Herb Best Clinic

It's been a whirlwind two days, and no, I don't have any pictures. :S  The clinic was a wonderful experience, and I'm sure it would have been even more wonderful if I wasn't as sick as a dog.  Unfortunately, I started to feel under the weather the day before the clinic started, and by the time Wednesday rolled around, I was beyond nauseous.  I rode at 9:00 in the morning and 1:00 in the afternoon on Wednesday, and when I got home around 3:00, I slept from then until 5:00.  I had supper, forced myself to stay up until 10:00, and then went back to bed.  Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, I was still super sick, and so I ended up skipping my morning ride in the clinic.  Even though I'm super disappointed that I missed out, I felt so much better for the afternoon ride.  I think it really did my body good to just have a bit more sleep and medication.

In general, Walker was pretty good for the clinic.  Mind you, when I say "pretty good", I mean it was Walker, not Bruce, so I didn't have an uncontrollable monster trying to run around the arena.  However, Walker did some major bucking during the clinic, and I learned that he doesn't like ponies.  I was paired with a little girl and her pony for all of our rides, and a couple times, when Walker got close to her, he actually kicked out at them.  Oops.  Since Walker is generally the most sociable horse I've ever met, I take this as his not-so-subtle hint that he doesn't like ponies.  In truth, Walker hasn't bucked with me on him for a while, so I'm not sure why he decided to buck in the clinic.  Herb thinks that I may be gripping too much with my knee/inside leg and thus going against his motion.  I'm not entirely sure about this since he also bucked when Herb got on him, and obviously Herb doesn't grip.  Oh well, like I said, it was more of a fluke than anything else - except for the pony-hate kicks, which were obviously intentional on Walker's behalf.

Herb actually rode Walker twice during the clinic.  He got on him the first day, just to see what kind of horse he was dealing with.  Walker was less than impressed, and he reared.  Then, this morning, when I missed the first ride, Herb got on Walker again, and he also put another girl on Walker.  I was not exactly happy that he got the other girl on him, mainly because I had only given my barn owner permission for Herb to get on him, and also because this other girl is the favorite of the barn, if you know what I mean.  She could burn it to the ground and they'd still love her.  I know that some of the kids complain about favoritism with her, and frankly I was mostly upset because I didn't give my permission and I also didn't want the star pupil to make Walker go perfectly.  I know that sounds petty and stupid, but I've often had the feeling that my barn owner doesn't have a lot of faith in my riding, and so it would have been just my luck if Walker would have been an angel for her and made me look even worse.  Luckily, he did the same things with her as he does with me, and she wasn't on for long anyway.  I was mad initially, but I got over it because I know that it was Herb that asked her to get on.  He's the clinician, and he probably thought that my barn owner got permission for that as well since she had been the one to suggest that he pull Walker out and ride him at all.

In general, we talked in the clinic about a bunch of different things with my riding.  I got yelled at perpetually for not sitting up straight (shocker) and on the first day especially for not riding into the corners.  These weren't a surprise to me, but I did learn some things that I never knew.  For instance, since I was riding Western with a Western trainer, we did things very differently than I do with my English instructor.  I had to ride with my inside rein at least as high, if not higher, than the horn on the saddle, and the outside rein long and low back by my thigh.  Apparently that's a Western training stance, and you're also not supposed to thread the reins between your pinkie and ring finger in Western.  I honestly never knew that before.  I guess your thumb and index finger are supposed to have the greatest grip, and the other three fingers are gently holding the reins, squeezing only every so often.  I could get over the hand stance since I've done that before with my trainer, but the hand thing took some getting used to.  I know that my English instructor is going to murder me next Wednesday.  She has been trying her hardest to get me to stop riding so Western just to have all her hard work undone in two days.

Other than those things, he really tried to help me package Walker up.  We worked on head stance the entire time, and everyone would be yelled at if the nose went out or head went up even an inch.  This really helped with Walker's canter though, and I had one really good moment where I felt very controlled and packaged up at the canter.  He also pretty much told me that my rear end wasn't muscular enough and that I really need to shove my seat into my saddle more.  I also grip with my knees apparently.  We had about five disastrous minutes of stirrup-less trot work.  I know that most of you don't ride Western, but I dare you to try to find a good place to put your feet when your stupid Western stirrups are down and smacking you in the leg while you're trying to get your slow horse to pick up the pace to even have a chance of propelling your body in the air without stirrups.  I had no idea where to put my knees since the bars and horn on the saddle were in the road, and I pretty much just flopped around until he said stop.  And then we laughed about how disastrous that was.  Other than that, there was a lot of discussion about speed.  I would get yelled at if I passed at the jog (no one was allowed to pass at the jog  or walk at all because you're supposed to keep your horse going slow), but then when we were trotting, I got yelled at because the pony was faster than us!  On this point, the girl who rode Walker and I both agreed that Walker likes to try to break into a lope instead of fast trot, and so we have a lot of work to do on that point.

Then, as though the clinic weren't enough, there was a major meltdown between my trainer, the barn owner, M (who owns Lark) and M's mother. M's mother got banned from the barn, and M got 30 days to find a new barn. It all went down because M and her mother were complaining about the no turnout, the stalls (which I personally only find dirty because the horses are in - horses are dirty, otherwise they're fine), and other things. M's mother tried to drag me and another girl into it, and I really don't know where I stand now with my trainer - although I managed to clear things up with my barn owner. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am unhappy about the no turnout issue, but we're all doing what we can to make things work. It's been an unfortunate Winter, and weather is mostly to blame for that. I still think something needs to be done, but other than that, I don't have any serious issues with the barn. I really can't afford to burn bridges with my barn owner anyway - I have nowhere else to go and she's my contact with the new barn I'm going to in May.  I felt bad for the other girl who was there with us during the screaming match because she's only 13 years old and kids shouldn't have to be a part of that.  I pretty much shooed her away, and the two of us went and waited quietly until all was said and done.  :S  I'm too old for drama.

All in all, with my weird flu-like sickness, the intense riding, and the barn fight that went down, it has been quite the two days!  Also, to exacerbate everything, it was -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) both days, and we're getting this cold snap for at least a week or so.  Tomorrow I'm giving the pony a day off because he was slightly lame after the farrier came and also because he had a hard couple days of riding.  He deserves a break, as do I!