It was suggested to me to bring my 3 y/o to a Joe Wolter clinic for a nice off the farm experience. Has anyone worked with him? The clinic is 3 days and a little on the pricey side…just want to know what I could be getting myself into.
TIA
This guy?
http://www.joewolter.com/Clinic-Descriptions.html
Well, he’s a western cowboy type trainer. Not someone I would pay a bunch of money to take my young sport horse to for a weekend, but to each their own.
I personally don’t find it wildly valuable to ride three-year-olds in expensive clinics. All they are really working on is being steady and confident in the basic gaits and doing lots of trail riding, so I really don’t feel like I could possibly get the money’s worth out of it. I have taken them off the farm to school or take individual lessons with a good local trainer, and was able to work out a deal to do two half-lessons for the same price as one full (because I’m also not going to ride a three year old in a 45 minute lesson when I usually ride them for maybe 20 minutes max). I rode two three year olds in a Debbie McDonald clinic last fall/winter (in the same two-half-lessons format), and while it was great and she is fantastic, I got so much more out of watching her work with horses and riders that were a little farther along than I actually got out of her watching the babies go and more or less saying they looked great for their age and where they were in their training.
Depends what you want o/o it. Would you be taking him to the Colt Starting? Are you interested in learning more about how these sorts of trainers work and how to integrate it into your colt starting methods? Do you have problems with your youngster you would like some help with or do you see possible problems brewing?
If you have successfully started more than a dozen WORKING horses, than I’d say skip it. If you haven’t, I’d go. It really isn’t about the horse you know…he’s teaching the person.
