{"id":2048,"date":"2020-02-27T06:22:40","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T06:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/?p=2048"},"modified":"2020-02-27T06:32:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T06:32:24","slug":"the-ins-and-outs-of-attending-clinics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/02\/27\/the-ins-and-outs-of-attending-clinics\/","title":{"rendered":"The ins and outs of attending a clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ever wondered what a clinician thinks\nmakes the perfect clinic attendant?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With every new clinician comes something new to learn but\nsome things remain the same for every event. There are common themes from one\nclinic to the next and I have found that all clinicians \/ coaches \/ instructors\nhave a pretty similar view on what they do and don\u2019t like about the things\npeople do when attending clinics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As an equestrian venue owner and host of many clinics over the years, I have had the chance to discuss with clinicians, many do\u2019s and don\u2019ts for participants that make for a great clinic.<br> <br>Perhaps you might think that the most advanced rider with the well bred horse is going to be top of the list \u2013 but not necessarily. It\u2019s the quiet achievers that really get a good clinician or instructor cheering on the inside. The beginner (or even advanced rider) who listened intently and asked lots of questions, went home, practised and improved is really what gets their attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tips from a happy\nclinician<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Be on time, preferably early. There\u2019s nothing\nmore satisfying than getting into the arena to an eager group of attendees\nready and waiting.<\/li><li>Put your phone away! There\u2019s nothing more\ndisheartening than talking to a group of people and turning around to find\nsomeone more engrossed in their phone than their learning experience. If you\nare with or on your horse, then your horse needs and deserves all of your\nattention, and so does the clinician.<\/li><li>Smoking (if you must smoke) is for smoko or\nlunch break.<\/li><li>Ride or at the very least work with the horse on\nground before a clinic, don\u2019t bring a horse that has just been in the paddock\nfor weeks or months. If you don\u2019t know how to prepare, get some help.<\/li><li>Make sure your gear is clean, in good working\norder and fits!! If you\u2019re not sure about saddle, bit or bridle fit, just ask.\nTaking a little pride in your own appearance and that of your horse goes a long\nway.<\/li><li>Don\u2019t be afraid to ask questions \u2013 a very common\ntheme is that most clinicians want you to truly understand the how and why of\nthe exercises they are teaching, not just to be able to do the moves. Why does\nmy horse brace there, how can I do that better? Be prepared to have a go, show\nthe instructor and improve on it.<\/li><li>Hiding down the back corner gets you nowhere!\nMake sure you can see what\u2019s being taught, give everything a go and don\u2019t be\nscared of mucking up. One of the best examples of this I saw was at Legacy of\nLegends during the Buck Brannaman clinic. Buck took a horse to help the girl\nget it moving a little better, which he did and you could see the despair on\nher face as he handed back the lead rope. What he said to her next has stayed\nwith me ever since. He said that he knew she was going to muck it up a bit, but\nthat it was totally ok because he would help her again and she could practise\nand he would help out as many times as necessary to bridge the gap between the\nhorse and the human. He stressed to her that the only way to get better at this\nstuff (the groundwork) was to have a go, practise and not to be scared of\nmaking mistakes. Instantly she relaxed and got things happening nicely with her\nhorse.<\/li><li>Be courteous and thank your host. Most top\nclinicians have regular hosts that help organise clinics in various venues\nacross the country. Quite often the host is doing a range of jobs behind the\nscenes from organising travel, accommodation and food on top of riding and\ntrying to get the most out of their own learning experience. Hosts generally\nhave an open line of communication with their clinicians and can answer a range\nof questions any participant may have. One of the most common frustrations of a\nbusy clinician is getting bogged down in basic enquiries that they know the\nhost can handle. If you\u2019re not sure on something, check with your host first \u2013\nthey will either have the info you need or can get it for you quickly.<\/li><li>Pay on time. Interestingly this is not something\nthat any of the clinicians mentioned. However, due to their desire to give back\nto the horse, it\u2019s something they usually don\u2019t focus on when they should! If\nyou must cancel, check the cancellation policy and be prepared to wear the\ndeposit or payments if you can\u2019t find a replacement for your spot.<\/li><li>Clean up after yourself \u2013 take your rubbish home\nwith you, clean the yards or carpark where you\u2019ve been before you leave and\npickup horse manure in the arena.<\/li><li>Social media \u2013 while most clinicians are on it,\nnot all have the time to police and monitor it. Every clinician I know is\npretty open about what they do but everyone knows how damaging bad pictures or\na snippet of video taken at the wrong moment can be. If you want to post video\nor pictures of the clinician or other participants with their horses, just ask\nfirst. It\u2019s NOT ok for others to post learning content online that belongs to\nthe clinician. You pay to be there and learn directly from that person, if\nothers want to see for themselves what goes on at a particular clinic then they\nshould pay and bring a horse or pay to come along as a spectator.<\/li><li>Horse health and welfare. Make sure your horse\nis in good condition, pack enough feed to keep your horse\u2019s energy up while at\na clinic. Making sure that your horse is healthy and fit for task is crucial.