My understanding of WFP is that he really isn’t a “wow” sort of person. He is a rider rather than a showman. He does have students at home but he tends to work alongside them rather than explicitly training them. He works on the basics, like balance and straightness, until the cows come home and that is the basis of his success.
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Some of the conversation[s] about mixed experiences has me thinking of one of the times I rode with a BNT and was riding on a high for weeks after - truly, a brilliant clinician and I learned so much. I was surprised to learn of grumbling from other participants. I think sometimes something really sticks with one person and might not for others. Like WFP, this clinician really focused on the basics and I could see why some people might feel that’s beneath them.
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In my experience - and obviously, others here have had better ones - it wasn’t that WFP focused on basics and I felt it was beneath me (I need all the help I can get with basics!) - it was that he did not do much to explain the basics.
A few weeks before riding with WFP, I attended a local clinic with Stephen Bradley. We worked on straightness - a pretty fundamental building block that my mare and I struggle with - and instead of just saying “get her straight”, Stephen identied which lead it was worse on, and would then say when to use more outside rein or to put my left leg back or whatever. I came away from that clinic with some concrete tools to work on this basic skill that we will need on every jump course this season (blurgh). And I’ve heard his voice in my head in every jump school since. Same with Lucinda in the clinic last fall - instead of just “sit up,” I got “WHERE IS YOUR BUM IN RELATION TO THE SADDLE?”. Pretty basic, but also specific, and I remember it!
Sadly, I did not personally come away from the WFP clinic with anything like that - and I was open to hearing from him about the basics, as my riding on the day of demonstrated! I’m more than willing to believe it was the circumstances/the wind/an off day for him/an off day for me, and I’m glad others have had a better experience with him. If I’m able, I’ll consider riding with him again when he next comes back, or at least plan to audit to see how things go.
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The “wow” factor that we’re talking about here isn’t about showmanship, it’s about saying something in a specific or different way that makes it click for a rider.
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Hmm. We all learn in different ways and one person’s light bulb “wow!” is inevitably another person’s “so what?”
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Well said - It’s a very personal experience. I always try to audit a clinician or, at the minimum, YouTube clips from previous clinics before I ride with any particular BNT. People feel similarly towards PD and would sell my organs off to ride with him with my current horse.
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