The Stable Magazine - April 2016

TANJAKRAUSHORSEMANSHIP
Which Clinic Should I Attend?
I
often get calls about my
upcoming clinics when people
havent attended a clinic
before and are a little unsure
of content and a little worried
about ‘how it all works’. I thought
I’d go through some points to
help clarify the most ‘frequently
asked questions’.
First and Foremost – remember – you
probably won’t be the only person
there that has never been before,
you won’t be the only person that is
nervous, and we all started somewhere.
It breaks my heart to see people sitting
on the sidelines, or leaving their horse
at home because they are worried
about not knowing what to do. Take
the leap and head out for an awesome
weekend with your horse – it will take
you to a new level with your horse, and
you won’t regret it! I have had so many
people come up to me at the end of a
clinic and say ‘I wish I had brought my
horse”!
“I should get some private lessons
before I come, so I know what I am
doing”. Most of the time you won’t be
able to get a private lesson with the
clinician that is coming to your area
and thats is exactly what the clinic
is for! You and everyone else are
attending to learn with their horse –
and everyone is at a different level. The
compeition arena is where you should
‘know what you are doing’, a clinic is a
learning environment.
“I have been to a few clinics now, and
Ask Tanja..
I’m worried that the newcomers will
hold the content to a basic level”.
Wrong! Most clinicians deliver content
that is from beginner to advanced
levels within the one clinic. It is
quite easy for us to deliver skills and
techniques from basic to advanced
levels – you just need to commit to
learning at an advanced level, rather
than watch a technique and write it off
as something you already know.
“I have been to a few clinics and they
are all the same”. If this sounds like
you – you’re doing it wrong! From the
minute you walk into a clinic you have
a choice – to learn, or to stand there
and think you know everything that is
being taught. I myself attend clinics on
a regular basis and can still learn with
a group of ‘beginners’ – because I am
committed to doing so.
“The clinic sounds like it will be too
advanced for me”. Unless the clinician
has specified that it is an advanced
clinic – and normally this would require
that attendees had attended a certain
number of clinics to be eligible – all
levels are welcome at all clinics. I
personally ‘theme’ a lot of my clinics
-for example the upcoming gold coast
clinic is on ‘collection and engagement’,
but they all start with the foundation
ground and ridden skills and then
lead into the focus of collection and
engagement (or whatever the theme is
for that clinic).
The benefits of attending clinics with
your horse are endless – the simple act
of spending real hours with your horse,
growing and learning, take you to a
new level with each other. Having a
full weekend or week to simply invest
in your horse – priceless.
I like to look at clinics as ‘positive
hours’ spent with your horse. So if you
think about positive hours being like
money in the bank – its best to collect
as many as we can. If we start to look
at the time we spend with our horse in
categories of ‘quality’ we can start to
put in more positive hours in the bank
– for example we might consider time
being – negative, positive and neutral.
Depending on how you interact with
your horse and the expectations on
him during training and competition,
you may consider clinics positive – low
pressure, quiet, training time. Negative
time may be competing – high pressure,
‘get it done now’, performance not
training, and neutral may be feeding
time, farrier, etc. Please note – I
am not saying that competitions are
‘negative’ , and Im not saying that feed
and farrier time is not beneficial in
some way, but what I am saying is that
if you start to add up your horse hours
each week – are you spending more
time in a ‘neutral zone’ ?
With my horses I want my ‘positive
hours’ to far outweigh the negative or
the neutral hours – this way I know that
I am putting quality training hours in
the bank, which are going to serve me
when I am asking that bit more from my
horse in a performance situation.
So which clinic should you attend ?
Any that you are able to get to – start
banking those positive hours!
Ḥave you got a question you’d like to ask Tanja about your horse?
Send your question to tanjajkraus@gmail.com with ‘Ask Tanja’ in the
subject line - and check future issues of The Stable for Tanja’s responses!
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