A Clinic with Hawley Bennet

Jennifer McFall and Dragonfire Farm recently hosted a clinic with Hawley Bennet, and was kind enough to send us this report.  Thanks to Tracy Felt for writing, Ride On Video for videoing, and sharing it with EN!  We love clinic reviews — send yours to [email protected]!

 

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From Jennifer McFall:

We recently hosted a fantastic clinic with Hawley Bennett-Awad here at Dragonfire in Wilton, CA (near Sacramento). I asked one of the participants to do a write up for you all….

We also have a fun little video done here by Ride On Video, their daughter, Tayler, participated this weekend and they were kind enough to put this together.

 

 

 

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From Tracy Felt:

This weekend Area VI was extremely fortunate to have Hawley Bennett come to Northern California to hold a clinic at Earl and Jen McFall’s beautiful Dragonfire Farm.  The Deer Creek Pony Club provided an excellent ring crew and refreshments for the riders.  California held true to what it is known for, providing sunshine and perfect temperatures both days.

Six groups consisted of 3-5 riders ranging from a prelim/intermediate group all the way to groups jumping 18 inches.  Some green horses and some green riders – Hawley made it a successful weekend for all.

Day 1 consisted of a lot of “footwork” as Hawley calls it.   She incorporated a canter in grid with a multitude of exercises to create the forward and back adjustability that all of our horses need to  be successful eventers.  The grid in the middle of the ring consisted of 3 ground poles set 8-9 feet apart to a one stride in and out.  Once the combinations had perfected the grid, she had us jump in straight over the grid and do a bending 3 stride line, alternating between bending lines to the right and left after the grid.  She emphasized the quality of the canter and quality of the turn.  She also had a serpentine exercise that emphasized making sure we had our eye on the next fence very early so that we could produce good turns and square up to each jump.  She also had a straight line that we did in both a forward 4 strides or a tidy 5.   She always made sure to incorporate the canter in grid somewhere in the mix to get them back on their feet – which proved more difficult than it looked!  After stringing together the different exercises, you could notice the improved ridability and footwork in all of the horses.  Hawley was great at pointing out what each pair needed to work on, but did it in a very positive manner and was very quick to remind us to pat the horses for a job well done!  If the horses did a little extra to help the rider out, she would make sure that rider had a good supply of carrots for the end of the day too!

At the end of the long day, we all went to sushi together where Hawley critiqued some of her videos of her big time horses – Livingstone and the spicy Gin and Juice, at places like Burghley, Badminton, and WEG.  It was cool to hear her thoughts, but I most enjoyed hearing in her voice how much she really loves and appreciates her animals when she talks about them.

Day 2 focused again on footwork but with jumps our horses would encounter more on cross country.  She set up a really tidy coffin with three 9 foot canter poles on the way in to set up our coffin canter to a vertical, two short strides to a “ditch”, one stride to a vertical.  She emphasized the footwork and that the horses needed to keep their feet moving.  In addition, this would teach us just how bouncy a good coffin canter should feel.  There were portable cross country fences to “gallop on” to a fence, then have to collect around a turn down a 4 stride and forward again to collect for a bounce or to the coffin.  A triple bar to a skinny chevron to tested the rider’s accuracy after feeling proud for getting that good jump over the big one!  Again, Hawley would string all this together, then send us down a line of 5 verticals set 18 feet apart with placing poles in the middle to remind the horses of their footwork and also emphasize to the riders the need to keep their upper bodies back to keep the stride from getting too long.

Hawley provided a very success oriented clinic for all.  The best part in my opinion was that every horse and rider at every level did the same exercises just at different heights.  All the horses needed the “footwork” and I know for my horse it really got him thinking (Hawley kept commenting that she could see how much he was thinking in his facial expressions!).  Her objective was to teach the horse how to do things the right way, and process what he was doing.  She was quick to critique rider position as well.  Hawley gave clear direction and was serious in her approach, however she was extremely positive and encouraging.  My favorite “Hawley sayings” of the weekend were: “Super!”,  “Awesome!”,  “He/She is gamey!”, and of course “Don’t fall off!” (always our goal right?!) if things went a bit askew. I think it’s safe to say that we all hope Hawley comes back to Dragonfire soon!  She finished her clinic day by graciously signing some badges for some very excited visiting Girl Scouts.

-Tracy

 

 

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