Demonstration & Clinic Reviews

Alice Springs Clinic

- April 2011 -

A two day Reining Clinic was held on the 2nd & 3rd of April 2011 at Alice Springs Show Grounds.

Reining Clinic focus on the following maneuvers:

Foundations for your Stop/Halt
Establishing Flying Changes
Rider position and effective use of aids
Smooth Transitions
Teaching your horse to spin correctly
Circle work, leg yielding
Flexion & counter flexion
Control of horse's shoulders & hindquarters

Horses and riders were of varying levels of experience and confidence.

I would like to thank Sade Cook & Blythe Stafford for organising the clinic in Alice Springs and their efforts in making this happen. Thank you to all the riders who attended the clinic and lessons, it was fantastic to see you all again and see how far you have come along, since the 2010 clinic. You were all fantastic; it was a privilege to help each of you & your horses individually. Thank you for making me feel welcome again in the Northern Territory.

Feedback from riders who attended the clinic:

Debra Roberts:

I would like to thank you for the challenging roll I gave you of teaching me while I was so blocked up with the flue, I could not hear or breath and also found out later I had ribs out of place which adding to the hard task that you had Mark trying to educate me in furthering my riding ability. I dare say I did find it challenging but enjoyed the 2 days of riding. I learnt easier technics to help supple and manouver my horse in reining. A huge big THANK YOU and we do hope to see you here again at some stage. Promise I will practice but must admit it did take me 5 days to recover from the work out.

Kylie Harbor:

Just leaving feedback about the clinic in ALice Springs. Glad you could make the effort to come here again as the clinic was alot of fun, learnt heaps and took away alot of info to work on. Look forward to seeing you back here.

Jacquie Lines:

Hi Mark, Thanks for the great clinic in Alice Springs, it was a most enjoyable couple of days and I came away with more knowlege than I started with. Look forward to another clinic sometime.

Telisha Kotzur:

Thank you very much for the clinic it sure was extremely useful everything you taught us and i know Jazz picked up a tone of it! Hopefully we can do another clinic out at Mt Riddock Station this year. That would be just fabulous!

Blythe Stafford:

I freely admit that I hadn't been able to ride Jack for the three weeks following the clinic. Typically, I began to think 'what a waste of time and money that'll be if I can't get on and ride to keep the new skill set'. But testament to Mark's training methods and range of tools he shared with us, when I finally got back in the saddle - it was all still there! I used the new warm-up exercises and after that I began to 'ask' of Jack, and he came back with all the right answers. He still had the information and best of all he still showed me the 'try'. Obviously I'm relieved the content of the lessons and clinic were retained (!), but even more pleased that it had made sense to both horse and rider - and the result is a calmer and more confident combination. Couldn't be happier. Find me some cattle....