For the first time in literally years, I signed up for a clinic.

Ok that’s a lie, I signed up for the Kai Steffen-Maier clinic last year but then he had some issues with his visa and couldn’t come. That doesn’t count tho since technically it didn’t happen. The last clinic I actually rode in was like… 2017? I’ve had mixed experiences with riding in clinics, and generally tend to avoid them in favor of spending the money with my regular trainers.

BUT… my trainer brought in Tom McEwen, and I was like ya know what, why not?

I signed up for XC and SJ days pretty much as soon as my trainer posted it, and then a couple weeks beforehand told her to let me know if any dressage spots opened up. One did, because the person unfortunately broke her leg. (in hindsight, was this subtle foreshadowing? a cursed time slot?) So I went ahead and added that on too. YOLO. We’re not spending as much money on showing this season, and I’ve really focused hard on education, so spending the money on a clinic seems to align.

We had a private dressage lesson scheduled for Wednesday, SJ group lesson on Thursday, and group XC lesson on Friday. The timing seemed perfect, because the following Wednesday was set to be my and Presto’s first full horse trial back together since June. After a light mid-November through December, we’d only had a couple jump lessons this month and the first one was a little, uh… rusty, so I figured a few intensive clinic days might help snap us back into form. I gave him the Monday off, and planned to flat him on Tuesday.

He was great on Tuesday right up until the counter canter loops, which admittedly I haven’t worked on in a while. Sometimes in the counter canter, especially to the right, he wants to turn into a pogo stick while he has a moment about having to do actual work, and then settles in. Except this time he went to be a pogo stick, somehow tripped over his feet and ended up sitting abruptly on his hocks, and failed to right himself. Very slowly, like a felled tree, he flopped over on his side. He landed with my left leg under his shoulder, breaking my stirrup iron in two places, and then just kinda sat there on my foot like “weird, how the heck did that happen???”.

He did a real number on my foot. I didn’t think it was broken, but it was definitely injured. I got back on him and rode him for another 10 or so minutes with one stirrup, to make sure he felt alright (he magically did not offer to pogo stick anymore…) and he was great. I hobbled back up to the barn and figured I’d get on Bingo and see how hurt it really was. The verdict was that I could ride, but not with the stirrup on the ball of my foot. Cool cool. Noooo problemmaaaa.

I started Magnawaving and icing and NSAIDing the hell out of it, because SERIOUSLY?!?! I was determined to not miss the clinic. My foot was swollen for sure, and hurt for sure, but I was hopeful that I could at least make it through dressage day. I figured worst case scenario I could ride without the stirrup, right?

Luckily it was alright enough by the following afternoon. I had a significant limp and I couldn’t really press my weight down into my stirrup, but I could rest my foot in it just fine with my stirrup sitting a little further back than usual. It worked well enough, so we’ll call that part a success.

As for Tom, I really had no idea what to expect. I’ve not seen a lot of footage of him teaching so I really went into it more blind than is typical of me. I tend to be a little obsessive about trying to find info on people before I get anywhere near riding with them. I’m comfortable with the program I’m in though, so I figured if they were bringing him in, odds were good that his teaching would probably align.

After a quick little intro, Tom put us straight to work. To no one’s surprise, he was big on precision and quality (the Brits don’t get as good as they are without it, I suppose). More fluidity in the gaits, being more precise with the shapes, making sure that the aids don’t just get a response, but a specific and deliberate response. We did a lot of lateral work, starting with leg yields to and from the quarterline and centerline, and then moved on to shoulder-in, and then progressing to doing the two back to back, to and from particular spots.

We also did a lot, I mean A LOT of 4-loop serpentines and 12m or 15m circles. The change of bend was to be precise, and he got onto me several times about looking UP and THROUGH the next movement. He said that if he was just watching ME and not the horse, he should know where my next movement is by where my eyes are. (Stay tuned, that was a recurring theme throughout the clinic.) He also pointed out that my right shoulder was always collapsed a bit, although he gave me the benefit of the doubt and said that it might be compensatory because of my left foot. I appreciated his tact, but realistically I think it’s a consistent trait that I can’t blame on the foot.

I really liked the flat lesson and felt like we got some good feedback out of it. None of it was completely new information that I hadn’t heard, but he had some different exercises to try and worded a few things differently in a way that helped, I think. Also, we walked for maybe 2 minutes of the entire lesson and cantered for what felt like (to my foot anyway) 70 years, so… we got our money’s worth I’d say.

***Special shoutout to Kathleen who came and endured not just dressage day but also XC day, so that I could have video. MVP.***

I was a little bit more worried about the foot for showjumping day. Landing in your stirrup from a jump is obviously harder on your foot, and I wasn’t sure how it would hold up. Luckily I was in the last group of the day, so I had some extra time to work on it. I wrapped it up in vet wrap with a lidocaine patch, downed plenty of NSAID’s, Magnawaved the absolute hell out of it, and hoped for the best.

And for the most part, it was fine. At least for a while. This lesson was, however, quite extensive as well. We got right down to business immediately. I’m not sure why, in my head, I was expecting more a gymnastics type of experience… I guess maybe that’s pretty common for clinics. But no, we had a full course set (by Peter Wylde, who had been here teaching Mia Farley and Woods Baughman, who are leasing the other half of the farm for the season) and we got right to it from the get go. There was no cavaletti exercise or single jump to start us off, we went straight to stringing a few jumps together. Mostly off of turns, looping rollbacks.

