United States Eventing Association

Four years ago this April, I was jumping ’round Training fences at Poplar and Pine Top, schooling Prelim stuff at Lellie Ward’s and then Buddy got EPM. End of jumping, end of competition…

Fast forward to Sunday, February 24, 2008. I was part of the group of women (ages somewhere around 13 to me at a week from 58) who were going out to experience learning the "FUNdamentals" of eventing at Dr. Mike and Cathy Sigman’s lovely farm in Mansfield, GA, under the expert tutelage of advanced event rider and trainer Mary Bess Sigman and dressage trainer Kristin Reid. I was actually going to be part of the "real thing" again, only this time, I was on my young talented OTTB Rasta who I had not jumped except over a x-rail several times when I tried him (legitimate physical issues and saddle issues and human weeny issues). other than that – no jumping for me since Buddy had to become a pasture ornament.

I was scared to death. Of WHAT you might ask? Well, totally screwing up my horse, horse running off with me ( someone has described him as "spunky" after watching him use the warm-up at Poplar as a mini-race track and bucking arena – ridden by Jacel Charles, working student deluxe), not having ANY muscle memory of how to jump, NOT being able to trot down a hill…I’ll stop now with my litany of "woe is me, I’m gonna crash"…

We had a terrific group: endurance rider on a paint gaited horse (horse LOVED jumping and will now be the cutest, handiest gaited thing on the endurance circuit), trail riders, foxhunter-turned-dressage rider, timid rider on the cutest draft mare, kid on the most gorgeous and talented steel gray TB mare (lots of mares out for the clinic!), Connemara ponies, riders who SWORE they were NOT going to jump but ended up doing grids, trotting up and down hills, JUMPING LOGS! One group finished, made pics on all the jumps, plopped down chairs and watched 2 haul-in eventers have their lessons. Kristin Reid made dressage seem possible for all of the riders while keeping expectations true to the realities of the use of dressage for training and the show ring.

I ended the day as an eventer again. Rasta jumped the little grids like an old pro rather than the green baby he is at this point. We CANTERED up and down the hills and jumped a real course – logs and everything! I’ve never done that on him and I was grinning as big as I know I will when we gallop (ahem – CANTER fast ) through the finish flags at Poplar (hope, hope, hope) in June. This happened no doubt due to Rasta’s good brain, talent, and Mary Bess, of course, paying no attention to how she should treat her elders with some semblage of respect and thus making me RIDE and think. It was GREAT!

To top things off, one of the riders left us all with a quote that we’ll use the rest of our days as eventers in lessons…when she managed to skip a couple of jumps on her course, she looked Mary Bess dead in the eye and said " I couldn’t find them" We all wrote that down and cheered!

Stay tuned for upcoming Intro clinics. EVERYONE begged for more! Many thanks to UlcerGard for providing neat hats and T-shirts, India Watson for endless hours organizing, Triple Creek Eventing, USEA for providing the format, my dear husband for sending beer (he thinks that’s one of the best parts of eventing), Mary Bess Sigman, and Kristin Reid for helping us all learn more about riding, but learn to love it more while that happened!

(Editor’s Note – Thank you Lynda, for this excellent recap of the clinic! When submitting her article for the Blog, Lynda also added a few more words about the clinic…thought I should include them as well!)

Thanks so much for supporting India’s efforts in getting this venture off the ground; obviously, there is a need for similar clinics (probably on an on-going basis) across the country. I think that sometimes we think that just because the fences are little in the intro schooling shows that folks don’t need “the basics” – not so! From that first walk out into an open field, riders need coaching – coaching with purpose and clarity. That’s what every single person received in this little clinic. Not one element was skipped – from the first minute to the last. That’s probably why everyone left satisfied and confident. Both Mary Bess Sigman and Kristin Reid were outstanding in that they taught clear principles, explained, demonstrated, providing enough practice with feedback and refinement in the next exercise, that everyone understood what they were learning and what they were going to do with those skills when they jumped the next jump – in the grid or XC!

This is an area that the USEA can provide leadership among all the riding disciplines. Just open the door … the trails, the creeks, the air of the “what’s out there”, the fun of competition, the neat feeling of learning - all that is waiting for folks. This wasn’t one of those experiences where ANYONE had to worry about feeling less than because they didn’t have the right kind of horse, or the horse didn’t know enough, or they didn’t have the right saddle or anything else. The invitation was simply put out to come safely learn and enjoy.

Photos courtesy of India Watson