Sarah Blackburn from Blackburn Equitation (image of NRC member), an accredited WE trainer travelled up from Ohoka with her hard working partner Sven, and their covered trailer stuffed full of obstacles for the clinic, ready to train all the ‘newbies’.
Sarah Blackburn from Blackburn Equitation, an accredited WE trainer travelled up from Ohoka with her hard working partner Sven, and their covered trailer stuffed full of obstacles for the clinic, ready to train all the ‘newbies’. This two day clinic rapidly filled with local and Blenheim riders and 16 horse/rider combinations, withparticipants coming from all different disciplines such as trail, pleasure, dressage and western. It was great having such a varied group at the clinic and the riders had a blast. Most off the horses also coped remarkably well with the obstacles. The common comments from riders was that it was so much fun, that it requires you to be more precise directing your horse’s movement, and gave you heaps that you could work on at home.Karen Lindsay kindly hosted us in her lovely arena and it looked a picture with all the obstacles in it. Sven took masses of marvelous pictures for the riders and Sarah was a patient and fun instructor.The Western girls from Blenheim were particularly good at the obstacles and were a delight to watch.In the second lesson the participants got to ride through the obstacles like a trail class- what fun! Riding over bridges, bending through poles, ringing bells, handling the Garrocha pole and some even managed to ‘spear’ the ring on the bull with the Garrocha pole at a canter ! These were just some of the fun obstacles on offer.This clinic was so popular that all the riders were clamouring for another clinic before the first one was over! We have just advertised the next clinic at Easter amongst our members and two days of clinic filled in 6 hours of the initial notification! We have convinced Sarah to add another day to her clinic which we have opened up to outsiders and expect this to fill within a day or two.So don’t be shy, next time you see the WE clinic advertised- jump to it and come and have a fun day!