Back in early June, I took a five-day clinic with Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer. There were 7 of us in the clinic and I was the only one who didn't bring a personal horse.
Larry Whitesell is a recognized gaited horse trainer and Jennifer Bauer is his partner/protegee. Larry is a few years younger than me and Jennifer is a very young 30. It is clear that Larry is preparing Jennifer to take over most of their clinic business and all of their horse training business.
The two of them do five-day clinics together, both in Cookeville and in other cities. Separately, they each do three-day clinics. As I write this, Larry is in Oregon doing clinics and then moving on to Ohio and Canada before returning home.
Of the two, Jennifer is the one who will work with problem gaited horses and bring them back into relaxation, balance and flexion. She is in such demand that the next opening she has for another horse is next June, 2013. She will not take a horse unless the owner agrees to take a three-day course with her to be sure they can continue the work she has done. They learned from past experience that they would often bring a horse up to a high level, but the owner wasn't prepared to keep them there.
Jennifer is also the one who will do private lessons. I learned so much from the earlier clinic that I wanted Betty to share in that learning, so we arranged five private lessons with Jennifer who is both an excellent rider and excellent teacher.
Their approach is not basic foundational work, often lumped under the term 'natural horsemanship.' They believe in 'natural horsemanship,' but view it as the foundational work that a new horse or rehab horse needs. However, once the horse has that foundation, they offer training for the rider to bring him and the horse to a higher level.
Their training is classical rider training based on the Spanish School of Horsemanship. Their personal mentors are Mark Russell and Dominique Barbier, both of California. Larry and Jennifer go for a week of personal training from these men each summer to continue to hone their personal skills.
Even though we often associate classical training with Dressage, their philosophy is the concepts and skills of classical training are applicable to all forms of riding.
In a simplified form, they help the rider find balance, relaxation and lightness within themselves to help the horse find balance, relaxation and lightness. In other words, if we want our horse to be more balanced, more relaxed and lighter, then we need to improve balance, relaxation and lightness within ourselves.
We do this within ourselves and for our horse by being a balanced rider and by helping our horse find his rhythm through our balance and timing.
Over the next few days, I'll post more about the concepts that we learned that are helping us and ultimately will help Morgunn and Sugar.
If you're interested in learning more about Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer, here are the links to their websites:
Larry's site - http://whitesellgaitedhorsemanship.com/
Jennifer's site - http://www.gaitedhorsemanship.com/
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