After that we went straight to some lines, the first of which we had to add in a stride, and then to a longer set line that was really forward. Tom did not hesitate to use all the jumps in the ring for all of the courses. Once again, we really got our money’s worth and we did A LOT of courses. I though I perhaps might die by the end… my foot was screaming. We jumped like 8 courses and a couple partials.

There was a lot of feedback, but two major themes. First, I need to do a better job of getting him off my inside leg in bending lines (we definitely don’t always put enough bend in them) and in short turns off the left lead. He tends to drop his shoulder a bit that way and we end up slightly out of balance.

The second big takeaway was that I have to do a better job of staying ahead of Presto mentally. Tom said that when I was a jump or two ahead of him, thought-wise, everything flowed much better. But if I went a little lala and let Presto take charge of things, I ended up in a reactive pattern instead of a proactive one, and while Presto was genuine and happy enough to do the job, when he did it his way it was certainly much less polished and effective. So – eyes up, brain engaged, and always be riding the NEXT thing, not the thing right in front of me. Hmmm it’s almost kinda like he said the same thing to me on the flat…

We were the first group of the day on Friday, so I didn’t have as much time to help my foot recover, but it really didn’t seem much worse for wear after jump day. Swollen, yes. Bruised, for sure. But the pain wasn’t any different, and I did alright with my foot in the stirrup. So, off we went bright and early in the FREEZING COLD (it’s been so damn cold here – for Ocala anyway, I know not as cold as most of you but COOOOLD for Florida) on Friday for our XC lesson.

XC was at Robin Walker’s place, which Presto and I have never been to before. I was kinda like “oh great, this is really gonna be just the perfect scenario to make his little demons come out”. New XC place, which can make him spooky for sure, AND a group lesson setting, which has historically made him nappy. I warmed Tom of this in advance, so naturally Presto immediately set about making a total liar out of me. He wasn’t nappy or spooky at all, not even once.

Any guesses as to what Tom said to me most on XC day?

$20 if you said “Eyes Up”. I know, you’re super shocked by now, I can tell.

He also thought most of my left turns were garbage (rubbish?). Ok he didn’t use those exact words, but ya know… basically. I was once again reminded that my left foot, while perhaps slightly mangled and marginally useless, still had a job to do. I also got called out at one point for not being PRECISE about the trot fence (he had us canter around to a mound, trot at the top of the mound, and jump a rolltop at the bottom of the mound). I did not jump it dead center, and it didn’t go unnoticed.

He also had us walk down and up banks, which I confess to hating. It went fine, and his reasons are very valid, I just personally don’t like doing it. Good for me to have to, though, I suppose.

A lot of the carryover was the same as the day before. The left bend in particular, keeping my eyes ahead to the next thing, etc. Presto, to his credit, was really quite good for all of it. I kept expecting some naughtiness and there just wasn’t any to be found. Tom probably thought I was crazy.

Presto’s shining moment was when we went to the crater in the back corner of the field that had a wide ditch in the bottom of it, where Tom set up a coffin. We jumped a brush rail on a steep angle, then came around and had a showjump vertical coming down into the crater, 2 or 3 strides to the wide ditch at the bottom, and then it walked more like 3.5 strides to a skinny Jump4Joy shoulder brush. It rode a little rough for the people that went ahead of me, so I was just like well… I’m gonna keep my eyes up (because I was probably almost as tired of hearing it as Tom was of saying it) and keep my leg on and let Presto figure it out.

And ya know what, he was clever as hell. He popped down into the crater, over the ditch, did 3 strides up the slope and popped in a little one before the shoulder brush to make the distance work better on the way out. I wasn’t sure if Tom would hate that we essentially did 3.5 strides, but he said that was actually the perfect ride and he wouldn’t have done anything different. He said that he doesn’t like to chase horses out of things like that, they end up flat and that’s when you have a runout, but also pulling isn’t helpful up a slope. It’s best to just sit in balance, keep your eye up and your leg on, and let the horse pop out. Makes a lot of sense honestly, and he was right, Presto was perfectly happy with that ride. A good reminder that eventing isn’t about being perfect, and getting hung up on that kind of stuff can sometimes be a detriment.

We ended with the water, which Presto trotted through the first time as if he’s never done it before in his life. Feet to his belly. Tom was like he’s a little funny about the water huh… I said the word is “precious”. He’s precious about the water. Always has been. Probably always will be. He goes in, but he’s dramatic about it touching him. Presto was really good through the questions there though, including a mound out of the water with another Jump4Joy shoulder brush on top.

All in all it was a great few days of learning and Presto was actually on his best behavior for all of it. For my first clinic in 9 years and his first clinic ever, it was a good experience! We came home with some helpful takeaways, and all of what Tom said compliments our normal program really well. I’m always kind of worried that I’ll end up with conflicting instructions or advice in those situations, but no problems with that here. And even better, my foot didn’t really give me too much trouble, all things considered (granted, a week later I’m still hobbling around on it and it’s still swollen and bruised, which is really annoying). The clinic was definitely worth it!