A week after the Bernie Traurig clinic, I was lucky enough to attend the Julie Winkel Clinic within the Northwest Equestrian Expo hosted by Burkwood Farm. The Northwest Equestrian Expo was inaugurated this year at the Lynden Fairgrounds and hosted dressage, hunter/jumper, and western clinicians. Throughout the weekend, it was very fascinating to watch other clinics focusing on topics such as colt breaking, saddle fitting, dressage, and more as well as ride in the Julie Winkel Clinic. This expo was made possible by the ever hardworking crew of Burkwood Farm and their head trainer, Paige Wagter.
Wesley and I participated in the 3’6” section of this clinic, which was mainly focused on jumper style riding. I had never ridden with Julie before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first day we focused on primarily flatwork with an emphasis on longitudinal exercises such as collecting and extending. These exercises really engaged our horses and set them up to jump well. Wesley felt great at the end when we ended by cantering up the center line and jumping a series of jumps that were set on an angle up the center of the arena. I really enjoyed how Julie taught us, the information she gave was simple and effective with an emphasis on thinking like the horse.
Day two was focused more on course work with some flatwork at the beginning consisting of side passes and shoulders in and haunches in. This led to work over fences on changing our track to either take the early track and save room on either side of the fence or take the later track to create more room before and after the fence. We incorporated these exercises in our course work as we jumped a jumper style course and had a mini competition based on time and touches of the fences, rather than rails. Wesley jumped great throughout the weekend and I am very lucky to learn with him as a partner.
Overall, I really enjoyed Julie’s teaching style and how she made things simple but effective. Additionally, I enjoyed watching her teach the green horse group and how she broke things down for the horses and progressively make everything fit together in a way that makes sense to the horse. I hope I can ride with Julie again in the future and I look forward to incorporating what I’ve learned from her in my every day riding. Once again, huge thank you to Burkwood Farm for hosting the Northwest Equestrian Expo this weekend. I look forward to attending this event again in the future. I’d also like to thank KC Cordell for making this weekend possible!