Riding in My First Clinic

I had a bit of an interesting experience last week.

I rode in my first clinic.

Not that that was weird or anything, on the contrary, it was quite exciting. Mostly just to be invited to ride in the clinic in the first place was exciting, since I'd only been riding at this barn for about a month.

The barn was hosting a schooling show, and the judge was sticking around to teach a clinic the next day. There were a variety of sessions. I decided to go with a group session since I never really get to ride with other people. There ended up being three of us in my session.

I rode the adorable grey pony I talked about in my last post. Apparently I get along with her really well or so I'm told. I do like her. I have a thing for ponies and mares. Weird, right? Most people avoid that category like the plague.

Anyway, the clinician had us start out my demonstrating what we knew about the rising and sitting trot and two-point. I've pretty much got my bases covered there so I did not receive a whole lot of instruction. Mostly just some stuff about learning to feel the correct diagonal instead of looking down for it. So Anna and I worked on completing some nice circles at the rising trot whole the instructor focused on the other two girls.

Then the instructor decided to work over some cavaletti next. Which I had not done with the horse I was riding. This was only my 3rd ride on her after all. But I was incredibly impressed with Anna because she took it like a pro. And honestly working over cavaletties is honestly one of my favorite things to do. It's fun. I don't know why.

But then the instructor decides to work us at the canter. Only, here's the thing, Anna doesn't canter. At least none of them had ever cantered her before. So they did not know if she could canter. But, alas, me being the willing brave soul that I am, decided to give it a go and try cantering the horse. Sometimes I think I'm crazy. But, hey! Guess what! She actually picked up a very poor but nevertheless real canter! Everyone gave a cheer for the pony. You couldn't help but be proud of the girl.

But this wasn't the end to this clinicians madness. She then decides that we ought to try cross-rails. I'm sure you already imagine my response. "This horse doesn't jump. At least I've never seen her jump...But its only like a foot off the ground, so it can't be that bad, right? Why not. We'll give it a go." Now in Anna's defense, she took the cross rail the first two times absolutely beautifully. But the third time around, well, she nearly face-plants over the thing. Said pony got a little bit clumsy. She trips over the jump, catches herself at the last minute, and it I instead who face-plant into the dirt. I'll admit. It was rather comical. She kinda just stopped and stared at me with this expression of "what happened to you?" on her face. You really can't blame her. She tries her best. So I climb back into the saddle, and we try it again. She is a good girl and remembers to pick her feet up this time. So in the end there was no harm done. Except for maybe my pride. After all I did fall of in the middle of a clinic with some wheres around fifteen people watching. Yeah, mildly embarrassing... But I reckon I'll live.

In the end, though, I learned a ton, and it was a lot of fun. Even though I fell off I'd still call the clinic a success.