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NEWS & ARTICLES : Clinic Survivor!

Clinics are great learning opportunities if you know how to make the most of them.

Clinics are a place to learn something new. Regallo and Rebekka check out the drum.

Twenty years ago most folks didn’t even know what a clinic was, but these days clinicians are popping out of the woodwork! This popular method of education is available in just about every size and style you could imagine, from one-day intensives to week-long immersion-style clinics. Clinicians have a unique education style that is completely different from the local riding instructors, and because often times they don’t know you, they may have a fresh viewpoint on how to help you and your horse.

Many people find a clinic the ideal learning venue, preferring to attend clinics from time to time, rather than have regular, local instruction. Others wonder why the clinic atmosphere doesn’t work for them, and go away disenchanted.

First, you have to know how you learn to discover if you are the clinic-going type. If you are a methodical, teaspoon-at-a-time learner, who is easily overwhelmed when presented with tons of new information, then a clinic setting is probably not for you. If you are a hungry, feed-me-more, go-get-‘em type, then a clinic could be perfect for you! Most folks fall somewhere between these two extremes, and can benefit to some degree from a clinic, but may be somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of information presented there.

Before you attend, you might want to find something out about the clinician. Most clinicians have web sites that are great fun to browse. You’ll discover what the clinician believes in, and something about his or her philosophy and training style. What you won’t find out necessarily is how good of a communicator the clinician is, or the exact format and clinic content. You’ll want to try to discover how many riders the clinician accepts, and determine if it’s right for you and your horse. If you find that 20 riders are accepted, you might realize that you won’t be getting a lot of personal attention from the clinician. If you learn well from watching others, and are able to follow through with your horse on your own, this won’t be a problem. But if you want or need more personal training, or your horse is not ready to be in such a large group, then this won’t work well for you. You’ll want to look for a clinic where smaller groups are the norm.

Auditing is a great way to see a clinician and learn a ton! Usually audit fees are significantly less than participant/rider fees, but by observation you will glean many tips that you can take home and try with your own horse. There will come a point, however, where you’ll wish you’d brought your own horse, and had the clinician’s help with your specific issues.

Whether you participate with your horse, or just audit, here are some concrete learning tools:

Write it down! Notes taken during or even after the clinic day will really help to jog your memory of the day’s events and information you picked up. Days later you’ll recall something else, so keep your notebook handy and jot those things down. You can look at the notes, study them, and boost your memory.
Talk about it! Talking about what you observed with others will enhance your memory of the clinic. Compare things out loud with a friend. When you talk about something, it helps “connect the dots” in another way in your brain.
Just do it! When you do something, you speak to the kinesthetic side of your learning abilities. This allows you to get the feel of the activities you learned while at the clinic. It’s okay to mentally understand concepts and theories, but you still have to learn to do it, to feel it, and to have good timing.

Now you have some can-do tips for surviving your clinic experience, so if you think it’s right for you, get out there and sign yourself up for a clinic. Make the most of these valuable opportunities!