On the July 4th weekend I was lucky enough to jet up to Meg Finn's barn near San Fransisco, California to give a hand teaching at the magnificent Stanford Barn on Saturday, and then out at the Woodside X-country course on Sunday.
Saturday was sensational. I was teaching show jumping lessons and soaking up the sun. The riders worked on tough bending lines and a few bounces.
I set up one really tough line which caused plenty of action. The highlight of my day was meeting Bob Garcia; Bob was a real crowd pleaser, having two falls in the lesson.
On Sunday we all took a 15-minute drive to the Woodside Equestrian Park. Woww!! What a facility. A great cross-country course that had jumps ranging from Beginner Novice up to Advanced. The lessons went great. I really felt every rider was challenged. It was great to see my old mate, Castleview, at the clinic. His new rider, Katherine gave him a great ride. Again, the highlight of the day was watching Big Bob go flying off his horse after he cleared the training fence at the water jump.
A big thanks to Meg, as she really looked after me on my first trip to California.
-Boyd
Thanks to Rick Hyman, whose daughter rode in the clinic for sharing his fantastic photos. A few are posted here and many more are posted on his website: check it out here.
Boyd's clinic proved to be one of the highlights of my eventing career, never have my falls been so enjoyable and educational! In all seriousness, the clinic made some significant progress on improving my cross-county jumping .
ReplyDeleteI had a flock of butterflies to manage when it was my turn at the training level log out of the pond, the jump went well. I am a big believer of going slow towards moving up in this sport, putting one's ego aside and trusting the good advice of your trainer. Boyd's excellent coaching and encouragement helped all of us in our quest towards being safer and more confident riders.
After a hard day on the course several of us had the opportunity to relax and introduce Boyd to an excellent, and one of my favorite California micro-brews!
Big Bob