The indoor at North Brook Farm photo via Ann Osterbauer
Lisa Marie Fergusson is no stranger to Eventing Nation. She writes terrific blogs about her journeys in eventing. When she’s not on the road competing or training her own mounts, she travels to the frozen tundra good ol’ Minnesota periodically to give clinics. She holds them regularly at Jan Fisk’s North Brook Farm in Stillwater, MN. I met Lisa briefly several years ago at Otter Creek HT. She was just as lovely and gracious then as she is now.
Day 1: Gymnastics
I walked into the arena with my lesson-mates, Jean and Jill. Both Jean and Jill have ridden with Lisa before. The three of us were in a Novice/Training group as we had gone Training level, but were just getting back in to work for the season. We warmed up and headed down the grid line. Arena set up:
Gotta love Microsoft Paint
The grid was all poles the first time we trotted through. Lisa was big on position, and boy did I need it since my last lesson was back in October. Her emphasis for all of us was a nice, soft, following elbow maintaining a straight line to the bit. Keeping our upper bodies back and tall was also a reminder we all heard several thousand times, so that the horse can fully utilize its body and lift its withers to jump. The grid was set for trotting in and Lisa built it up to Training height.
We then moved on to all those X-es you see on the right side of the diagram. Objective: Keep the same quality gait and make a dressage-like turn utilizing the outside rein around the 20 m circle of jumps instead of opening the inside rein like a jumper. This helps keep the horse straight and therefor jumping evenly off both hind legs. Let’s just say my 17.2 hh all leg TB and I failed miserably. It was challenging. Start off by picking two jumps on the circle and adding more as you and your horse get in a rhythm and pick up the canter. Continue perfection. Jean was our fearless leader and she did quite well. She and her horse Cash got a little bit rolling towards then end, but Lisa kept reminding her to re-balance and focus on her turn. Charlie and I were up next. We could put 2 jumps together in some semblance of order, but it was obvious we needed to get back down to the trot and focus on turns and rideability. It was a great exercise because it really showed I don’t have any outside aids going to the right. Lisa broke it down, and we were progressing. Jill and her horse Einstein were ROCKSTARS. They were in foot perfect. Absolutely inspiring to watch!
Then we started a course (see video below). This was great for my horse and I. We really need to work on our turning. Lisa was very helpful reminding us where we were going and putting little phrases in our heads to remember. Charlie and I finished with the Circle of Death Jumps, on the right lead as perfect as you can get. Video of yours truly, only because Jean and Jill declined.
Day 2: Courses
The course Lisa had set up was brilliant use of an indoor, I think. It was set to ride everything both ways, and with lots of turns, you can make many different courses without moving the jumps: 
On Day 2, I was in a semi-private with Ginny Buell, and her lovely mare, Truffle. (Truffle is a home-bred of Jan Fisk). They have done a season of Novice and plan for another season of Novice this year.
I loved Day 2. Not only was my horse more rideable from the effort we put forth in the previous day’s lesson, but Lisa’s continual support to make my position better greatly affected my horse’s way of going (for the better):
Depress those wrists! Squeeze, release, don’t pull. Lift those hands! Squeeze a lot if you have to!
Show jumping is my worst phase, and I was dreading course work. We warmed up going back and forth over the blue trot and canter. As a person who really wants to feel a difference (improvement) when lessoning, this course was perfect. Not only could I focus on doing courses, I could focus on doing several different courses back to back to back. Through it all, Lisa re-created the feeling I have when I enter the show ring, that knot in my stomach. I don’t know how or why, but I was glad it showed up because that meant I could work through it. Ginny and I exchanged glances when Lisa told us course #4 or 5. It was filled with about 10,342 transitions throughout the course. Another fabulous take on course work which had both horses jumping superbly at the end. Ginny had literally a PERFECT go of the last course, but unfortunately, we didn’t catch it on film. Here’s one of the first courses on the day:
Overall, I really enjoyed Lisa’s teaching style and exercises. It’s a great feeling when you feel like you’ve gotten your money’s worth.
Many thanks to Lisa for braving the cold north in the indoor, and to Jan Fisk and everyone at North Brook for opening your doors, and to Jean Pilla for organizing these clinics. Ride on!
Go eventing.
