photography courtesy of Viola Mitchell
One day, I was browsing Equestriancoach.com, and I decided to look at Bernie Traurig’s clinic sessions. Who knows? Maybe there’s a clinic near me. Much to my surprise, two weeks from then, there was a Bernie Traurig clinic at Farpoint Farms in Maltby, about a 30-minute drive from Thumbs Up Farm. I knew it was a long shot since it was such short notice, but I shot Denise Youll, the head trainer of Farpoint Farms, an email to see if there were any spots appropriate for me. Unsurprisingly, the clinic was full, so I said my thank yous, and if a place happened to open up to please let me know!
About a week and a half later, the Monday before the clinic, I get an email from Denise that a spot had opened up in the 3’-3’6” section! Perfect! I talked to my trainers on Tuesday, and they were flexible enough to figure out a way for Wesley and me to haul-in on Thursday and for me to take the weekend off from working at the barn.
I’m a big fan of clinics, any opportunity to get another set of educated eyes on your riding, especially someone with as much experience as Bernie, is beneficial. Going to this clinic, I expected to go, ride my best, and learn from what he had to say and take it home to improve. Thursday evening Quinn hauled Wesley into Farpoint, he hacked in the ring, my boots were shiny, and we were ready for the first day on Friday!
Friday went well. It was mostly flatwork with some low jumps worked in-between. The first comment Bernie had on my riding was my heel depth needs to be deeper, and he also suggested I go out and buy new stirrup pads since mine were quite worn and frankly hard to keep my foot in with my heel down. Aside from heel depth, he also cleared up some of my confusion on eye level and where I should be looking approaching the jumps, which was very helpful. On the positive, he complimented my release as well as my overall position, calling my angles very “correct.”
I was excited for Saturday. I was excited to ride, but there was also and Q&A in the evening with Bernie and John French, which I was very excited to attend. A night with two legends, how could you not? Saturday session went very well, and I was very proud of Wesley for being so good and answering all the questions asked of him. We worked on an exercise Bernie calls “the accordion.” Executed in the canter, collecting on the short ends and lengthening on the long sides to improve our quality of canter since we tend to get strung-out on course. The jumping part of Saturday went very well. Bernie had many compliments on my release and compared one of the courses I did for him to Dominis Gibb’s 98 at USET finals! What an honor!
Then, at the Q&A, after stories about John French’s jumper career and discussions about the thoroughbred horse, he called me out again for my release! I didn’t know what to say! One of my trainers, Quinn Partridge, came for the Q&A that night, so I redirected his attention to her; In which he complimented her training, which she very much deserves!
Feeling confident, but also a little under pressure, going into the last day, Sunday. Quinn and another one of my trainers, Keri Bailey, came to watch. Bernie pulled them into the ring with him and worked with me a little one-on-one for a short period. I was very proud to show off my trainer’s work, I’m grateful for all their help, and I’m glad someone of high respect had compliments for them! Sunday was very similar to Saturday, course work, but a little higher. We also worked on setting up the distance in the corner to a short turn jump, something I struggle with, which he helped immensely.
Wesley was so good for all three days of the clinic, and he didn’t put a step in the wrong place, I’m very fortunate!! I wouldn’t have been able to do this clinic without the flexibility of my trainers! Also, much thanks to Quinn for hauling Wesley! Of course, a huge thank you to Farpoint Farms for hosting Bernie and Denise Youll, head trainer of Farpoint Farms. I had such a productive weekend, and I hope to be back for the next Bernie clinic in February!