Any experience with Cody Harrison as a clinician/trainer? (Colorado based)

[Lunabear1988]

Curious if anyone has experience with Cody Harrison in Brighton, Colorado?

Thinking about auditing his clinic this weekend but it’s a bit pricey for someone who I don’t know much about.

One thing I like from videos I have seen of him riding is he doesn’t ride them very BTV. More up and open.And looks like he rides out in fields and stuff a lot (good for the horses.)

I have some caution as some of the clinicians he’s brought into his farm are a little controversial. And he never wears a helmet himself which I just don’t love to see lol.

Anyways I have an open mind and would love to know if he’s worth watching for a weekend.

[K_VanOlst]

@Lunabear1988

One thing I like from videos I have seen of him riding is he does ride them very BTV.

You like that he rides horses very BTV? That’s an interesting statement.

[Lunabear1988]

Oops! Let me edit that. Meant that he DOESN’T do that lol

[Jodyml813]

I was on the website and it looks like auditing’s around $25. I would absolutely audit any clinician that I wasn’t familiar with prior to signing up to ride with them. I don’t see $25 as being a very expensive auditing fee at all and I call it my insurance policy before sinking hundreds of dollars into riding with someone that’s not a good fit for me or my horses.

[Lunabear1988]

It’s not that expensive but I have a family member who wants to go but I would be responsible for her fee too so it’s more like $50. She’s not a horse person lol.

I’ve just seen people that have quite the resume for even less so I just would love to have some information on him IF possible. Just not a lot that I can gather about his history or previous training/experience. I definitely wouldn’t ride in it without auditing first! Especially since the website is very vague.

But at least it’s not far from me

[Willesdon]

I wouldn’t take anyone who isn’t into dressage to watch a dressage clinic: paint.dry. I’m into dressage, I can see what is happening but personally I can only last about six horses at a show before I wander off to find something a bit more exciting.

[Equibrit]

Ex reiner;

Changing Riding Disciplines

[Lunabear1988]

She’s watched many, even flew to another state once! She just doesn’t ride and is scared of horses but likes watching us do it. Although we probably will only watch about three sessions anyway

[Lunabear1988]

Hmm I’ve seen that article and I just reread it. I don’t read former reining anymore in regards to him but ranch work instead.

[Lunabear1988]

I was able to reach out to a few people that have ridden with him. According to them he previously grew up riding Western then got into classical dressage. Never shown really except maybe working equitation?

Friend said that he trained with Dominique Barbier for a bit and that wasn’t a good phase in time. Trains with Gerd Heuschmann now and for the last few years. She said he’s very calm and patient. She has taken her TB to him a few times.

Talk to another friend who said he’s good at teaching and a gifted rider, she liked him when she had a WB but felt he was openly biased when she brought a thoroughbred. But see experience above …

So I think we will go check him out. I’ll report back in case anyone else is ever curious and searching the Internet.

[Wind_Horse]

Please do report back as I’m curious to hear what you think.

Dominique Barbier, omg what a train wreck. During my Singletree days (in Boulder and now Goodluck Farms), someone brought him in for clinics.
Prior to riding, he lunged each horse in a very small circle with one tight side rein on the inside. Then the rider got on and DB went back to his groupies in the corner of the arena where he chatted with them and drank champagne/mimosas.
His instructions to the riders were, trot, good, circle, good. Not much else.

I boarded there so luckily there was no audit fee. What baffles me is he came back and the same people rode.

[Lunabear1988]

Yeah that’s exactly what I meant when I said in my original post that he has brought in some controversial people to his own farm. It’s probably my number one hesitancy with him as I’ve heard nothing good about Barbier, personally.

Now he brings Gerd Heuschmann in which, my understanding is better than Dominique but still a little controversial as a clinician/trainer himself.

But I’ve heard lots of good things about Cody so far so I’m going with an open mind and willingness to learn something.

[SpicyPRE]

My observation is that he is making most of his money by importing Iberian horses for wealthy clients. He doesnt show so no public record. As for his mentors, Gerd has a bit of a history so add that to Barbier…Def go with an open mind.

