We just finished participating in the Joe Fargis Clinic at Riverside Equestrian Center, hosted by Marion Nelson. Quick...look it up, gold medal Jumping 1984 Los Angeles Olympics on Touch of Class, brilliant round, take a look at his jump off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIuRbr6q2wE
UP and I have participated in 6 clinics in our tenure together: Susie Hutchison, Bernie Traurig, George Morris, Linda Allan, Nick Karazissis, and most recently Joe Fargis. My husband accuses me of going to more clinics than any other 59 year old amateur in history. But what can he base that statistic on, really? Just because it is probably true. Not to forget daily training and instruction from Mr White. They have all provided valuable insight and feedback and pushed the performance envelope just a bit to higher levels.
But Joe speaks "Princess." This clinic really resonated. There were two prevailing messages, it seemed to me: straight and calm. Straight straight straight. The horse needs absolute straightness for full force from the hind legs to jump. And calm calm calm. Pretend that everything is cool and calm even when it is not. The horse needs that calm muscle relaxation to do the challenging tasks we are asking of them.
So we got into a straight and calm zone. I know Princess's every evasive move, having ridden her for 3 years. Evasive move number one: when departing on the left lead and not wanting to do so, move haunches to the inside 3 feet instantly on departure. Cute, not. Evasive move number two: when attempting flying change to right lead, and there is some distracting element on the planet (child on levee, dry leaf blowing in the wind), do an incomplete change to a cross canter, kill me now.
But with the long slow warm up, re-enforcing straight and calm, she settled in nicely. We completed an eleven element technical course with twists and turns galore, big enough for me, and perfect! I am walking on air. Thank you, JF and HW and UP. I will forever remember straight and calm.
No comments:
Post a Comment