A friend of mine had to scratch her spot in the 3’6" group due to an injury (horse’s). I normally would not attend a clinic that I haven’t audited, but the spot sort of fell in my lap.
Any words of wisdom from someone who has been?
The clinic is at the end of September
I haven’t, but I know that his clinics have come up a lot on the HJ board. You might run a search over there.
I rode in a clinic with him in the spring of '16 - just one day because I have the same rule, I audited the first day and wished I had ridden, there was an open spot at my level so I rode just the second day! I have some video but I think it’s just the jump off we did at the end - so it doesn’t give you much of a feel for his teaching, but I will see if I can find it anyway.
I know Bernie. He is a good friend’s trainer (she is a local h/j trainer) and clinics at her barn regularly. He and I have spoken extensively about eventing versus jumpers and he recognizes the different purposes and techniques. The challenge is he tends to emphasize a jumper ride that is not conducive to xc so the rider MUST be smart enough to be able to separate where and when things are used. For example, at his last clinic he was really pushing the super flexed heels down such as McLain Ward. But at the same time, this can tend to swing the leg forward and result in the rider losing leg contact.
I don’t fully know your own level of experience (other than what you’ve posted here), but I would say it could be a good learning experience from a trainer who has ridden at the top of the GP and international circuits and taught some of the top jumper riders.
Obviously, the typical clinic etiquette is expected. Clean, neat dress, clean tack and groomed horses. He is very approachable and will to talk.
He’s also been a Grand Prix dressage rider and an UL eventer who was very close to making the team. William Micklem has a long discussion of him in this recent EN article.
http://eventingnation.com/william-micklem-the-mental-attitude-empowering-riders-and-coaches/
So I have to be smart AND have a clean horse. WTF. I’m scratching . . .
But, seriously, thank you for the well thought out reply. This helps quite a bit.
Excellent article. Thank you.
I’ll post video after the clinic.
I just finished a 2-day clinic with Bernie. It was my second time to clinic with him. He is truly one of the few multi-discipline riders out there. I would recommend everyone to clinic with him. He has done it all from equitation, dressage, hunters, jumpers, xc, etc. He is into forward riding so be prepared to ride in halfseat with a soft, following arm. Keep things simple. He often talks of clashing aids. Pull the rein to stop or to back; don’t add leg. That confuses the horse. Everything is about keeping it simple and forward. Keep your eye on the top rail of the fence to help find the distance. At the beginning, he will check stirrup length and bits, girth, and noseband. Sometimes he will ask you to rise in halfseat while standing to check position. Be prepared to answer what you want to learn/work on and what your goals are. He also asks what you ride in (assuming competitive). He wants to know if you are a hunter, jumper, eventer, etc. He then tailors his comments based on your discipline. I really enjoy working with him and look forward to riding with him again next year. I have a lot of homework!
http://equestriancoachblog.com/bernie-traurig-2/
I don’t know if this is helpful but I looked on YouTube and there are some uploaded videos of his clinics. This is just one I found rather randomly (I didn’t watch the whole thing, since it is a half hour, but it might give you an idea of his style). You might want to do a little YouTube surfing of your own as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNct54YUqNM
I’ve watched some of the short instructional videos he’s posted himself before and he seems very laid-back and soft-spoken, which is refreshing.
Good luck at the clinic OP! I read the story you wrote about your horse a few months ago online and I know how long it has taken the two of you to get to this place! You have earned a good experience, so enjoy it!
Thanks so much, he is definitely one in a million.
Laid back and soft spoken is my favorite 
“He often talks of clashing aids. Pull the rein to stop or to back; don’t add leg. That confuses the horse. Everything is about keeping it simple and forward.”
I had the chance to watch a 3 day clinic with Bernie and this specifically was one thing that really bothered me about his teaching.
This make no sense to me. If you only pull on the reins without any leg then you only shorten the neck of the horse and kill the engine behind, thus losing all engagement and power behind.
I view the reins and legs as controlling two separate halves of the horse. If you shorten the front half without shortening the back half you loose engagement and most importantly balance. How can you expect an unbalanced horse to stay engaged and light, let alone jump well?
This is problematic on course when you need the horse to shorten/rebalance/slow but remain engaged/balanced/light in front.
