Anita Nemtin: A Great Clinic with Phillip Dutton

We love clinic reports here on EN, and reader Anita Nemtin sent in a great recap from a recent clinic with Phillip Dutton. Do you have a clinic report or other story to share? Send it to [email protected]. Many thanks to Anita for putting together her thoughts on her time with Phillip, and thank you for reading.

Anita Nemtin and Acrobat on cross country day of the Phillip Dutton clinic. Photo via Anita Nemtim. Anita Nemtin and Acrobat on cross country day of the Phillip Dutton clinic. Photo via Anita Nemtim.

From Anita:

I was lucky enough to attend the Phillip Dutton clinic this past Tuesday and Wednesday with two horses. The clinic was organized by Nicole Parkin and her husband Frank.

It was held at Mandy and Jorge Bernhard’s lovely farm in Hockley Valley, just down the road from next year’s Pan American Games cross country site.

I’ve known Phillip for years, but this was my first time riding with him. He definitely lived up to his amazing teaching reputation. His teaching style is very clear and concise. Jumping, he wants you to ride forward and to the base. As someone who tends to have difficulty finding the fences off of a forward stride, he simplified things, and said to “ride forward out of the turn with power, if you don’t see anything, keep your horses head up and squeeze.” It worked like magic!

Phillip set up very technical and difficult exercises both days. The first day was in the ring. Here is a video clip of day one’s jumping on my young OTTB, “My Man Jack.” Jack just came off the track in November and started jumping this winter.

Here is a video clip of my two-star horse, Acrobat, from the first day also:

As you can see, we did a lot of the same exercises at altering heights. Day two was cross country. We started in the ring again and Phillip warmed us up, getting our horses listening by doing a lot of forward and back exercises. Then we went out on the cross country course, and schooled over a very tough and challenging cross country course.

Here are video clips from day two:

Thank you, Nicole and Frank for organizing and Mandy and Jorge for hosting and of course to Phillip for teaching. It was great and I’m looking forward to the next one!

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