There’s nothing like working with the best in their field no matter what their particular interest is! I spent the first two weekends of November teaching horsemanship clinics with my friends Noah Cornish and Alicia Landman, who have been taught and mentored by Buck Brannaman. I was honored to work with such excellent students of the horse and we had a lot of fun.

Noah and I were hosted by Mary Roskens in South Lyon, Michigan, and Alicia and I taught a clinic for Susan Deal in Warrenton, Virginia. We collaborated to emphasize the importance of groundwork and good horsemanship regardless of the equestrian discipline you prefer. I enjoy trying to connect the dots for riders as to how the groundwork exercises relate to everything you do on the flat as well as over fences. Both clinics included a mixture of hunter, jumper, equitation, pleasure riders and fox hunters. Both clinics were three days with the first day being groundwork and exercises in the saddle but no jumping. Days two and three were a review of groundwork and then flatwork and jumping.

It was nice to leave each town with the riders curious to learn more about groundwork as they felt it helped them better connect with their horses. And it felt good to us to see the changes the horses made as they found better balance and that place of peace.