We're back from a long trek across the country to ride in a clinic with legendary horseman Joe Wolter and it was about as good as one could possibly hope for.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on it right now, I'm sure Sari will have more to say later and these days a full write-up is more likely to go into the magazine ( we actually have ( Read more... )

There are relatively few horse trainers I am interested in learning from that I haven't ridden with by this point, but until this autumn Harry Whitney topped that list. I was first introduced to him by reading some of Tom Moates' articles in Eclectic Horseman and later his books about learning with Harry, which are well worth reading. At the same ( Read more... )

A few weeks ago I finally got to ride a clinic with Buck. If you aren't familiar with the name, you should probably watch the film about him ( a good enough film that non-horsey folk can enjoy it too ) to get an idea of his work. Buck is one of the people who spent a lot of time learning with Ray Hunt and Tom Dorrance long before anyone thought to ( Read more... )

Kathleen was one of the first clinicians I ever wrote an LJ report about and seven years on from that, it was nice to ride with her. We've both progressed a lot in that time- Kathleen was very much teaching like Mark Rashid who she had been travelling with for a few years prior to working in her own right. Since then she has been studying with a ( Read more... )

Last weekend was our Silversand clinic with Steve Halfpenny for the year. He stayed back in Australia last year, so this was the first time I have been able to ride with him for some time- although I took Cash to a clinic in 2012 he wasn't ridable so last time I actually spent much time horseback with Steve was three years ago ( Read more... )

So after a week's worth of posts largely consisting of unleavened text, you probably need a few pictures to lighten the load.
( Illustrated version )

Our last day began with some liberty riding- we rode Riley in the round pen with no bridle or halter while Ross moved him along. This worked a little like a lunge lesson, except with more in the way of sharp turns. This is a pretty good exercise for focusing on your own seat and feeling the horse underneath you ( Read more... )

This morning we visited sunny Inverell, which is the nearest town of any size. It was a very pleasant morning and nice to see the local area. Australia's wildlife remains extraordinary - the most everyday birds are so bright and colourful and there are so many of them. Also there were lizards and butterflies and bright autumn trees ( Read more... )

We spent most of today riding, which I think means that this is the most actual time I have spent on horseback since Zorro went lame in September 2011. Turns out riding is some kind of actual exercise! Who knew ( Read more... )

Today we started out doing a little more groundwork. Ross started Sari working on turns on the forehand and hindquarters. The hindquarter yield operates as a very tight turn where the front feet stay more or less in place and the hindquarters move around them. The goal is to direct the horse around the circle- if their shoulders fall out then their ( Read more... )