Riddells Creek Quantum Weekend May 2011

When: 26th - 29th May 2011

Where: Cloverfern Equestrian Centre, Riddells Creek VIC

Daily Programme:

Morning 9.30am - 1.00pm
Level 1 Advanced: Level 1 Overview
Combine skills learnt in Level 1 - Build your Confidence in all gaits - Prepare for Level 2

Afternoon 2pm - 5.30pm
Level 2 Primary: Lessons 5 & 6
Advance on our Basic Skills with Positive Reflexes— Work on longer lines—Go looking for the truth at Liberty—Gain an independent seat with Bareback Riding

We spent another brilliant time at Riddells Creek with a keen bunch of students ready to take on the beginning of winter by advancing on their horsemanship skills.  The Level 1 Advanced group all wanted to become braver in the saddle.  Our focus in our warm ups and saddling procedures...getting good hindquarter yields, straight backups and being able to steer our horses backwards, all to help soften our horses which gives us better control over our horses when in the saddle.  By the end of the weekend everyone had done passenger lessons, ride the rail and CANTER transitions!!

The Level 2 Primary group spent a good part of the weekend advancing on their On Line skills, Level 2 style - having their horses go at their pace and fine tuning their communication at greater distances.  By the end of the weekend, their preparation paid off and off came the ropes!  The connection that everyone had developed was amazing and to top it all off, we finished with a bareback ride!

Student Ta-Dah's:
Racquel: If it is getting harder not better (ie. float load) give more release!
Lindy: Less is More!
Body Life up & down improved.
Timing & Release has improved Yay!
Samara: Grace walked at MY pace!
Grace stopped on the outside of my long range circles with just my body life down!
Grace went from phase 1 Backwards!!
Tracey: Throwing the rope over Strikes ears
Riding without a bridle!!!!
Lindy: Breaking a task down into segments in order to achieve the correct result.  Much easier than trying to learn it all in one go!

A Level 1 Grad for Sunraysia

Congratulations Alexa & Anki!!

Alexa from Mildura has just completed all her Level 1 assignments with Anki!
Well done and welcome to Level 2 Alexa!

Level 1 Camp

I am at the Sydney airport waiting for my next flight to Broken Hill. I had the most fantastic time at the Level 1 Camp, it was wonderful to catch up with some freinds and to meet a fabulous group of new students too. I did attend this camp from an instructors point of view and I added lots more layers onto my horsemanship skills as well. Thank you to Kerrie Cribb for giving me Sunny to play with during the camp. I did some foundation training with him only 6 weeks before hand which was more or less a restart and we agreed that having me ride him in the L1 Camp would be a great follow on for him. What a change Sunny has made! When I first met him, Sunny was afraid of going near a float, had very little forward and his lack of confidence caused him to be both jumpy and agressive in his behavour. By the end of the Level 1 Camp, I was loading him onto the float - from on top of it!!


We have done passenger lessons, ride the rail with all the other horses, lots of canter transitions and a trail ride with just 1 rein! One of the most special things for me was when we had worked on teaching our horses to follow the feel of the lead rope, Sunny was doing lovely circles and changes of directions. I took the halter off and tied it around his neck and found that our connection was just as strong, his circles and COD's were just as soft as when he had the halter on his head. It was such an amazing feeling to be able to acheive this with a young horse in the short amount of time I had spent with him.

I am sad to be leaving QSSC but I am so excited to be returning home to apply my new found skills to my own horses at home, and to be sharing my knowledge with all my wonderful students.