questions for me..

1. give me some names of riders you could stand to spend 2 days with, including a sat night bbq
2. what format? indiv. dressage, group xc or sj, private sj, what would be most beneficial to your learning
3. how often do you go to clinics? once a month? once a year?
4. what do you typically pay? (optional) also for stabling.. and if there was very nice human accomodations on site what would you pay per night for that?

[mythical84]

Hey yellowrose!

I just sent you an email about all this.

[regeventer]

I will gladly take a stab at answering your questions!

I LOVED riding with Boyd Martin. He is the bomb.
I had the oppurtunity to take a private flat lesson with Jennie Brannigan and was very, very impressed - probably the most pertinent 45 minutes I've spent on flatwork in a very long time.
Most of the clinics I've gone to have private or semi-private flat lessons, and then group jumping (both stadium and XC). Personally, I'd rather have a 30 or 45 minute private flat instead of a little longer semi private flat, but I think the small group jumping works well.
I ride in probably two clinics a year.
Average price for a weekend - 350.00 to 400.00 - that usually includes some kind of meals/beverages, which is nice.

Hope that helped!

[luise]

I don't do many clinics--not a fan, but I'll give you some input. I think that dressage can be done in pairs. XC should be in a group. Stadium can work well in a group, but I think small groups are best. It really depends on the clinician. If you have someone who likes to stand around and tell stories, well, have fewer people in the group so they get to do more. I don't really like clinics because my horse isn't the easiest, and I've found that the clinician/instructor may not understand my horse.
I've audited a couple clinics in the past year.
Sally Cousins was terrific. She had challenging exercises for the riders. If I didn't already do lessons with a trainer who trains with her, then I would clinic with her (hey, why pay more for the same thing!) She seemed nice to the riders, tough, but gave appropriate positive feedback.
I also audited a clinic with Michael Page. He focused on gymnastics. If you don't get to do a lot of gymnastics at home, then I would recommend him. He did well with large groups because he just had them all going through the grids.
I just did a clinic with Eric Horgan. Sadly I did not think he explained things well, which is really key for a clinician in my book. I would not clinic with him again. If you have a schoolmaster type horse, then he's fine. If you have any type of horse that needs leg, forget it. He's better if you have a naturally going forward horse. He also told too many stories leaving us standing around. His clinics usually went over the time allotted, but when you spend 15 minutes telling a story, well then I should hope so.

[yellow rose]

YES keep it coming!!!

jennie is a good friend... i would love to give her money... ! anyone else?? come on guys!!

[Dr. Doolittle]

yellow rose, I know someone (whom YOU ride with!) who I'm thinking *most* of us would *love* to clinic with! :D

How about Emily Beshear, Sharon White, Stephen Bradley, JW, etc., all of whom are "relatively local" to the area, and who might be available (depending on their schedules and whether they go south for the winter.) Does your new facility have an indoor?

If staying overnight is an option, that would be great--but make sure there are affordable accomodations available (and if you host a dinner, be sure to have beer/wine available...:D You know that will draw ME in for sure, but then again, I would probably sign up regardless if it were close by! ;))

I'm riding in a Boyd Martin clinic this upcoming weekend, and the format is dressage in the morning (2 riders per session), and jumping in the afternoon (4 per session.) I think that's a good general format, since *presumably* the clinic participants will be able to get some focused (and productive) attention in the dressage section, and also be able to get something fruitful out of the jumping phase--providing that all the horses in their group are at a similar level (riders included), and didn't "overstate their experience level", or "underestimate their horse's greenness"--both of which have caused problems in past clinics I've ridden in. :rolleyes: There have been ocassions where I didn't feel like I got my money's worth as a result, because hearing "good, fine" after you complete an exercise--while the clinician spends the lion's share of their time dealing with a *difficult* horse/rider combo who needs WAY more time/effort/input than the clinic setting can provide--winds up being a frustating experience, and makes you feel like your money would be better spend elsewhere. IOW, try to carefully screen the clinic participants so as to be able to put together groups whose experience/skill levels are comparable, thereby ensuring that everyone gets something worthwhile out of the experience.

