About our clinics

We have been running clinics for a few years now and we are happy to work with most situations people ask about. Having said that, in our opinion there are some jobs for which a clinic is not really the appropriate place. Please check with the clinic host if you are in any doubt about this.

I would like to explain a bit more about how we work. If you are booked into one of our clinics or would like to attend one, then it is best that you have some idea about our work! The clinic format we use is one-to-one work with each horse and owner. We do invite spectators and everyone is free to ask questions as we go along. We do not work to a formula, tailoring the session to the needs of each horse and rider/handler we are working with at the time.

When we work with horses, our most important aim is that they are relaxed. When a horse is relaxed he can learn, or at least he can learn stuff you want him to learn. When he isn’t relaxed, there is a good chance he can learn a lot of stuff you’d rather he didn’t. So having a relaxed horse, on the ground and ridden, is the first job.

The horse needs to know he is safe. If he doesn’t know or understand what is going on, he doesn’t feel safe, and that is when you get all the tricky stuff happening. It’s a fair enough deal, I’d say. The horse is entitled to feel safe, or worry – that’s what horses do.

Setting up the horse on the ground with no grey areas about boundaries and movement really helps him to relax. In ridden work, helping the horse to have a nice relaxed mouth and neck and, from the rider, soft hands with no pull, is a really good start. From there, having the horse straight and balanced on all four feet can make a huge difference to how he feels and how he goes.

So that’s a brief look at how we work. Everything must make sense to the horse. It’s just not fair if it doesn’t. And if it does, what do you get? You get a nice calm horse!

Remember a horse is a horse.

Clinic reviews

"A rather belated many thanks for the clinic last weekend! I very much enjoyed it, and as always got lots from it, including some WOW moments. I found the person to person stuff, and working with the bit with you Tom, very helpful. I found your insights on SOFTNESS and the Reiki warm hands feel, very helpful."
Di - March 2010

"Just to say thank you for the 4 days last week. I don’t think I’ve had an experience like it before and it’s all good. As soon as I came home, I changed some things and it’s all a bit different and a bit better already."
Rosemary - April 2010