Worth every penny. I went to the one at Denny Emerson’s in February and was supposed to go the one at Big Dog at the end of the month you are talking about. Whoever is taking my spot should have a blast and learn a lot. I’m really upset that I can’t go, but there will be more to go to in the future. ! I wrote about my experience in an Amateurs Like Us blog. It was a once in a lifetime experience and really just put things together for me. Bernie is a brilliant man! http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/…he-bucket-list
egrubbs, your write up of the clinic is so descriptive and informative! Now I want to go audit a Bernie clinic somewhere!
Reed, can you attempt to explain the rational behind the flexed heel?
The jumper-world coaches I’ve worked with really discouraged the flexed heel and encouraged maintaining the weight on the ball of the foot in the stirrup iron. Knee down was more important than heel down for maintaining balance. We even did standing exercises in the irons to work on that balance.
Just as an aside, I’ve personally never thought of McLain as having hyper-flexed heels:
http://www.noellefloyd.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CPGrandPrix-149.jpg
However, I did notice in @egrubbs’ wonderful write-up that BT did talk about bracing the leg forward as correct. I’m curious about this as well since I’ve been trying to un-train myself from over-bracing and hyper-flexing my heels.
JER,
It goes back to WalnutGrove’s comments about clashing aids. He feels that this super pressed down heel gives the rider better balance. He says it removes the leg when you rock the horse back using the reins, e.g. the leg swings forward and comes off.
My personal take, after talking with him, is that he is attempting to teach a oversimplified method by breaking things apart individually, e.g. leg OR hand rather than leg and hand, to simplify the tasks for “lower” riders.
Impratical Horsewoman, he loved using Ward as the example. I can only relate his statements.
I would still take a clinic from him, but as I said, I would also be very cognizant of what and how he teaches as related to my own skill and understanding.
@RAyers Oh, I knew that you were just quoting Bernie, that it wasn’t your opinion! I just found it odd that he used McLain as an example of being “braced!” To me “braced” by definition means inflexible and forced into position. Which obviously McLain is not. I’ve never really heard “braced” used in a positive way by an instructor.
Wow. I really disagree with that version of ‘better balance’. Thinking about it from the h/j POV, it seems at first like a simple fix for people who tend to perch or don’t have a lot of riding strength/mileage. Ok, maybe. But then I work with pentathlon riders, who are mostly punching above their competence with the courses they jump in competition. Not bracing the heel is something I’ve had to work on with some of them and they do much better - balance-wise, especially - when they learn not to jam their heel down.
My recommendation is always to keep the ankle relaxed with the weight down in the knee and on the ball of the foot and to use a neck strap so that you have an independent way to maintain or regain balance. The jammed heel sounds like a recipe for getting left behind or jumped out of the tack or yanking on the horse’s mouth.
All the same, I have found BTs training videos to be quite good. I also love that video of the crazy water jump with Mike Plumb.
Thank you! It was an great experience for sure! I’m hoping we can get him closer to us, but we were ready to travel 7+ hours for him again…
So I went to the clinic this past weekend. Pretty much everyone’s comments here summed it up well. I was the only Eventer in my group and he was really good at remembering that and tailoring his instruction. He did use some Hunter verbiage that I had to get clarification on. For instance, he asked for a “tidy turn” which apparently means to use your eye and rollback when there are 3 strides to the jump.
Day one was a lot of basics, which I love and use at home all the time. I don’t have any video of that but it was a lot of cavaletti work and small fences with varying strides.
He had his own way of describing strides which I found helpful. For example, if you had planned on 6 strides but 7 “pop up on the screen” when you land, then ride the 7.
I had fun and Cotton was perfect so it was a good weekend. If anything, it really reinforced that an emphasis on basics is essential. My personal big take home was that I still need to ride for straightness over the fence (Cotton will drift if not intentionally ridden straight)
I happen to be very comfortable out of the saddle which was very convenient because that is Bernie’s preference. When I told him my secondary discipline was Dressage he looked at me like a tree was growing out of my forehead :lol:. He was sure I had spent time in Hunters (nope).
There are 3 very short videos from Day 2. Nothing terribly exciting but I love to show Cotton off. He won’t win any awards for form over a small fence - MINIMUM effort; but he gets pretty darned handsome over the bigger ones. Bernie liked him a lot and us as a team. His comments are super nice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phnhTWEkGvE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ4c5W8UiaQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqlsolkXPKQ
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