Hope that's helpful! :)

[regeventer]

Dr D - have you ridden with Boyd before? I REALLY like riding with him. I don't think there is any chance you will feel slighted.

Where is the clinic??

[Dr. Doolittle]

Hey regeventer, I haven't yet had the opportunity, but am really looking forward to it! (I did audit part of his clinic at Morven a few weeks ago, in the rain...)

From what I saw, it looked like he set up some challenging exercises, and none of the horse/rider combos in the group I watched seemed to have any major "issues" which required him to take extra time away from the group to address the individual problem. (Which is the one thing I've found to be a downside to clinics, at times, since any clinician only has a finite period of time in which to give feedback to everyone there, as well as have the whole group complete the exercises...If one horse or rider needs a disproportionate amount of individual attention, it takes time away from everyone else--but of course these situations are not the clinician's fault, but instead A) the fault of the unprepared participant, or B) just bad luck--and no one's fault--in the case where a particular horse is just having a "bad day"...:p I hope we luck out when I ride with him, and that we are all able to have a great experience and get a good bit out of it! :D)

The clinic is in Laytonsville MD, and it's this upcoming Sat. (the 6th), the temps are supposed to be in the 30's for a HIGH, and we will be doing our first ride at 9:00 AM! (Makes me glad I didn't clip Her Majesty ;))

[3dayeventing]

I would reccomend:

~Buck Davidson (East Coast)
~Hawley Bennett (West Coast)
~Tami Smith (West Coast)
~Ian Starrk (Everywhere)

All are great! Cost is ususally around $200 for two days. Show Jump and XC

[LisaB]

Hmmm, I would do 2 different types of clinics.
One, bring in the international folks. Have it be more expensive. Ian Stark and Lucinda come to mind. They have their formula on format.
Two, bring in a local person. Maybe change the format up a bit. Have some indoor winter stuff. You can work on x-c things in an indoor and be able to break it down and hone those skills rather than 'oh! gotta do water/ditches/banks, I'm done!'.
Week long programs work well in summer for the kids. I don't think they really ever work well for adults.
Beginner camps (fri/sat/sun) are quite popular. Including dressage camps with a little jumping if you want.
Fix a tests are great too for a one day thing.

[GreyDun]

Hey there! What about a clinic teaching people how to safely and successfully show their babies in-hand (for the FEH series)? We could make it educational (fun guest speakers... Denny??), and really work hard to get some good feedback and really get the FEH program going well. Since it's still such a young program, it would be neat to brainstorm and get some good ideas for the FEH - something that makes it different than the USDF shows and other breeders classes. I know Virginia Tech was thinking about hosting one next year, which would be fabulous, but I think the more educational, the better - why not have two!

You guys have the perfect indoor to be able to host something like this - and it would be really neat to get in some judges and experienced handlers like Bruce Griffin.

Thoughts?

[yellow rose]

Em -- yes... great idea... those babies are the wildest crowd in the eventing world..! That would be a great prelude to our yeh/feh series. I contacted wendy at USEA about setting up some intro to eventing/safe xc riding clinics but she hasn't gotten back to me (2 weeks)... LAME.

you'd think that with the year we've had usea should be jumping at the opportunity for these types of clinics. wtf!!!


ps.. our water jump is finished already!! YEY!!

[GreyDun]

The Intro to Eventing clinics aren't really hosted by us - India Watson (Grady on COTH, I believe??) is the brainchild behind these popular clinics and has taken them under her wing. I'll email you her contact info - I'm sure she would LOVE to get some stuff going at your place.

If you'd like to do a USEA Educational Activity (listed on the USEA site, promoted by us, you get our insurance, etc.) - then contact Jenn at the USEA in Member Services. Or me - and I'll get it worked out for you.

As far as YEH/FEH stuff - we'll catch up with Wendy at the Annual Meeting and chat. They're very easy to put on, and you shouldn't have a problem with anything. She hasn't been ignoring you - we've been renovating the office and sometimes things get lost in cyberspace! No worries - she'll be in NOLA and we'll get together and talk about it then - when we get back I'll get you the paperwork and we'll get the ball rolling!

