SACHA PEMBLE CLINIC ON 3 OCTOBER 2009

After a month of spectacular September weather, 3 October started grey and windy, but without the rain desperately needed on cross-country courses in the South East of England.  Fortunately the course at LMEQ has a good grass covering and prepared take-offs and landings so that it provided a good surface to work the horses on.

I was in the first group of the day; one out of 20 people who attended clinics that day.  Matt from LMEQ had done a good job of putting us into appropriate groups.  My group consisted of someone who has been out of competition for a couple of years, someone with a relatively inexperienced horse and me, experienced horse but chicken rider.

I was all ready to give her a run down of all my cross-country issues, but Sacha’s approach was to have us go over a line of small jumps to watch technique.  She quickly picked up on areas which needed improving – too fast, too slow, too tense etc. 

There is an excellent range of jumps at LMEQ – water, ditches, steps, skinnies, corners, etc. and Sacha used all of these without pushing us outside our comfort zones.  She concentrated on our technique and strung together combinations to test both horse and rider, without risking a loss of confidence.  It was as much about establishing where the horses’ weaknesses lie, as well as the riders’.

I learnt some valuable lessons.  I realised that my mare’s problems with ditches are as much mine as hers, and that haring around the cross country course with my eyes closed is not necessarily the best policy!

All in all a really useful session with great facilities, and I would definitely attend again.  The next clinics will be held on 31 October and 21 and 22 November.  See www.lmeq.com for further details.