October Grant recipient Susan Butler shares her clinic experience:
A clinic was scheduled at the barn where I board with an instructor from the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. The barn often has several clinics with high level clinicians over the winter months. I never really considered participating because they were always for traditional dressage riders. The advertisement of the clinic was posted by the barn owner on Facebook. I read it just because it came through my feed.
The clinician coming to the farm was Bereiter (horse trainer) Christian Bachinger. He has been part of the school for 42 years. He was doing 3 clinics in the States and my barn just happened to be one of them. Imagine my surprise when I read the following line in the ad, “He can help you improve in dressage as well as eventing, show jumping, and Western Dressage.” Wait, did that say Western Dressage? I had to read it again. I still didn’t believe it so the next day I went to the farm I confirmed with the barn owner who is also my trainer/coach. She said he absolutely would work with me and encouraged me to participate. She also said that if it was financially possible, I would benefit more from doing at least 2 lessons. I had to go home and consult my horse budget. It was expensive and I really didn’t have that much available since it was coming at the end of the year. I asked my husband if participating could also be my Happy Birthday (the first day of the clinic was actually on my birthday) and Merry Christmas to me presents. He agreed. Then when speaking with one of my very good WDAFL friends, she reminded me of the monthly education grants being given by the association. I applied and was thrilled to be the grantee selected in October!
The dates finally came. November 3 and 4. Harley and I were ready! I never expected the intensity involved in the lesson. I was asked to do a shoulder in down the long side as I was coming across the short side. I had to admit that I didn’t know how to do it! He casually explained the aids and there it was, all the way down the long side. Throughout the lesson we worked on shoulder in on the center line, too. We also did leg yield, half pass (kind of), walk to lope, lope to walk (we never really did accomplish this), 10m trot and 15m lope circles, and probably more stuff I don’t even remember. And this was all on the first day! I was so proud of Harley. He just kept on going and didn’t object to any of it. I thought I had a pretty special horse, but now I knew it! It was all very challenging. The next day for the second lesson, Harley was a bit tired and probably a little muscle sore too. Have to admit the same was true for me.
I can’t thank WDAFL enough for helping to provide this opportunity for me and Harley. The commitment to education for WDAFL members is so important to ensure that we all are given the tools to continue our journey in Western Dressage. Also, to other members searching for continuing education opportunities, never make assumptions about whether traditional dressage clinics would be accepting of a WD pair. ASK! You may be pleasantly surprised by the acceptance of our discipline from people we think would never consider it. I thanked Mr. Bachinger profusely for accepting WD riders into his clinics. I was the only one at this clinic. We had a rider dinner Saturday night and I asked him why he was so open to our participation. His answer was simple. “Why not? The basic training concepts and principles are the same.” So refreshing to hear!