\nIf working on balance and softness for example, there\u2019s not a lot any clinician\ncan do to help you with your horse if its feet are weeks overdue for a trim and\nit\u2019s tripping over it\u2019s toes. Equally if your horse is injured or unwell, leave\nit at home! There\u2019s nothing worse than a lame horse at a clinic or one with a\nsnotty nose or a huge fungal skin infection \u2013 no one needs to share that stuff\naround.<\/li><li>Rider health and welfare. Make sure YOU are fit\nfor task. If a one hour ride usually sees you needing a 3 hour nanna nap in the\nafternoon, then perhaps a 4 day 9am-5pm clinic is not for you. Perhaps you sign\nup for a riding holiday or trek \u2013 make sure you can mount a horse from the\nground and are honest and open about your ability. Turning up to an advanced\nhorsemanship clinic when you are still learning to rise to the trot is probably\nnot in anybody\u2019s best interest.<\/li><li>Respect the clinician\u2019s space and private time \u2013\nmost clinicians I know will answer as many questions as you can ask\u2026 during\nclinic hours! It\u2019s important to utilise your \u201cwork\u201d hours because once the\nclinician knocks off for a cold drink and a meal, they don\u2019t necessarily want\nto spend an hour answering questions you could have asked during the day. It\u2019s\nnot even that they don\u2019t \u201cwant\u201d to, it\u2019s just that they need down time too.\nQuite often they have emails to attend to or family to phone \u2013 while you may\nhave saved up for 6 months to attend this cool thing with your horse and you\nwant to kick back at the pub on the Saturday night\u2026 this isn\u2019t the first rodeo\nfor many clinicians. Their weekends doing clinics are like your Monday \u2013 Friday\nat the office.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tips for getting the\nmost out of your learning experience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Prepare \u2013 don\u2019t self sabotage by being\nunorganised or uninformed. Being early \/ on time, knowing where to go and what\ntime the day starts are all steps in the right direction.<\/li><li>Have everything you might need \u2013 write a list if\nyou must and pack prior to the morning of said clinic. Turning up and\nforgetting your girth or something equally as important is just a pain. Pack\nfor all weather too, hat, sunscreen, raincoat, chair, drinks and food.<\/li><li>Be open to learning but don\u2019t give away your own\npower and ignore your gut feeling. If you don\u2019t truly feel ok with what\u2019s being\nasked of yourself or your horse, it\u2019s ok to sit out. Just be honest, any good\nclinician or instructor will respect this.<\/li><li>Quite often, those riders with less experience\nhave a tendency to put their total trust in the instructor with the misguided\ntheory that they will create miracles for them. Yes, we need to put ourselves\nin learning situations where we can trust those guiding us, but at the same\ntime, we need to take complete responsibility for ourselves and our horse and\ntake ownership of our own journey. Nothing changes if nothing changes, be\nprepared to do the homework and the follow up if you wish to continue whatever\nsuccess the clinician has helped you achieve.<\/li><li>If you\u2019re heading along to someone new, do a\nlittle research and find out the clinic format, get an overview of the kinds of\nthings you\u2019re likely to work on. In most cases your host can help with this.<\/li><li>Don\u2019t just stand around waiting for help \u2013 if\nyou have questions ask, if you are confused about what you\u2019ve been show then\nask again. Most clinicians or instructors understand that different people have\ndifferent learning styles, breaking something down or explaining it in another\nway is never a nuisance. Standing up the back waiting for the clinician to come\nand single you out is not likely to get you the help you need. Put yourself out\nthere a little and have a go.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What\u2019s the one thing anyone can practise anytime anywhere that will help them at any clinic?<br> <br><\/strong>Breathe!!! Learn to breathe deeply and fully while doing groundwork, breathe when you hop on, just sit on your horse and breathe out. When you do a transition or a manoeuvre, breathe!!! Practise your breathing when riding ALL the time. The most common rider error across all disciplines would absolutely be the inability to breathe properly while riding. When we get nervous, we hold our breathe, when we concentrate too hard we hold our breathe. Become aware of your breathing and become aware of how it affects your horse when you\u2019re not breathing properly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Still not sure about something clinic related?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just ask \ud83d\ude0aThe silliest question is\nthe one you didn\u2019t ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I hope this is a helpful resource and I hope that going forward we can all do our bit to be more thoughtful and proactive clinic participants. These skilled and experienced professionals travel far and wide, sometimes without nearly enough rest so the least we can do is be more prepared and informed to make the experience as enjoyable as possible for everyone. Happy horsing!<br><br><strong><em>Written by India Woods &#8211; Valmont Farms 2020<\/em><\/strong><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever wondered what a clinician thinks makes the perfect clinic attendant? With every new clinician comes something new to learn but some things remain the same for every event. There are common themes from one clinic to the next and I have found that all clinicians \/ coaches \/ instructors have a pretty similar view&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/02\/27\/the-ins-and-outs-of-attending-clinics\/\" class=\"\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The ins and outs of attending a clinic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[52,51],"class_list":["post-2048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-horse-clinics","tag-horsemanship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2048"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2054,"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions\/2054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valmontfarms.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}