Equine Affaire Ohio 2010 Clinic & Shopping Review

Equine Affaire Ohio in April is easily one of my most favorite weekends of the whole year for many reasons: the horses, the people, the horses, the shopping, the horses.

I went for the entire four-day event, spending the first day on my own and the rest with my momma and our wonderful horsey friend (and my psuedo-sister) Laura. We had a blast! The dressage and jumping clinics were fantastic, the weather was mostly nice, and we got some good deals.

Clinics at Equine Affaire Ohio 2010

I pretty much stuck to the dressage and jumping clinics this year with Linda Allen and Jennifer Nadaline for hunter/jumper and Jeremy Steinberg and Reese Koffler-Stanfield for dressage. Big fan of all of them, but especially of Reese! All of the clinicians this year did a fantastic job of teaching the audience and not just the riders assisting them. And they all also focused very heavily on building a strong foundation, which was exactly what I needed with my green horse.

Linda Allen, Jumping

Linda Allen, an internationally renowned and FEI certified  jumping course designer (she has the Olympics on her resume) focused on the two most important rider functions for jumping: pace and location. She emphasized that too many riders focus on getting over the jump; but that’s the horses job. As riders, we should be focusing on the approach and where we are going when we land, and let your horse do the rest. She also recommended not practicing courses at home, but practicing elements of courses and exercises that will make them better. A major takeaway from Linda’s clinics was that you can do all kinds of training with just one jump because there are 25 ways you can jump one jump. You have 5 ways to approach and 5 ways to land (which gives 25 total combinations):

• straight
• angle left
• angle right
• turn left
• turn right

If you want an idea of the kind of exercises she uses, pick up a copy of 101 Jumping Exercises. Fantastic training tool!

Jennifer Nadaline, Hunters

Jennifer Nadaline was a last minute substitute for the recently injured Pamela Graham, and we loved her! Her session focused largely on preparing a novice horse for anything on course. It was about developing a desensitization and encouragement technique that teaches your horse to look to you for leadership and to determine when something is safe or if they need to turn tail and run.

She had her riders demonstrate developing a signal for you horse that a scary fence or situation is indeed OK; a slight relaxation of the inside rein. As with any type of training, this is a process. She had the riders patting the horses all over as they rode, swinging their arms around, and moving all over to first teach the horse not to worry about what the rider is doing or if she gets a little unbalanced. From there, any time something went well, the riders gave the horse a light pat on the wither with the inside hand. She then used the technique during an increasingly difficult course with funny looking fences to reassure the horses that all was well. It couldn’t have been planned or demonstrated better, as a bunch of Friesans for a breed demonstration entered the far end of the arena – one flipped out and dumped his rider, and several came in attached to large carriages. The horses all handled it very well with the reassurance from their riders.

Jennifer trains from Sugar Run Farm in Plain City, Ohio.

Reese Koffler-Stanfield, Dressage

I’d have to say that Reese Koffler-Stanfield, a dressage rider and training from Lexington, was my favorite of the weekend. She was so sweet, encouraging, and knowledgeable in her sessions. While she was working with 2nd and 3rd level horses, she identified some of their foundational issues affecting the higher level movements and put them through exercises to strengthen the basics. It was perfect for me and my green horse, with whom I’m trying to establish a solid basis.

Reese emphasized quality over quantity in her sessions, which tied in well with Jeremy Steinberg‘s emphasis on building muscle memory. They both talked about how horses aren’t necessarily made to do dressage, and some aren’t built for it conformationally like others are. But they can all learn. When you are teaching something new or your horse struggles with a particular movement, just ask for a few good steps at first instead of going and going until they get it right. This teaches them to do the right thing and helps them build the strength and muscle memory to do it well and for longer stretches.

I also go to talk to Reese afterwards and get some specific ideas to address some of Ace’s particular weaknesses. So helpful!

Equine Affaire Shopping

What horse girl doesn’t love the hundreds and hundreds of booths of stuff to buy for you and your horse at Equine Affaire? Even on a small budget I was able to find some great deals and get some good loot for me and Ace. Here’s what we came home with:

The best deal was the Ariat down winter coat that I got half off. I bought it Thursday, just in time to wear it Friday when the temps didn’t get above the low-40′s. Hopefully I can put it away until next winter now! I’m also very excited about trying out the loose ring snaffle Myler bit (with bit guards) and the 101 Dressage Exercises book that Reese Koffler-Stanfield recommended. Oh, and I got a good deal on the sweatshirt from Planet Cowgirl, as well as a green thermal that was in the wash and missed the photo shoot.

Equine Affaire 2010 was officially everything I hoped it would be. I learned a ton, had fun with family, got some fun stuff, and connected with all kinds of wonderful people I’ve met through blogging.

And of course I went to the Extreme Cowboy Race finals, which are a blast and you definitely need to see should you have the opportunity. I was just disappointed that my favorite cowgirl Casey Pierce didn’t win. She always had amazing runs and flair. I’ll be there to cheer you on again next year! (and I might just come take a reining lesson or two from you as well…)

I’m already looking forward to next year …