STEVE BRADY Clinic in OZ

By Lvonne Lehey

Here comes a little clinic report which you might find entertaining!

This is kind of OT. so just press DEL if not interested! But I agreed with Nancy that. if I do this clinic report, she will do a review of Steve's videos and training methods which are, IMO, just great for anybody who wants to train and ride his horses properly. I met Steve at Equitana Melbourne last year and was very, very impressed about his qualities of horsemanship and his gentle, quiet way with horses and people.

Please have a look at Steve's website. http://SteveBrady Horsemanship homestead com/

In the meantime, I have been to two of his clinics already and do intend to attend to each and everyone he will be holding in our area Steve teaches everybody, from beginner to high level dressage people, and his knowledge is just breathtaking. He did some demos during the lunch breaks which left us green with envy..

So, here is my report about the clinic last weekend I went with Orlando. my gaited STB, who is pretty green, as he had only done a lot of sulky racing in the past, and has hardly any experience under saddle (only what I gave him over the last two months).

The first day, my boy was pretty hot I could hardly get into the saddle, so much he hopped around *g*. Greg, my husband, was also there with his Purebred Arab mare, Darah, who was really nice and quiet (apart from the first trots, ) and got the idea really quickly.

Orlando continued to be as wiggly as a worm and I had to take up more contact than I really wanted (we had always been in ultra-light rein contact in the past), and of course he was quite upset about it, but I couldn't let him crash into everybody, after all.... But part from this, he did really well, and tried his best to execute all the tasks.

We started with some groundwork on the bit, like flexing, backing, hindquarter and frontend yields, walking in circles, vertical flexion etc. Then repeated from the saddle. Steve did a great job coaching us through every step, and so everybody did pretty well and had plenty of success.

Orlando gave us a little clown demo in between, as he suddenly kneeled down with me in the saddle, in the obvious intention to have a good roll! He listened to my shouting and wiggling in his saddle for a while and then calmly got up again - as cool as a cucumber. We got a big laughter and applause from the audience. I think I should teach this to him on cue ;-)

  I had asked Steve to help me to try to get some canter out of Orlando, but this didn't work very well *sigh*.  Steve moved all the other riders into the center of the arena and asked Orly and myself to go around the outside. He told me to open my inside hand and put my outside shoulder back and then push forward with canter rhythem out of the arena corner.  Weellll, all I got was lots and lots of flying pace. Steve thought that I had a kind of blockage, and that's why it didn't work. The next day he asked a fearless stockman of the rider group to try, and Orlando offered two steps and canter and back he jumped into his flying pace - boy this looked breathtaking! So Steve suggested to let the poor horse do his flying pace, as teaching him the canter would be a real torture. Ah well, why not - riding a flying pace is really fun, after all, and I have enough other horses to do the canter with.  But, let me tell you that my little pink pig heart was giggling about the fact that our brave stockman wasn't able to do it either, hehehe.

Our fiend Jenny, who had bought our Arab mare Gabriella about a year ago, also participated. These two had had some problems in the past, due to Gabriella's sensitivity and Jenny's rather hard hands as well as her "mental blockage" to go forward. They made a lot of progress, and Steve managed to teach Jenny a lot more softness and relaxation.

Greg decided that he wanted to stop after the first day and work on what he had learned (it sure *is* a lot!), so gave his place to our friend Diane who, in a last-second decision, participated with Harry, her young American Saddlebred gelding. They had a ball together, and Harry picked up this new stuff like a charm and visibly loved all the tasks. I heard a lot of "good boys" from Di's end!

He and Orlando spent the recreation time between the morning and afternoon lessons in a little improvised paddock (electric tape without electricity!), happy to eat the new grass and some hay, and not bothered at all about all the other horses, trailers, trucks and animation going on around them.

On Day 2 Orlando was back to his normal, quiet self, and I could go back to super-soft hands and cues. He still had quite some trouble with the sidepassing, but this got better and better, and by Day 3 he offered me some really nice and soft ones on just a feather-light indirect rein and quite light leg aid. Steve noticed and appreciated!

When we were asked to trot, I mainly asked Odando to amble (4-beat stepping pace) Later during the clinic, we managed to do some trot upon request from time to time, but he is not very comfy with this. He occasionally broke into the pace. but not too often. The auditors were very interested in this "strange gait", and one of the riders asked me whether I would let her try, as she had had a pacer in the past and had found him very bouncy and uncomfortable. She was really surprised about the soft feeling of the amble, and how nice and soft even Orlando's pace and trot felt :-))

On Day 3 we mainly practised to get better and softer in our cues, and everybody made really huge progress. We worked on various patterns around a 16 m circle with 4 gates, made by cones (witche's hats), ins and outs, serpentines, sidestepping away and towards the circle, HQ and frontend yields, backing, combinations of all of them, first at the walk, then at the trot, then at the canter (not for Orly, of course) This was really fun.

Di had given Harry a break, as he is "just a baby", and took Darah instead. The two of them had a ball together. Darah was very eager, and especially loved the canter work. Even Jenny and her Gabriella cantered around with a happy smile on their faces. First time I have seen these two so relaxed together :-)

The Stockman was completely mouth-open about Odando and his different gaits - he had never ridden a STB before. And he asked me where I had got my saddle from (the UltraFlex) When he heard about the price, he gulped and said he'd better give this one a miss *g*

Yvonne