So Much To Learn

 My friends and I had an excellent horsey weekend away.

 I'm not really much of a shopper, so I dread the crowded shopping area and usually make a beeline for the clinicans. I have been needing some new breeches for a while now though, so went to the store nearest the entrance and immediately found 2 pairs. I was hoping for navy blue to go with the brown tall boots I'm getting for Christmas, but the closest they had was black. For the price I had to be cool with that. My bill came to $110 with taxes, saving $175 off retail. Nice. Black is the new navy, I guess ;)

The rest of the weekend was spent watching every session with George Morris. As you all know, there can be almost an overwhelming amount to be learned by watching him ride and teach. Whoever lined up the riders for one of the sessions made some 'interesting' choices, so George had his hands full. While I'm sure it was disappointing for some to see horses and riders who maybe weren't quite technically ready to be jumping, it was actually really good for me to see him really go back and patiently teach basics and get green horses jumping. Look out, Miss Bridget! The other session had some excellent riders, but again, the focus was on correct basics for the riders and lots of suppling exercises for the horses on the flat. Fantastic. George was apparently sitting in on the dressage clinic with Jan Ebling and nicely dovetailed a lot of what Jan was teaching into his own sessions. I found that very helpful! I find the man himself incredibly intimidating, so when he addressed a couple of (kind) comments to me I wanted to run and hide! He had, after all, just gone on a huge rant about 'fat people' and I'm not exactly tiny....thank goodness for the Jan Ebling clinic next door....

I watched as much of Jan Ebling as I could. I really enjoyed his teaching and training style - he's very upbeat and positive. He mentioned a few times to the riders to never get disappointed or upset when your horse makes a mistake because it's just an opportunity to train them. If we never made mistakes we'd never learn anything. Basic concept, but I think sums up pretty much what he was all about - very kind and fair and not in a rush for anything, There were a couple of riders and horses who seemed a little nervous about being in the clinic, and others who were worried about attempting certain things. He had everyone relaxed and happy fairly quickly and even had one girl ride a pretty nice line of two tempis when she was worried about trying 4's. I'll definitely be making an effort to see him again,

I literally spent 12 hours on Saturday watching demos and clinics, so I even watched some barrel racing ladies, a reining clinic, and a NH guy. I think I got my $ worth :)

The funniest part of the weekend? The whole time I was watching clinics, my friends were shopping. When they were telling me all about what they bought later that night it was like 'boots, spurs, some chaps, a halter, a hat, a hoodie, this mineral block, a pony, a blanket, horse treats..." I was like "Whoa, back up... BOUGHT A PONY!?!". Yep, they adopted the middle mini from here:

G, remember I didn't come home with a pony:)

(OK guys I just realized when I linked to Jan Ebling's page that he was the really nice guy with the german accent I had sat next to at another demo later in the day. Didn't recognize him without his hat on. Cool :)

Hope everyone else had a fun weekend!