Liz Lund and Dr. Jennifer Selvig, DVM on Lucy and Chief, respectively
Hello EN!
I come to you with a recap of the Ralph Hill clinic in Minnesota. Really, it’s more of a video post because I took videos of the training/prelim group over almost every jump they did. You can hear Ralph’s valuable direction in the background which is more effective than my recollection. I shall say though, a huge thank you to Julie Stenslie of Wildwood Farm for hosting the clinic and for the organizers who set up the Ralph Hill Clinic Series in Minnesota. As I drove out to Wildwood, there was a giant black cloud in front of me. Always makes for a good day of eventing when it absolutely pours from the heavens. Julie and the team did an absolutely fabulous job of moving the jumps and making sure the footing was good for the last group of the day. And the riders did their part by riding fantastically so they only did each exercise once or twice before nailing it and moving on.
What a lovely sight as Wildwood is about 5 miles ahead.. right under the clouds.
Ralph’s clinics usually start with day one utilizing show jump exercises to get the horses jumping out of their skin well. He does a bit of flat work before hand with the riders as well getting the horses straight and pushing off both hind legs equally. I’ll let the videos of day one explain the rest. (You can see how soggy the ground was by the splashing as the riders go.)
Trotting the Jump warm up:
Cantering warm up:
Gymnastic Line:
The “V” Jump:
Last course Day 1:
Ralph’s end of Day 1 speech.
Super thank you to all the volunteers that helped throughout the clinic!
Day two held cross country, but unfortunately since it had been raining almost daily the week prior, the back 5 acres qwith all the portables was too soggy to ride across. None of that really matters when you ride with Ralph and when you have a facility like Wildwood because Ralph had ideas to use what was available to make it challenging and educational for the riders. Julie and her staff were excellent in preparing the grounds as best they could given the unfortunate amount of rain. It also rained Sunday prior to the training group again.
Mini XC course:
And the 3 stride xc line:
Skinnies and ditches:
Well folks, that should be plenty of video footage to satisfy your Sunday night fix.
Go eventing.