[inquisitive]

Hey there! What about a clinic teaching people how to safely and successfully show their babies in-hand (for the FEH series)? We could make it educational (fun guest speakers... Denny??), and really work hard to get some good feedback and really get the FEH program going well. Since it's still such a young program, it would be neat to brainstorm and get some good ideas for the FEH - something that makes it different than the USDF shows and other breeders classes. I know Virginia Tech was thinking about hosting one next year, which would be fabulous, but I think the more educational, the better - why not have two!

You guys have the perfect indoor to be able to host something like this - and it would be really neat to get in some judges and experienced handlers like Bruce Griffin.

Thoughts?

I would love to do this! I'm hoping to show my baby in the FEH as a yearling next year and don't have any experience. Plus, it'd be good to get them out to another place before an actual show, but with a relatively organized atmosphere. Have to be pretty short sessions though... attention spans and all that ;)

[Speedy]

I have done a number of clinics with top riders (Lucinda Green, Jimmy Wofford, Greg Best, Don Sachey, George Morris, the list goes on) - but Lucinda was phenomenal. Completely phenomenal. Just no comparison at all. She is a great confidence builder for both horse and rider at all levels who provides thoughtful, detailed, constructive insights to every rider throughout the clinic. I liked others, but she is such a standout, I had to mention her.

I'd recommend Linda Zang for dressage in private sessions. She is an 'O' level judge (one of only a handful worldwide) in dressage, but has her roots in eventing, having competed at the four star level herself way back when. She understands the challenges.

[NRB]

I think that I am in the minority but I'll pip in. I'm the 40yo-mom-perpetual-novice-type and can't get away for a 2 day clinic. I have no access to an indoor and so my horse's fitness in winter suffers a bit in the winter. Thus hauling 2 plus hours to ride w/ a BNT on a horse that is out of shape and not getting ridden much just doesn't make $$ sense to me. I do really enjoy auditing the BNT clinics though.

I'd prefer to ride in a one day clinic with a local inst (in an indoor), and work on jumping. small group or semi private or even private would be great.

I suspect that it's difficult to do, but I'd love it if organizers could vet the participants a bit better. I have taken a BNT clinic in the "Solid Compeating at Novice Group". Only to have the clinician spend a large amount of time focusing on the rider who brought her green "just off the track for 1 month" TB.

[Dawnd]

I audited every single jumping clinic that Bonnie Mosser did when she came to our barn (i was jump crew on one day). From what I saw, every rider from the least experienced to the most got something out of the clinic and left completely excited about working on something new.

After watching Bonnie work with about 16 different rider/horse combination, I was really impressed that even though she taught as small groups, she concentrated on coming up with individual solutions for each pair. So everything was very tailored to the individual. As an auditor, I was able to pick up pieces from everyone!

She was very down to earth and great fun to hang out with.

[yellow rose]

I have a fun idea, combining some of these suggestions.. make a weekend dressage or show jumping clinic, on Saturday you have a private or semiprivate lesson and on Sunday you do a ride a test/course fix a test/course with your instructor from Sat. These could be totally independent as well.. you could show up for just the lessons or just the fixatest, or both to get the most out of it.

Would people be interested in this??

[piaffequeen]

Sent you PM!

[pooh]

I would love to see ones geared towards re rider adults , chicken adults, etc - there are so many great clinics out there but I'm sure others in this population feel intimidated to go to them. I have a greenie who is just getting to BBN - so it would be nice to get some other ideas from a trainer who sees us 2x weekly - or to hear something different that will help solutions to click.
I like small groups - enough that you get to see others, who propbably are having similar issues but not so big that you feel like you spend most of your time standing around. I did a great clinic with Pam Wiederman - but felt bad since I was having issues getting the horse I was riding through her skinny serpetine - felt the others were wasting their time watching me struggle.
I'd love to see in Intro to Eventing clinic up this way ( ie PA, etc)

[yellow rose]

yes.. i want the intro to eventing clinics too!

i make up a lot of baby greenies so i'm planning a full on amoeba course. perfect!