As a recipient of the May 2023 WDAFL Grant I’m writing to share my awesome clinic experience. I have ridden with the clinician, Greta Wrigley previously and appreciate her insight and guidance. As an aging amateur I’ve absolutely forgotten most of what I once learned, and encourage all riders of all ages to seek a trainer whose style and methods align with your own.
My clinic ride with Greta included a lot of firsts for my young horse Oakley. To include his first away from home lesson/clinic, first time in an indoor arena and his first time seeing mirrors! As a 3.5 yr old Georgia Grande he’s quite sensible and I’m very thankful for that. Our ride included focusing on the very elementary basic fundamentals of Western Dressage as applicable to young horses.
Greta’s instruction with us included helping me remember what my expectations should be for my young horse. We worked on encouraging a long frame and seeking soft contact as he tends to curl his neck at this stage. The walk needs to be more “walk like” (think marching with purpose), we need to focus more on rhythm and tempo in the trot work while asking for the longer frame, the canter is really quite nice & balanced and will easily develop. Proper fundamentals have been already started at home regarding bending and yielding. Greta encouraged us to continue to building on our lateral work with leg yields, and the introduction of turn on the forehand. Additionally Greta encouraged more straight line work as we’ve obviously got the circles down, LOL.
Overall it was an amazing day as I hope to continue Oakley’s development. Future plans are to debut on the Western Dressage Ring soon! Thank You WDAFL for being such a great WDAA affiliate and offering a Grant Program.
Sincerely,
Brooke Horne
Hinesville, Ga
