The winter season is a wonderful time for clinics! We love clinic reports here at Eventing Nation. If you’ve attended a good one lately– whether with a “big name trainer” or someone new!– send us a write-up and we’ll share it on the site. If you can, please include photos, videos, or diagrams of exercises. Email us at [email protected]. Go eventing, and go clinics!
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On December 30th, Bonnie Mosser taught a cross country clinic in Mooresville, NC at David Mesimer Stables. Bonnie is one of 5 US Riders listed in the FEI’s Category A. She has quite a list of accomplishments under her belt, and she is a very intuitive instructor. David Mesimer Stables has a nice little cross country field that is filled with terrian and a variety of cross country fences. Bonnie had added quite a few extra jumps and exercises to the field, making it a great place to learn.
The purpose of the clinic was exactly what the name entails, balancing on the hills. It was a test of how well you knew your horse and could navigate the exercises on the terrain. So many of us spend a lot of time in a flat arena doing our flatwork and jumping, that our horses aren’t always balanced when we start adding hills. It is one thing to just gallop up or down a hill, but can you do a set of 4 canter poles then down a hill to another set of four canter poles in balance?
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Hotty and I tackling the coop
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I took two of my new horses: PrettyHippHopHotty (Hotty), a 5 yo barely off the track TB mare, and Forever West (Cole), a 9 year old Hanoverian dressage horse that is making the switch to something more fun. I thought that this would be a great learning experience for them, and I was more than right. The groups varied in rider and horse levels, but every single person took something valuable away from the clinic. Bonnie was very in tune with what was going on with each horse and rider combination. She could see what was going wrong and always seem to articulate what she wanted to the rider to do to fix it.
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Samantha Hay and Tre Jolie practicing their trotting on the hill
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Each group starting by trotting and cantering in a circle up and down a hill. Seems easy, right? Bonnie wanted each rider to feel where on the hill going up and down their horse changed their footwork. Did they slow as they crested the hill? Did they speed up in the middle of the hill on the way down? Did they stay balanced the whole time? It was very interesting to watch how each horse dealt with the hills. They did not all do the obvious, i.e. speeding up by the time they were at the bottom of the hill or getting slower by the time they got to the top of the hill. For my two, Hotty (who is a Diva redhead) actually stayed quite balanced both up the hill and down the hill. I thought she would lose her balance a bit going down, but she really handled herself well. Cole, however, tended to get a bit quicker at the bottom of the hills and definitely lost forward motion at the crest of the hill.
After each of us figured out where our horses liked to change their balance, Bonnie had us halt in different spots on the hills to see where we had difficulty. Sometimes we would halt in the top third of the hill, other times at the bottom, other times in the middle. Again, it was interesting to see how each horse dealt with this change in their balance. Some found it quite easy to halt in both directions anywhere on the hills, while others found certain places more difficult.
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Amelia Lowe and Mingo tackling the raised canter poles
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When we all thought we had figured our horses out, Bonnie threw another wrench into the gears. As we were going around on the hills, we had to drop our stirrups. The looks of distress on the riders’ faces (including mine!) were quite comical. There were quite a few young horses in the clinic, and the thought of dropping stirrups on the terrain was a bit disconcerting. However, we all managed to do it without any accidents. As with the other two exercises, what you thought would happen was not always what took place. Some horses stayed much more balanced and in a rhythm, while other horses were less balanced and rushed more. It was very educational to both feel and watch the differences in the horses and riders.
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Cole and I tackling the canter poles
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Taking back our stirrups, we then began the pole exercise. Bonnie had a set of four telephone poles on the ground in canter striding at the bottom of one hill on the flat and another set of raised telephone poles set in canter striding at the top of the hill on the flat. One might tend to think that canter poles are pretty innocuous. However, if you have ever ridden a set of 3 or 4 in an arena, you know that the poles can go flying pretty easily. Now, add that idea with terrain. We first had to canter through the ground poles, then up the hill to the raised poles. It was interesting to see how riders got drawn into their own worlds and didn’t really look where they were going. Also, if you rode very backward up the hill, it was very difficult to get your horse up to and into the set of raised canter poles at the top of the hill.
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Bonnie discussing things with Amelia Lowe
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If you had trouble with that exercise, turning around and going through the raised poles and then down to the ground poles was even harder. Getting your eye on your poles was the key to success. No matter what happened with your horse, you could never waiver your eye, or you were in trouble! One could tell so much about your horse by the way they learned as they went through.
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Savannah Smith and Wallaby tackling the raised canter poles
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After that, Bonnie started to add the other jumps in the field interspersed with the poles. It was amazing how the poles could change the way a horse might normally go. The change in the horses’ balance as they maneuvered around the field was quite obvious.
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Brenna Flaherty and County Clare tackle a downhill table.
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The clinic was a huge success, as every rider learned a lot about their horse and themselves. I felt like my two horses grew up a lot in the course of an hour and a half. Bonnie has a way of putting together exercises that might look simple, but they end up being quite challenging. They test both the horse and the rider without pushing them past their stress limit.
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As with all things Bonnie, you learn a lot and have a lot of fun doing it.
Bonnie is going to be doing a series of clinics in the Charlotte area this winter/spring. The next will be “What’s Your Speed Limit” and will again be hosted by David Mesimer Stables. Stabling can be arranged if anyone wishes to trailer in from out of town. I believe it is WELL WORTH IT. Contact Jordan Lambert at [email protected] for more information!
