Dan Thompson Clinic

I can't believe it has been almost two weeks! It's taken me this long to write because things have been extremely busy with school. Anyhoo, I had a wonderful weekend in Fort Valley, GA at the Dan Thompson clinic. This was Eclipse's first trip with me and he did exceptionally well. We left on a rainy Friday afternoon and thankfully he loaded nicely. The drive through Atlanta was surprisingly smooth and just when I started to get the feeling that it was too good to be true, we got stuck in stop and go traffic south of the city. As it turned out, there was a bad accident and so we were slowed down for a little over an hour. The rest of the drive went well and Eclipse unloaded smoothly. I got him settled into his stall and tried to contain my excitement so I could get some sleep.

The morning started off with everyone introducing themselves and stating what their clinic objectives were. I believe there were six participants including myself which seemed like a good number. The clinic format worked really well for me; Dan would give some information and then allow everyone to do their own thing. During the first session, the goal was to use an obstacle as a focus point while driving backwards. I chose a barrel and quickly realized that I had not yet worked with Eclipse on driving backwards. Once I slowed thing down, he picked it up quickly and definitely became more aware of my focus. The goal for the next session was to create a sweet spot and use it to your advantage. I knew I wanted to use the car wash obstacle for this! In Eclipse's eyes the car wash was a fire breathing dragon and so this strategy would be a great way to get him more comfortable around it. We made our way closer to it and his eyes grew bigger with each step. I decided that I would play the circling game and then allow him to stand only if he was near the car wash. Eclipse developed a sweet spot and his confidence level increased dramatically. He would still move away if the wind blew it towards him but all in all, it was a big improvement for this "crazy" horse. After lunch, there was one last session using the figure eight pattern. Eclipse was doing well at the walk and so I decided to ask for a trot...and I quickly discovered that my draw was broken. I did some trouble shooting and played with the yo-yo game. His draw would improve so I would go back to the figure eight and then it would be broken again. At this point, I called Dan over and he did a demonstration with Eclipse with some tips for improving draw. 

The clinic was a lot of fun and gave me some new ideas for working with Eclipse. I now realize how quickly you can bring a horse through the levels when you have the savvy. I am doing my best to stay provocative and not bore him, especially since Eclipse is showing that he is innately a left brain introvert. He is not near as sensitive as Calatar and although finding an effective phase four can be a challenge, it's all worth it because I love seeing him progress.