Equestrian Clinics

I was checking my email on an early January morning when I saw a notice that Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum was in California and giving a clinic at HITS in Thermal. The catch - - it was the very next day. So an amazing opportunity to possibly document a rare event with the number one show jumper in the world was dropped into my lap but I had just 24 hours to pull it off. I reached out to the group that organized the event - - the West Coast Active Riders. (The WCAR is this great non-profit organization that promotes show jumping and develops young riders. Check out their website at http://www.westcoastactiveriders.com)

I spoke with Bernie Traurig and Kathy Hobstetter and asked permission to videotape this event. For those of you who have been living under an equestrian rock for the past decade and don’t know all about Meredith…well, I don’t know if I can even talk to you right now. I need a moment. Moment taken.

I just love this story and I am sure I am not doing it justice. See, Meredith is a California native who came up through the local shows, and with the guidance of some impressive trainers (yes, Karen Healey, this shout out goes to you) and her own hard work and dedication, became a very skilled rider. Then she went to Germany to train for a couple of months. There she fell in love with and married Markus Beerbaum and stayed in Germany. She impressed the boys club and became the first woman on the German Olympic show jumping team. She also impressed the world by becoming the first woman to have reached the No. 1 position on the FEI show jumping world ranking and was ranked #1 in the world for 11 straight months in 2008. She was the first woman to win the World Cup Finals three times (2005, 2008, 2009) and has a nice showcase of Olympic Gold Medals on her mantle. This is one amazing rider and inspiring woman! (And if you look at any shot of her and Shutterfly you will see that her equitation is picture perfect as they sail over six-foot spreads! Something for us all to aspire to at any fence height.)

So our California girl is coming home. She is going to teach a group of young riders from the WCAR about her unique combination of American and German style of riding. This is a rare, never-before seen event, and I have 24 hours to pull off getting it to tape.  The folks at WCAR were gracious enough to allow me to organize the shoot as they realized this was such a great learning experience for equestrians of all levels that it deserved to be put to DVD. I pulled out my rolodex of crew and made phone calls while getting ready for work and getting my son to school. I scored a great group of individuals led by Gordon Brown, a Director of Photography that has shot IMAX films deep into caves and from volcanoes. He brought his steadi-cam (the boy loves his toys) to get some great tracking shots. We shot on HD, which really came in handy since the clinic was held in the Equidome at Thermal and there was really low light.

My demanding and fulfilling day job kept me from attending in person. As I said in my previous post about the George Morris clinic, like many of you I have a job to support my life and very expensive horse habit but it keeps me from just picking up and auditing all of these great clinics I would love to watch. That is how Equestrian Clinics came to be - - out of the realization that there must be more people out there like myself who would love to audit clinics with the world’s best trainers and riders but just don’t have the time and resources.

Meredith’s clinic was, not surprising, really amazing. She titled the clinic “The Mental Game” which was perfect. She asked the riders specifically what they were thinking…and why they did what they did. She really made them think through the process and their own decision-making. There are so many times that riders become reliant on their trainers telling them what to do that they forget to think for themselves. Meredith told some great stories about how the Germans were taken aback at first by her style (and by how fast she trots). She explained how she has taken the American fundamentals and combined them with the German structure to form a winning combination. She also told the secret of how her brother in law, Ludgar, gets his horses nice and relaxed at home to teach them to be very careful over the jumps.

My favorite line from her clinic that rings in my head many times during my own training is “98% of the problems in riding come from riders riding with too much hand and not enough leg.” I ride a big warmblood and realize that most of my problems have come because of just that. Meredith accurately predicted many of the problems the riders in the clinic had over fences by watching them warm up on the flat. Many of their problems came from them letting the horses fall behind their leg. She explained that there are four basics to successful riding…the horses must go forward, come back, go left and go right. Sounds simple? Well, I can tell you that it isn’t - - my big strided horse took a 5-stride line in 6 this morning because I didn’t have him in front of my leg. Oh Meredith, you make it look so easy!

Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum’s clinic “The Mental Game” is on DVD and is available in our Store.