Getting Ready for the Karen O'Connor Clinic

This past weekend my local Pony Club hosted a Karen O'Connor clinic and of course I had to sign up!!! I had no idea what to expect but figured it would be a good experience. And it ended up exceeding my expectations and I LOVED it. She is tough, she is direct, but if you listen she really has a lot of great things to say that will make you a better, safer, and more efficient rider. So if the only thing you read of this post is this paragraph; if she's in town go to her clinic!!!!! (Audit or ride, doesn't matter, you'll learn a lot either way)

Chimi being a pain in the ass about soaking his hoof

Leading up to the clinic I was doing my best to work on fitness. With 2Pointober in swing and great healthy eating plans in action I was going to be as ready as possible for the clinic. HAHAHA. Damn it horses. On the Sunday before the clinic I headed down to the barn to feed and notice Chimi didn't look quite right. I stuck him on the lunge line and sure enough he's lame as a ghost. My horse had a damn abscess brewing in his hoof. So back to the barn we went and I started soaking and wrapping his hoof. I quickly texted Trainer b/c we were supposed to have a lesson the next day and I had to cancel. She replied back, "If Chimi's not sound for the clinic you can borrow Joe"

How I felt when she said I could ride Joe

I might of squealed a little bit because Joe is this really cool Irish Draught that Trainer competed through Novice. He's kinda perfect and super adorable but he's been sitting in a field and goes on monthly train rides with Trainer's husband. Basically he's semi retired. I had no idea how intense the Karen O'Connor clinic would be so I was still hoping Chimi's abscess would blow out in the next day or so and be fine. But it was nice knowing that I had a backup in case Chimi didn't blow out the abscess.




Wednesday rolls around and Chimi is SOUND. He'd take a funny step every so often if he was walking across the rocky driveway but other wise he looked pretty good and I was hopeful that all would be well. Thursday morning rolls around and Chimi comes into eat his breakfast completely 3 legged lame. He wouldn't put weight on his foot and was being completely dramatic about it. A quick text to Trainer and said "Look like Joe's going to have to come out of retirement! Chimi's lame again" and she replied "I'll up Joe's grain to 1 cup today, he'll be excited to get more food!" We made plans for me to come over Friday morning to clip him and take a quick ride on him since I've never ridden him before!!!!

Yeah I have no idea. It's creepy and hysterical all at the same time!

My great plan of working on 2pointober and getting fitter was thrown out the window and I didn't even ride the week of the clinic until Friday. After giving Joe a quick Irish clip I hopped on him and found him to be surprisingly sensitive. He responded really well to any leg aide and would move in any direction I sent him in. Ok I thought I can do this. When I asked him to canter he zoomed across the field but I was able to regulate his speed and felt comfortable enough. Trainer had a jump set up and I couldn't decide if I should jump it or not. It wasn't very small but also wasn't to big (2'3/2'6"ish) but I completely chickened out and figured I'd do better tomorrow when I had no other option except to jump!!!! Plus Joe was pretty sweaty and I had to head back home to move Finn to a new barn (His leaser had a really cool opportunity to be a working student for a local dressage trainer and it helps that I'm down to 3 horses for the winter YAY.)


When I got back to the barn Trainer and I made plans on how to get Joe to the clinic and we were ready for tomorrow's 8am mandatory lecture from Karen!!!!! And whatever else Karen would throw our way!!!!!!