Dressage - How many roads lead to Rome (Part 1)

Another tricky intersection that most riders encounter some time in their career is what I call the "Clinique Mystique". You have been working with a regular instructor for some time and are generally satisfied with the progress of the horse, when you hear about a clinic being held nearby with a well-known clinician. You decide to go to get the horse out, to work on a problematic area, etc. So you sign up with the expectation of learning something that will help you and your regular instructor make progress with your horse.

A SLIGHT DETOUR - I NEVER ride with a clinican unless I have audited a clinic with him/her previously. Not checking out the clinican first would be like driving your car on vacation without checking under the hood before you leave. You are asking for trouble. I do not accept other people's testimony about instructors because they may have different ideas than I do aout what makes a good instructor. I personally do not find it "challenging" to be verbally abused by someone I have paid good money to help me.

What about clinicians with a SYSTEM. I avoid these people like I avoid potholes. Generally this involves every participant in the clinic spending his/her entire ride working on one aspect of this clinician's training system - e.g. spending 45 minutes in the walk, practicing half halts or walk-halt transitions. Dressage is a system, a classical system developed over centuries by experience and knowledge and one trainer, no matter how great, isn't going to beat that.

NEXT MONTH - BACK TO THE CLINIC AND THE JOURNEY TO ROME.

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