[Scribbler]

Haha. When I saw the name and place I immediately thought: that’s a cowboy name.

So you have someone who went from reining to working eq via Iberians and trained with Barbier and Heurschman? And doesn’t show dressage?

Iberians have a different set of strengths and liabilities than WB or TB. Lateral and collection and spins come factory installed, but extension and relaxation can be a work in progress. Working eq is really built to showcase Iberian strengths, and the speed obstacle session is the highlight (it’s slow obstacles, speed obstacles, dressage and at higher level can include working cattle). Like Cross Country also has dressage, but the real fun is bolting across open country.

So I would expect something more tailored to Iberian World and Working Eq that might not entirely line up with the goals of competitive dressage.

I agree Barbier is a one rein/ one trick show. I saw him years ago before I had much framework to evaluate him. I will say that he got a number of horses going better at the clinic I audited but that’s just because their backyard dressage schooling had them so sucked back and on the forehand.

[Lunabear1988]

I don’t see any history in reining. If you read the article above I believe it says that he lived on a ranch. The article does talk about multiple people and I think somebody else went from reining but I haven’t read anything connecting him to reining. But I have no idea how he got into dressage and if he went straight to Barbier or what his history is. It’s all very vague to me…

I’ll report back after tomorrow. Very curious. I know he does a lot of pole work/cavaletti type clinics too but this one is more general.

[Scribbler]

@Lunabear1988

I don’t see any history in reining. If you read the article above I believe it says that he lived on a ranch. The article does talk about multiple people and I think somebody else went from reining but I haven’t read anything connecting him to reining. But I have no idea how he got into dressage and if he went straight to Barbier or what his history is. It’s all very vague to me…

I’ll report back after tomorrow. Very curious. I know he does a lot of pole work/cavaletti type clinics too but this one is more general.

Ok I guess I wasn’t reading carefully!

A while back I was watching the Calgary Stampede on TV (it gets a lot of air time in Canada) and it struck me that there were definite cowboy names.

https://www.calgarystampede.com/rodeo/past-champions

[Lunabear1988]

Lol, not a lot of name variety! That is pretty funny

[Lunabear1988]

Okay I have an update! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to the clinic until to today, after it had officially started on Friday. It would have great to see what everyone had started on and finished with but it is what it is.

We also showed up at the lunch break (unfortunately it’s really hard to clear out a whole day to go audit.) It sounded like everyone had either had a previous lesson or Cody rode their horse in the morning so the lessons we saw were all the second ride for each horse. I did note that the sessions seemed shorter than the average clinic (I’m not 100% sure but maybe 35 minutes long? Probably no more than 40 minutes.)

I saw nothing harmful or weird. He definitely seemed to be in Gerd Heuschmann’s camp. Lots of warmup with a very loose rein- some spent a lot of time on the buckle. He was very insistent that the contact be consistent and fair to the horse when they did have contact. It seemed that relaxation was probably the biggest priority first with every horse then building on other things later on.

For me, mediocre rider that I am and all, I think things were pretty basic and straightforward. I have been into Dressage a long time. So I wouldn’t say any of the concepts remind blowing or new. There was nothing radical that concerned me either. I have ridden with a lot people and audited even more. I am of the mind that little lightbulb moments are great but in dressage, you don’t want anything getting too radical or weird.

One tidbit that again, wasn’t radical but stuck with me, was Cody talking about the hands at the walk. As we all know, you are supposed to stay soft and go with the horse’s natural head movement at the walk. But his tidbit was he find people disrupt the rhythm when they use their hands at the walk, so keep special attention on that for walk quality.

Most of the work was training levelish with only one rider doing some lateral work. So, again, there was lots of good reminders but nothing mind blowing to me for this clinic.

I would like to watch another clinic sometime. Cody was very nice and seemed easy going. Giving a clinic seemed to be natural to him as far teaching the rider and educated the audience a bit too.

[skydy]

So no upper level horses and riders?

[Lunabear1988]

I only saw a few riders, but no upper levels. It was a different type of clinic though and reading the description, it doesn’t sound like it would attract a lot of upper level riders.