Julie Carpenter Clinic at Jade Ranch
Introduction
Six brave souls and our patient horses attended a four day clinic with Julie Carpenter. The clinic was held at Jade Ranch in Santa Cruz, California. The human participants ranged from pretty experienced to relative novice, and the equine participants were equally disparate: a three-year old Arab filly through a 20+ year old quarter horse, a few geldings, and an Arab stallion. Julie had her work cut out for her!
Click to see the cast of characters.
Day 1
We gathered at Jade Ranch about 9:30 AM on Thursday, August 16 - not too bad for a nominal 9 AM start. We introduced ourselves and gave our goals for the week. Most were interested in refining and building on existing skills, but, since the three year old is mine, I was mostly interested in exposing her to new experiences and surviving. Julie had other plans, though.
After we had chatted, we headed for the round pen, where we took turns, so that Julie could see where our baselines were. Also, it gave us participants the chance to watch while Julie coached, so when she said the words to us, we had a better chance of understanding what she was talking about. We all had the opportunity to do this every morning; not everyone took advantage, but Sunny, my filly, and I did - we thought it was great. Anyhow.
On this first morning, Julie had Sunny and I go first. I was dreading it, but it was great. Julie had me work Sunny on the line for a short time, just to see where her mind was (to use Julie-speak), then I took off her halter and we worked on draw, then I sent her out and let her figure out the roundpen. Sunny, when turned loose, predictably focused on making sure her buddies were all still where she left them. Julie coached me through bringing her back to me, just by persistently doing the least amount I could to get her attention, then stopping when I got it - so the irritation ended as soon as she looked to me, then when she came to me, etc. It was amazingly low key and successful!
When I took the halter off, I learned how to position myself to encourage her to move forward, or to inhibit her movement by blocking. Ultimately, I also was able to control her speed by bringing my energy up and down.
Julie used the same exercises with the rest of the class to see where they were. All of the other students had been to at least one other clinic with Julie, so they were much more adept with the skills - I felt like I had about 5 ends to my rope!
After lunch, the rest of the group did arena riding, and Sunny and jogged around the arena, both of us on foot. At the end of the day, Julie, Chris, Greg and I took a trail ride (trail walk for some of us). Sunny was great; she led, she followed, she stood still while the other horses left her - it was great fun.
