Centered Riding Clinic in Steamboat Springs

We enjoyed a clinic in Steamboat Springs, Colorado last weekend.  It was an open clinic, so I wasn't updating my instructor certification this time, which meant I took Highboy and Raven to get help with furthering each of their training.  Kimberly Hale Photography took pictures for us and she also rode her mare, Rain.  Sara rode Dewey in the clinic.  The other riders in the clinic were great to watch as well!

Highboy's sessions were probably the most exciting.

This episode was the second day of the clinic while we were warming up.  He had ridden really well the first day, and because of that was a bit tired the second day.  I asked him to canter on his left lead (currently his harder one) and when he was about to break to a trot I gave him a little swat with my dressage whip.  This was his demonstrative objection to my encouragement.

As he finished his declaration he then began to canter on very nicely.  One of the other riders in the arena passed us and said, "Oh, so THAT'S why you call him Highboy....!"

The first day I dressed us in our Bit of Honey yellows, which made for really great photos.

Dewey was a champ, he behaved himself well and he and Sara made some good progress, including a  nice right lead canter!  Sara of course had them dressed to impress. 

Kim H. had some terrific rides on Rain as well.  Rain was a little "up" the first day with Raven screaming to her from the paddock during their ride, but Kim rode it well and managed to use the extra forward impulsion to get some nice gaits.

Raven did incredibly well.  She was a little hot the first day, but behaved herself considering I was riding her away from her friends and travel buddies.  Prior to this trip she's been kind of a jerk when we travel with other horses from home, not wanting to leave them and having temper tantrums when we did leave them.  This trip she rode much more like she rides at home, which was a refreshing change and very encouraging progress in her training!

Our other new friends had good rides, too.

We enjoyed meeting Susan and her two cool western horses.  She does cutting and reining with them, and they look like they're built perfectly for those jobs!

We also met Claudia.  Her grey Andalusian mare was powerful and gorgeous, and her liver chestnut horse was a pleasure to watch.

Bridget was from Elizabeth and is an instructor there who teaches a lot of kids.  She brought her bay thoroughbred gelding, so of course we loved him simply because he would fit in so well at our place!

Our Centered-Riding Southwest Area representative is Roxanne, or Rox as we know her.  She rides a stunning huge gaited chestnut gelding named Finn.  Everyone agreed that his canter departures made him look like pegasus, and all he needed was wings to have liftoff.

The other bay thoroughbred gelding we loved was Kevin, belonging to Lore who was hosting the clinic at her facility.  She has had him a little over a year and I was able to teach them last summer when I was there updating my instructor certification.  It was really fun to see how much progress the two of them have made over the past year.

Lore and her husband had put up a shed near the arena to shelter spectators and the peanut gallery from wind, sun, rain, etc.  Because it was a weekend of women, we dubbed it The She-Shed (instead of the man-cave) and whenever we needed onlookers input we would consult the She-Shed.

Lore's dog, Pip, was on alert throughout the clinic.

Pip and Vivien (Regina's Corgi) spent much of their time sounding false alarms for people arriving, as well as trying to herd clinic participants into an orderly line when we were doing unmounted work.

The trampoline exercises are great for several things, but on the morning we worked with them we practiced cantering.  It was fun to watch everyone trying out their left and right leads on the ground, then trying to canter in place on the ground and on the trampolines.  As Regina often said, "If you want to do it in the saddle, you have to be able to do it on the ground!"

The local wildlife consisted of birds eating berries in trees, as well as a giant statue of a bear across the street at the neighbors' place.  Surprisingly, the horses didn't seem to mind the giant wooden carving of a predator, but they did give it a good stare when they first noticed it.

Dewey seemed to have a tongue thing going on, we caught a few photos of him with his tongue out while he was thinking.

Raven, Dewey, and Rain shared a paddock while Highboy was in a stall.

It was a fantastic weekend, with productive riding lessons and unmounted work.  We all left with new things to practice at home on our horses.  We enjoyed meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones, and we also had a chance to discuss plans for next summer when we'll all head to New Mexico for an Update Clinic for all of us instructors to renew our certifications.  There's so much fun to be had with our horsey travels!