Good: Jeff Cook
Better: George Morris
Best: Geoff Teall
They all three teach the same basic system but they each have their own way of explaining things. I have learned the most from Mr Teall.
My favorite to ride with is Jane Hannigan-down to earth and very honest in a kind way. I would also ride with Lendon Gray again-good stuff, though she can be snarky. Absolute worse was Susan Hoffman-Peacock and her little minion, Pamela something. Neither could teach their way out of a paper bag, and did not read the horses and riders well at all. Boring, and my horse-and several others-were worse at the end of the clinic.
Best to audit was Charlotte Bredahl-Baker-took home multiple exercises and pages of notes. Worst to audit was Cesar Parra-spent most of his time looking at his cell phone and barely noticing the lower level riders. Pompous jerk.
I’ve never attended a horse riding clinic before. What’s with all the hate for Phillip Dutton? Was he mean, rude, ineffective, ??
MVP - I’m with you on Brian Sabo being horrible.
I would guess Philip is too quiet for some people.
Watched my daughter clinic with Shannon Peters. She helped her work on some problems she had gotten stuck on and I watched them both blossom during the lesson. Several weeks later daughter was able to build on those lessons and improve her scores at her next show. I couldn’t hear a word she was saying because she was talking through the headset, but really enjoyed watching nonetheless. Wonderful experience.
I also audited Heather Blitz. She was great, so down to earth, wonderful person! I’d definitely put her in the best category (I must be getting old, keep forgetting these clinicians…:o )
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Jane Savoie comes to mind…excellent clinician. I’d audit or ride again in any of her clinics. Nothing but positive things to say about Jane.
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Best Walter Zettl, Harold Bauer, Molly Sivewright, Nicole Uphoff, Ulla Salzgeber.
[QUOTE=Hulk;6938575]
Best Walter Zettl, Harold Bauer, Molly Sivewright, Nicole Uphoff, Ulla Salzgeber.[/QUOTE]
I don’t know Mr Zettl at all, but have one video of him giving Pat and Linda Parelli a lesson and he is utterly ineffectual and seems to be a mere yes-man as they cruise along. That is one of the videos he sells, not a fluke.
From that “lesson” the only to go by, I was surprised to hear he had much other to contribute to any one’s furthering of their equestrian education.
Good to know that, in other settings, he can be a normal, standard riding instructor.
As someone mentioned, not all have a perfect day every day.
Bluey, you mustn’t judge him by anything that has to do with the Parrellis. Really. They don’t listen to anyone anyway. All Walter can do is try to tolerate them in order to try and get his message about good dressage to their masses of followers.
WAZ is so very insightful. And he is quiet, talking in your ear and you are almost hypnotized into accomplishing things with your horse that you never dreamed. Truly. Go watch him in person. He absolutely changed my entire way of riding and training.
He creates a partnership between you and your horse. Not a master/slave relationship as most clinicians do.
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[QUOTE=fourmares;6938403]
MVP - I’m with you on Brian Sabo being horrible.[/QUOTE]
So the guy hasn’t grown up some and learned more?
He’s not the first trainer I have known who became a pro just by sheer longevity.
We hosted a clinic with a BNT who was sweet and complimentary to the participants, telling them exactly what they wanted to hear, all while blasting them and their horses to me under his breath. He mocked, snickered, and sneered. He taught nothing and collected big bucks for it.
I was so offended I made someone else, who thought he was the cat’s meow, assist him and went to work the food concession.
It was the worst of the worst. :disgust:
[QUOTE=Sonesta;6938689]
Bluey, you mustn’t judge him by anything that has to do with the Parrellis. Really. They don’t listen to anyone anyway. All Walter can do is try to tolerate them in order to try and get his message about good dressage to their masses of followers.
WAZ is so very insightful. And he is quiet, talking in your ear and you are almost hypnotized into accomplishing things with your horse that you never dreamed. Truly. Go watch him in person. He absolutely changed my entire way of riding and training.
He creates a partnership between you and your horse. Not a master/slave relationship as most clinicians do.[/QUOTE]
You are right, in that video he is quiet, so quiet in the face of what all is going on, that deserve at least a mention and try to correct.
In fact, so quiet you don’t hardly notice he is teaching.
Seriously, I was thinking there had to be more to him than that, because I have heard others sing his praises, as you do.
Glad you explained this better, thank you.:yes:
[QUOTE=TBPONY;6938391]
I’ve never attended a horse riding clinic before. What’s with all the hate for Phillip Dutton? Was he mean, rude, ineffective, ??[/QUOTE]
He is very quiet and doesn’t give much feedback. There were previous threads on this in the eventing forum.
Found the same thing with Boyd Martin.
