My First Showing Clinic

So today I took George to a showing clinic with Katy Carter. This was the first ever showing clinic I’ve ever attended and so I had no idea what to expect.

Things didn’t start well. I brought George down from the field and he was naughty and spooking at everything due to the wind and he even got a bit stroppy. I also hadn’t had chance to ride him for a week so he was full of energy. I did consider not going because things we not going well and we hadn’t even left our yard yet but I persevered and took him.

We got there and George continued being an idiot and was a bit stressed about being somewhere else because he hasn’t been many places yet in his life. I tacked him up and took him in the indoor arena. I walked him round and let him have a good look as it is only the second time he has ever been in one and he has never been ridden in a group of horses he has never met.

I mounted him and walked around with the other horses, there were 3 others. He was shying at the spectators area and Katy the instructor leading the clinic told me to be harsher with him and kick him through it which eventually started to pay off.

So the main focus of the clinic for the four of us in there was her helping us with improving our horses way of going. For some this was taking up more contact to encourage the horse to soften, and for others it was more about impulsion. We did a LOT of trot work. She had us trot round as a group and went from person to person telling them what they could do to improve. She then got us to canter, one by one, whilst the rest of us continued with the trot. Whilst someone was cantering her main focus was on them to help them with maintaining a canter rhythm. These exercises were carried out on both reins before we embarked on a group canter.

Her main focus with George today was getting him tired so he would listen to me more. I don’t think me and George have ever worked so hard in our lives! She also encouraged me to be more fierce with him as I am often a little too soft on him. Once he got tired he was actually surprisingly better and started to soften more and got a lot more springy and energetic in his trot.

All in all it was a success and although it pushed us harder than we normally would be worked, it showed me that it can really pay off. I also found out that he is definitely a hunter type as I suspected and that I need to be a lot more fierce with him to get him to develop into the horse I want him to be. He is now tucked up in his stable with his feed and haylage. I think we will both be sleeping well tonight!