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. <strong>The</strong> 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. “<strong>The</strong> 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). <strong>The</strong> 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 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Stable</strong> for Tanja’s responses! 106 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Stable</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> www.thestablemagazine.com
Tanja Kraus Horsemanship Building the relationship with our equine partners. Confidence, trust, balance are all things TKH can help you build with your horse. 0412 592 033 tanjajkraus@gmail.com http://tanjakraushorsemanship.wordpress.com <strong>The</strong> <strong>Stable</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> www.thestablemagazine.com 107
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