[QUOTE=Sonesta;6938689]
Bluey, you mustn’t judge him by anything that has to do with the Parrellis. Really. They don’t listen to anyone anyway. All Walter can do is try to tolerate them in order to try and get his message about good dressage to their masses of followers.
WAZ is so very insightful. And he is quiet, talking in your ear and you are almost hypnotized into accomplishing things with your horse that you never dreamed. Truly. Go watch him in person. He absolutely changed my entire way of riding and training.
He creates a partnership between you and your horse. Not a master/slave relationship as most clinicians do.[/QUOTE]
You describe Walter perfectly. Thankyou for your elegant, accurate discription.
[QUOTE=Megaladon;6938523]
I also audited Heather Blitz. She was great, so down to earth, wonderful person! I’d definitely put her in the best category (I must be getting old, keep forgetting these clinicians…:o )[/QUOTE]
I’d love to try her out, but her prices are as tro nom i cal…
I would have to pick 2 people as a tie for ‘best.’ Mary Wanless and Randy Lowell. Randy introduced me to horse’s brains and how their bodies connect to their brains. Mary introduced me to my body,how it relates to the horse’s body, and explained how to get my brain in charge of the two. Both I worked with many many times over a number of years.
Pretty darned good includes deKunffy (he’s a gentleman and an artist) Lucinda Green and Buck Brannaman. Now don’t go beating me up for putting BB in second place. The one clinic I have seen he had a LOT of people participating, and I really, really have to question that the green bean participants could have gotten much at all out of the whole thing.
What made my experience with Randy Lowell so useful (he works in a similar vein) was that we had a smallish group that worked together repeatedly over a few years. Hours, and hours, and hours/day going over and over and over the same ideas until we started to figure it out. Which is what you need when you are a native english speaker trying to learn chinese, which is basically what you are doing with a round pen/flag/rope halter.
Pretty sucky clinicians include Annie K, Felicitas NC, DomDom, and Bobby D.
Some folks I don’t agree with on (some times a lot) stuff but are still great clinicians, and I find I can learn from them despite ‘theological’ disagreements. Including Jane Savoie and Lendon Gray (her Dressage4kids educational weekends are really great stuff.)
[QUOTE=vxf111;6937746]
There is also a very popular pony club clinician who I did not enjoy riding with. he repated the same comment 100x notwithstanding what anyone was doing/trying and could not explain beyond that. I was also riding a very big, large-strided warmblood (he can easily leave 2 strides out of a line and make it seamless)) in a group with 3 kids on ponies and he seemed annoyed at me that I was having trouble maintaining my distance on a circle over poles from the ponies. Um, I don’t know how much you want me to collect but I just CAN’T go at the pace/stride they do. I just can’t![/QUOTE]
Was the comment “Carry your hands” by any chance? Or was it “Breathe”?
[QUOTE=Bluey;6938717]
You are right, in that video he is quiet, so quiet in the face of what all is going on, that deserve at least a mention and try to correct.
In fact, so quiet you don’t hardly notice he is teaching.
Seriously, I was thinking there had to be more to him than that, because I have heard others sing his praises, as you do.
Glad you explained this better, thank you.:yes:[/QUOTE]
I saw a very nice video of Christoph Hesse explaining RHYTHM and its relationship to relaxation to LP. Good demo rider showing the results of a good posting trot and lateral bending. That was before the Dressage Summit where you see Linda “coaching” a rider to sit the trot and make small circles to get the horse to relax. The horse did slow down a tiny bit, but only because it was either that or fall over. I had to think “But CH TOLD you how to fix this. Didn’t you learn anything?”
I honestly think that LP likes to hobnob with BNT’s but doesn’t listen.
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[QUOTE=carolprudm;6938787]
I saw a very nice video of Christoph Hesse explaining RHYTHM and its relationship to relaxation to LP. Good demo rider showing the results of a good posting trot and lateral bending. That was before the Dressage Summit where you see Linda “coaching” a rider to sit the trot and make small circles to get the horse to relax. The horse did slow down a tiny bit, but only because it was either that or fall over. I had to think “But CH TOLD you how to fix this. Didn’t you learn anything?”
I honestly think that LP likes to hobnob with BNT’s but doesn’t listen.[/QUOTE]
But the problem with this is that you were not the instructor in either scenario. It may be that LP had a reason for the tactic that was not apparent from the stands. Maybe the rider was crooked enough or weak enough or the horse ‘sketchy’ enough that sitting on a small circle was the wiser option?
Unfortunately just because Rider A and Horse A can accomplish something with a particular technique does not mean Horse/Rider B will be able to pull off the same thing. This sort of thing is made MUCH more evident when you analyze jumping instruction. Sure Ingrid Klimke can jump on the horse and do X with it, but can the current rider do the same? Or will it be many years before that rider will get to the point that it can cope with that technique?
