Getting the Most from a Clinic

A clinic is also an opportunity to learn by watching others ride. Here are a few tips on how to make the most of your next clinic experience.

Finding a Good Fit

If you have not taken lessons from a clinician before, ask your coach if he or she thinks the clinician would be suitable. A confident coach should not feel threatened by the fact that a student would want to take a clinic from someone else from time to time. Keep in mind that trainers vary in their teaching and riding styles, and if a clinician is very different than your regular coach, confusion and problems may result, and the burden will be on your coach to sort out the contradictions. If the clinician you are interested in is giving a clinic in your area, go and watch a few lessons to see if this is a person you would like to ride with.

Consistency between what your coach teaches you and what a clinician would teach is sometimes best achieved if you take clinics from the same person with whom your own coach trains. Ask your coach if you can tag along to a lesson she is taking; you can offer to be useful as a groom or videographer. Watching your coach ride in a lesson will create a “trickle down” effect of learning, even before you take a clinic with that same person.

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Be Respectful

Show respect for the clinician by presenting yourself on time, with a clean horse and clean tack. You should be dressed neatly, with gloves and polished boots. If you present yourself sloppily, the clinician may have difficulty taking you seriously, which will diminish the value you gain from the clinic.

If you have to cancel your participation in a clinic, give the organizer as much notice as you can so that your spot can be filled. Expect to pay for your lesson if the time slot cannot be filled. If you don’t show this respect for the hard (and usually unpaid) work of the organizer, you are not likely to be invited back.

Maximize the Benefit

When you sign up, make sure that you and your horse will be fit enough for the clinic, and that both of you are well rested going into it. One of the best ways to increase the value of taking a clinic is to arrive early and watch a few lessons before you ride, especially if you have not ridden with the clinician before. You will be able to observe the overall format and style of teaching in preparation for your own lesson. Even if you have ridden with the trainer before, watching others ride in the clinic is always educational.

When it’s your turn to ride, be truthful when the clinician asks what work you are doing at home. He or she will want to make sure your basics are solid and that your training is following the training scale. Don’t expect to be riding half-passes in the clinic if you can’t demonstrate correct shoulder-in and travers, or flying changes if you are struggling with the simple changes.

Having video of your clinic rides so that you can review them later is of great value. If there is a professional videographer who has put a microphone on the clinician, you will be guaranteed to hear everything the clinician told you. If you have a friend taking video, have that person stand near the clinician (with the clinician’s permission, of course) in order to capture as much of what you are being told as possible. The person recording your ride should keep the camera rolling through walk breaks. I often see videographers stop recording during breaks, but that is when discussion takes place – and when the most valuable take-home messages are often presented.

If you take a clinic with a trainer who comes regularly to your area, try to ride in the clinics on an ongoing basis. By creating continuity, you will progress more quickly as the clinician becomes more familiar with you and your horse. Taking one expensive lesson from a “rock star” clinician might be fun, but at the end of the day that clinician can’t really effect change in you and your horse or monitor progress, since he or she won’t be coming back. A clinic once a month with the same clinician would be ideal, if you can find that opportunity.