RFT Clinic Warrnambool in Feb 2013

I was very kindly invited by Vicki Marr (QS Agent for West Vic) and the Warrnambool Whisperers Practise Group to visit Warrnambool for a Release Focused Training Clinic in February 2013.  We began the weekend with Abbey and myself doing a demonstration on the Friday Evening where we had many people gathering at the Warrnambool Showgrounds to watch the event. 

As luck would have it, as I was making preparations for the demonstration, the clouds started to move in and a light drizzle of rain started to fall.  Not to be deterred, I started my warmup with some liberty with Abbey in the lovely sand arena.  The rain had cleared a little by the time I started my talk and introduced myself and Abbey to the crowd however it wasn't long before some deep rumblings started in the distance, just as I was ready to hop on Abby....bareback and bridle less!!  Of course I had much faith in Abbey, knowing that the thunder wouldn't worry her and made mention to the crowd about our relationship and how I knew Abbey would look after me in any situation.   Little did I know that that situation was about to be tested! 

I had been riding around bareback and bridle less showing some transitions and rebounds etc when the thunder started to get louder, so I thought I would wrap up the demo as it looked like we were about to get drenched.  I decided to finish off by hopping over some jumps, I had just popped over at walk and trot and then started to canter.  Just as I landed after the jump there was an almighty CRACK!!!  I couldn't have timed it any better and I even jumped at the loudness of the thunder and what did Abbey do?   Well of course she stopped because I stopped!  The crowd were just amazed at how calm she was and I was so proud of Abbey.

Despite the thundery start, we had beautiful weather for the rest of the weekend which put everyone in great learning mode as we discovered release and began to look for ways of offering a good deal to our horses in everything that we asked of them.  We saw lots of open hands, loose reins and everyone having a lot of fun when taking their horses out on a trail walk.  We even looked at doing fast flying lead changes with the focus of having our horses take the offer of our direct rein.

Thank you to Vicki Marr and the Warrnambool Whisperers Practise Group for organising this fantastic event and I look forward to visiting the area again.

Here are some of the tah dahs from the weekend:

• The better the send, the better everything else (transitions) become
• The difference between going to comfort and away from discomfort sometimes is not much, but it makes a HUGE difference
• Give my pony the chance to do a circle on a casual rein and she learnt to just stay on the circle
• Open hands on a short range circle and only close when you need to re-adjust your pony
• Learning to open up with shoulder, hip and hand means I get lovely soft forequarter yields to comfort
• On-line - don't accept a sluggish walk and trot (same for ridden).  Remember to stay behind the driveline
• If I lose focus, my horse loses focus too.  Reward the slightest try.  Believe in myself and Stormy.  Mean what we saty and expect what we say.  Fantastic clinic . . . . showed that anything is possible with trust, belief and feel.
• Best lesson with Mel . . . . so, so so happy (Makayla)