2018 Centered Riding Clinic at Bit of Honey Training

Our clinic with Regina Liberatore was a great success!  We braved some chilly and soggy weather but all the riders did a great job and left the clinic with new things to work on at home.

This was the whole group, Miles herded everyone into place and Alice's husband took the photo.  From left to right we have Miles, me, Miss Pea, Jasi, Joyce, Sara, Alice, Rebecca, Kim H., Trish, and Regina.

The clinic included some unmounted work and theory discussion.  My two favorite skeletons were on hand to illustrate the various concepts. 

We had lecture as well as exercises.  We gathered in a circle for discussion,

And we did an exercise called "swing your partner".  This is an interesting one as one person acts as the "horse" and the other partner acts as the "rider".  The rider is to guide the horse (no talking!), and the horse is to notice what it feels like when the rider loses one of their basics, like switching to hard eyes, tilting the head off center, walking on tiptoes, etc.  It's a dramatic exercise and there are many things that can be experienced this way, which saves our horses but teaches us a lot about what the horses experience from us.

The rides themselves went well too, though I have yet to go through the (estimated) 2,000 photos taken over the course of the clinic.  It was a super fun experience to host, despite me not being able to ride due to a cold and a pinched nerve in my shoulder.  It was an ideal situation with riders who all knew each other already, horses who were very familiar with Centered Riding techniques, and an incredibly supportive group of women helping one another and giving each other positive reinforcement at every opportunity.