A Great Weekend

As Dan has already posted, I just spent a great weekend at the C Lazy U Ranch outside of Granby, CO with Julie Goodnight for a "Women's Riding and Yoga Clinic". It was amazing! Three fun days from lunch on Friday to lunch on Monday.There were 24 participants as well as 4 or 5 more helping Julie. There were wonderful women from all over the country--from New England and California and many points in between. Although I was definitely in the upper age bracket we all have a lot in common--our love for horses and riding.

It's hard to know where to begin. I'll start with Julie Goodnight. She is a wonderful horseman. She's been training horses and training riders for quite a while. I even found out that she used to race horses. One young woman owns a former race horse and Julie was able to answer her questions from personal experience. Julie truly did tailor the weekend to where we all were and what we hoped to get out of it. Of course many voiced concerns were true for many people there and pretty standard. I really wanted to work on my balance and posture in the saddle and many others agreed that they needed that too. Some of us (me included) hadn't cantered much and wanted to learn more about how to cue a horse into the canter as well as get more confidence while in the canter. Others felt comfortable cantering, but had trouble getting their horse to change leads. Others didn't want to canter at all. Julie was great working with each of us at our own level.

Ellen Mesaros was our yoga instructor for the weekend. I've never been in a yoga class before but she made me feel very comfortable with what we were doing. We spent much of our time doing stretches that were very beneficial to our riding--our balance and posture (funniest thing--just what we all needed). Ellen is an equestrian herself.

We were split up into 2 groups of 12 for all our activities.The weekend was scheduled so that we could have 5 riding lessons with Julie, 3 yoga lessons (as well as 3 shorter yoga stretches in the late afternoons), and 3 trail rides through the ranch with their wranglers. Of course we were told upfront to just do the things we wanted. The C Lazy U is both a ranch and a resort so there was a Spa as well as hot tub and pool and tennis courts. Several women opted for a massage or the hot tub instead of a yoga stretch or trail ride. I don't think anyone opted out of Julie's sessions.

My ranch horse was wonderful. His name was Buck. The Ranch Head Wrangler did a great job of matching people and horses. Participants could bring their own horses but not many of us lived close enough. Of course Julie brought her own--2 actually. Back to Buck. He was a typical trail horse--pretty solid and calm. But one who would respond to leg cues if done properly---one thing I had told Bill (Wrangler) that I was hoping to work on. It was fun to spend the whole weekend on the same horse. I got more and more comfortable with him and did get him to respond better to me as we built on the things Julie was having us do. 

Since most of us were on ranch horses, Julie had us work on keeping them separated in the arena--their tendency was to bunch up together as if they were out on the trail. She said this was good for all of us because we always need to be sure our horse is really paying attention to us. We initially worked on posture and the use of split reins (since all the ranch horses had them). Between her instructions and the yoga classes we were all doing pretty well by the end of the weekend. She didn't have to correct anyone much. My biggest problem was keeping my heels down, but by Sunday afternoon I was doing well. 

Other things we worked on---circles, one rein stops, lateral moves, moving on the diagonal, reversals, backing, hand and leg positions, transition cues, cantering, lead changes, controlling the speed of the trot--and more (right now I just can't think). Even before Dan and I got our gaited horses we only trotted a little while trail riding. I have never trotted so much in my life. Many of the exercises we did were done at the trot. I became more and more comfortable with controlling Buck's movements at the trot.

It took a while to get Buck into a canter when we started working on that. Partly because of me; partly because of him. Julie said being a "beginner's horse" at the ranch meant he was probably never asked to canter and so the cues would not be that ingrained in him. And I tended to not give him the continuous loose rein that he needed, because of some of my issues with speed (because of my accident). But once we both got it, we got it. And it was a lot of fun--for both of us.

Well,for those of you who aren't interested in horses, I appreciate your indulgence. For those who are, I'd gladly share more if you ask. I'll just say it was an incredible weekend for me. I met some wonderful women--horse people who want to learn and improve their connection with horses always are. I stayed at a five-star ranch with amazing facilities, delicious food, wonderful staff and amazing horses. Having the opportunity to work with Julie was a dream come true for me -- and she far exceeded my expectations. It was an experience I will not forget. I'm excited to go apply what I've learned when I ride Morgunn.

Here's a video that will give you an overview of my experience with Julie at the C Lazy U.