HARRY WHITNEY REPORT - Adelaide

by Yvonne Lehey

Having recovered (well, let's say more or less) from "the" event, here comes my report on how our clinic went. We had Harry here last weekend, and he held a wonderful clinic for a very interested audience.. Ross had brought Harry over from Melbourne on Friday, and everbody has been pretty busy all the time.

First of all, I would like to thank all my willing and cheerful helpers who gave me so much support for the organization. My special thanks go to Greg, my husband, who did a lot of background work (like preparing the flyers, doing a lot of computer work, did the cooking - and tidying-up - for our Saturday night BBQ and the dinner on Sunday). Then to Diane, our friend and neighbour, who offered a nice B&B to Harry, who was very helpful to me, taking me around in her car and float, bringing over lots of stuff to the arena, setting up the road signs, helping with a lot of last-second tasks). And Lisel, who (together with Barbara) lent us some extra chairs, prepared a bucket of delightful fruit salad for the BBQ, and took a broom to sweep the "leftovers" at the arena after everybody had left. And, of course, did the clicker training demo for us. Thank you also to Chris and David who came all the way from NSW with their Paso stallion. That was great that we could show our audience the gaited pas-de-deux. And thank you to David, who, despite his fatique, due to a recent operation*and* house moving, floated Yana's horse to and from Strathalbyn, to allow her to participate to a pony club event on the same weekend.

So - we had a demo with teaching tricks on Friday evening. It was in fact a demonstration on how horses learn, but people seem so attracted by the idea of teaching horses tricks, that we called it like that. After the first session with Miss Teak, one of our Arab mares (she had had an unfortunate youth and can still be a bit of a handful from time to time), Chris and I showed our two Peruvian Pasos and their funny, wiggling gait, in a short demonstration, and with the music of 1492 in the background. That was really fun, especially for us! And I think that people liked to see this. After all, these were the first Pasos that ever came to South Australia. Then Harry carried on with his teaching on Magia (my Paso mare). As he taught her (amoung other things) how to shake her head, now I can impress people by asking her "Megia, do you think peppermints are bad for you?" And when she shakes her head, guess what she gets!

We had a few more *commercial breaks*, as Greg called them in his introductory speach, i.e. a clicker training demo, held by Lisel on Sunday at lunch break. Lisel showed Jimmy, her black Appaloosa gelding, who did some retrieving and other tricks. It was quite funny, when Jimmy thought that all this sticky arena sand on his retrieving stick didn't taste good at all and spit it out before carrying on. Then, Lesel demonstrated how to start clicker training on a horse that had never done this before, i.e. Paco, the Peruvian Paso stallion. Paco had figured out in no time at all where the bum bag with the carrot slices was. And then, how to get hold of them by touching the target....

Our last-minute surprise was that Di brought in her sidesaddle and gave a short demonstration with it during her last riding session. When Doyle (her TB) got slightly hot about it, Di preferred handing him over to Harry. And guess what, Harry hopped on (with his usual funny grimaces about his old bones getting on such a high horse....) and rode Doyle sidesaddle in a splendid and masterful way. You can imagine the acclamations from the audience!

We also had a very special guest. Jorge de Moya, the famous Paso Fino trainer who lives now in Victoria, was able to make it to our clinic, to meet his long-date friend Harry and his new friends (Greg-Yvonne-Chris-David). Jorge brought along his invention, the Maestro bit and introduced Magia to it. He then rode her in the bit and got her to gait so regularly and in such a spectacular way as she had never done it for me. But, after all, Jorge is the master in riding gaited horses, and I'm just a novice. And I was so happy when Jorge told me that he thought that Magia is an excellent mare (and that he wanted to steal my Ultraflex saddle, as this was just the kind of saddle he had always wanted).

But, back to Harry. He did the same delightful job as he had done in Melbourne. He is just so enlightning in his explanations. I do not know anybody else who can make things so clear for you! My two favorite things (really hit me!) were the lifting of the inner hip, and his explanation on how to help the horse to go straight. Wow!

All the participants have been very pleased about all the help he gave them with their horses, and everybody made big progress by getting the small things right. As one rider said to me - it's so amazing what a difference it makes and how little it often takes to see a big step forward!

Harry is a wonderful rider. Within a few minutes he succeeds to soften up any horse and make it respond to the lightest cues. One of the things that made me giggle inside was a competition dressage rider who, after having worked her horse, came in and, while hosing him, pointed an ear in Harry's direction, then a second one. She told me that she had to go, but half an hour later she was still there, hanging over the arena fence, fascinated. I invited her to come over and sit with us, and she became the most interested auditor. She asked a lot of eager and very specialised questions, and, of course, got all the answers from Harry. Well, she wrote down her name to participate in the next Harry Whitney clinic in SA. And so did 22 other riders. So, let's hope that this will convince Harry to come back next year, especially as Nola promised to inquire about a clinic to be held in Western Australia, and Chris and David will do the same thing for New South Wales. Together with ours and the one that Ross Jacobs will undoubtedly organise in Melbourne, that should make it worth....

Thank you Harry, for coming - we had a wonderful time!