Demonstration & Clinic Reviews
Alice Springs Clinic
- July 2010 -
A 2 day clinic was held on the 17 &18th July 2010 at Alice Springs Show Grounds. The 2 day clinic covered the following:
Day 1 - Horsemanship skills
- Ground work
- Building confident riding skills
- Rider position and effective use of aids
- Smooth Transitions
- Establishing the stop/halt
- Circle work, leg yeilding
- 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 Sonja Clark from Sun North Equine Providers for organising the clinic in Alice Springs and her efforts in making this happen. Sonja initially sent her warm blood colt (Ranger) down to Marelle Lodge for starting and the outcome was fantastic. Thank you to all the riders who attended the clinic and lessons, it was fantastic to see you all develop and improve over the weekend. You were all fantastic; it was a privilege to help each of you & your horses individually. Thank you for making me feel welcome to the Northern Territory.
Feedback from riders who attended the clinic:
- Not too structured, but with a direction on where we all wanted to go
- Encouragement was all it took to get me where I needed to be to achieve my results
- Great tips that have come from years of doing the hard yards rather than from a rigid structured program
- I was thrilled when other people wanted to ride my horse and show me what she can do. Pity everyone else looked better on my horse than I did! But it gives me something to work towards
- You could tell the depth of experience and firsthand knowledge across a wide variety of disciplines
- Very approachable and demonstrated passion on what they do.
Sabine
Balmoral Stud Open Day
- December 2009 -
Mark was invited to give a reining demonstration at the Balmoral Stud Open Day in December 2009.
Mark spoke to the audience about the requirements and suitability of a horse to be able to perform reining manoeuvres. Mark performed all of the reining manouevres on his reining horse "Hug Me & Hold Me" so that the audience could gain an appreciation of reining. As requested, Mark also performed a sliding stop as he approached a very scared host!
A dressage demonstration was performed by Julia Battams on her magnificent stallion "Clint Eastwood" and junior rider Nicola Reynoldson gave a showjumping demonstration on her massive 17hh horse.
Following the individual demonstrations of the different riding disciplines, Mark, Julia and Nicola swapped horses and attempted to perform the manoeuvers that each horse specialised in. There were many laughs as they attempted to ride the different disciplines.
Balmoral Stud Open Day was a very informative day with fantastic demonstrations by a range of equine disciplines and specialists.
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A 2 day clinic was held on the 17 & 18th July 2010 at the Alice Springs Show grounds. The 2 day clinic covered the following:
Day 1 – Horsemanship
- Ground-work
- Building confident riding skills
- Rider position and effective use of aids
- Smooth transitions
- Establishing the stop/halt
- Circle work, leg yielding
- Flexion & counter flexion
- Control of horse's shoulders & hindquarters
Day 2 - Applying the skills learnt on Day 1 to different disciplines
The riders and horses who attended the clinic were of varying experience
Feedback from riders who attended the clinic:
BIG thank you for organizing Mark and Astrid for the weekend clinic, and catering, and the grounds, equipment, lunches, souvenirs and and etc etc - we had a great time, all thanks to your efforts - thank you!
Mark was talking about coming back to ASP for the Masters, and maybe running a clinic for cutting/reining - can we make this happen? And how can I help?
Keen as mustard,
Blythe.
I had the time of my life!
Some feedback:
- Not too structured, but with a direction on where we all wanted to go
- Encouragement was all it took to get me where I needed to be to achieve my results
- Great tips that have come from years of doing the hard yards rather than from a rigid structured program
- I was thrilled when other people wanted to ride my horse and show me what she can do. Pity everyone else looked better on my horse than I did! But it gives me something to work towards
- You could tell the depth of experience and firsthand knowledge across a wide variety of disciplines
- Very approachable and demonstrated passion on what they do.
I would love to do a cutting and reining clinic when they return. I say when because I think Mark and Astrid enjoyed themselves as much as we did. I hope they both get to ride a camel, if not this time then maybe next time. Maybe they could stick around for masters games!
Thanks again to you Sonya and your organization team for a great weekend!
What can I add.............
They say "you can tell how much fun you had by the letdown the next day and how tired you are".
Well, me and my horse are stuffed....we surely had a ball.
Thanks to everyone for the company, the fun, the sunshine and the pleasure of meeting two such wonderful horsey people.
Can't wait for the next lot.
Sa'de Cook
Wow, how good was the weekend. I feel like Astrid and Mark were able to help me!! I would love to start to learn how to do cattle work and when they come back I will be booking lessons.
Thanks Sonya :o)
Melinda
Hi Sonya,
A HUGE thank-you, for introducing us all to Mark and Astrid and sharing them with us. Thank-you for your thoughtful gifts and souvenir’s of the clinic, it was a great touch.
To Mark and Astrid, thank-you for understanding each and every one of us and our horses. It was fantastic that even though we were in a group, you were still able to address each one of us individually. It was important to me that I was able to approach you both openly, and you both helped and re-assured me that my feelings were real, but they can be overcome. Thank-you for teaching me that there is such a thing as BLACK and WHITE, and not just the depressing grey patch in the middle.
Horses are my first love and my passion, so I’m not going to give up. I look forward to seeing Mark and Astrid back in the Alice later in the year.
Kind regards
Andrea Hill
Thank you Andrea,
I couldn't have said it better!
Thank you all, Sonya, Mark and Astrid ….and all you guys who supported me when I had my melt down!!! I really appreciate it!
thanks again
Sabine
A 2 day clinic was held at the Alice Springs Show grounds on the 17 & 18th July 2010. The following was covered in the clinic:
Day 1 – Horsemanship
- Ground-work
- Building confident riding skills
- Rider position and effective use of aids
- Smooth transitions
- Establishing the stop/halt
- Circle work, leg yielding
- Flexion & counter flexion
- Control of horse's shoulders & hindquarters
Day 2 - Applying skills learnt on Day 1 to different disciplines
Horses and riders were of varying levels of experience and confidence.
Hey Sonya,
