Allowing Mistakes

Mistakes Happen!

By Carolyn Bahr

 It’s okay to fail. 

Mistakes can be good. 

Without fear, there is no courage.

The last was spoken to me by eventing legend, James Wofford.  I had just had the privilege to be the first and only rider to part ways with her horse on day one of a three-day clinic at Eventful Acres.  It was a spectacular fall, with my green horse, Junior, managing to duck out in a one stride gymnastic line of three oxers.  I got up, dusted myself off, mounted, and tried again.  His words help me ditch my embarrassment, self-recrimination, and yes, stage fright in riding with Mr. Wofford.

Perfection Rarely Happens

Being a closet perfectionist control freak (or not so private if you talked to fellow eTwisters), this summer was pivotal in my growth as a rider.  Discovering that perfect isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be, that sometimes, allowing mistakes can be the biggest learning experience of all.  Which was true for both my horse and me.

Most Eventers know teaching your green horse to have a “fifth” leg is necessary for both horse and rider.  The ability of your equine partner to save your ass is essential for safety and competitiveness, especially for an amateur.  But in order to achieve it, you have to be willing to give up control and allow your horse to make mistakes so he can learn.

Because, guess what?  No one is perfect, neither horse nor rider.  I really hate that.  I found that out at the clinic.  It was impossible for me not to rate Junior to the fences, especially when he came out like a fire breathing dragon.  And of course, the hotter and stupider he became, the worse I rode.  Talk about a never-ending cycle of embarrassment.  But I did learn from it.  The times I managed to shut my over-active brain down and do what Jimmy asked, Junior improved and I grew in my horsemanship.

Getting It Done

It wasn’t the weekend I was expecting, but it was probably the weekend I needed. 

The clinic was a second in my lessons learned this summer.  The first was riding my horse in his first recognized competition.  I didn’t want to do it.  I normally would have had a professional ride him first.  I was afraid I’d mess up and give my boy a horrible ride and wreck him somehow.  You know, the one ride that would ruin him forever?  It took an amazing amount of faith in my trainer, Susan Friend Le Tourneur, and fellow eTwisters, bashing me upside the head, telling me I could do this, that I sent my entry in as rider.

Learn From Our Mistakes

Did Junior place as high as he could have with a professional in the irons, most likely not.  Did my confidence shoot skyward when in a class of 16, I managed to finish in 6^th place on my dressage score and just three time penalties.  Absolutely!  By allowing myself the room to fail, I accepted a challenge and let go of some control.

Allow mistakes.  Give it a try.  It just might be good for you.

Day 3 XC Day

by Nahmi Jones

Master Instruction

Cross country is dressage at a high rate of speed.

Rushing to get ready to ride is a recurrent anxiety dream for me. I do my best to give myself plenty of time to get ready for important events, so I can tack up and warm up methodically and calmly. But the early morning beat the heat schedule on cross country morning, maximum green spot abatement and fussing with Susan's borrowed air vest for the first time and oh no!! suddenly we were late for the fun of cross country day at the Wofford clinic!! Rushing through my warm up was no way to lull the fire breathing dragon into submission.

Jimmy pointed out that my strategy of throwing my shoulders back, standing in the stirrups and hauling on the bit was probably not the most efficient way for me to put on the brakes in the inviting open spaces of Eventful Acres. He had me practice instead holding 2 point position while asking for downward transitions to the halt and all the way through the reinback, just as he describes in the current issue of Practical Horseman.

He suggested a single bridge as my fire breathing dragon is rather strong. That way Simon pulled against himself and not me. He reminded us that just like in dressage, we need to be quick to reward and release the pressure on the reins once the horse softens, even at speed.

When I stabilized my shoulder position and found better body balance, Simon was happy to oblige with more sensitive brakes and we both got a little softer between the fences. Fire breathing dragon placated for the moment.

Simon was brave and bold and definitely up for the challenge of Rod's Intro to Prelim course. The gentle progression in degree of difficulty at the bank, ditch and skinny combinations gave me confidence when we moved up to the prelim sized questions. By the time we got to the water complex we were ready to tackle the whole exercise without any rehearsal. Jimmy's comment? See how much fun Prelim can be on this horse?

I finished the weekend confident and satisfied and clear on what areas I need to improve on at home. It is rumored that Jimmy might have mentioned Simon and Kilkenney's names in the same sentence. Whoa boy, I'm really going to have to get my homework done and raise my game. The fire breathing dragon's going to extra cocky if he gets wind of that kind of nod from the master.

When we were finished, after Simon was hosed off and iced, we snuck into the perfectly manicured Stadium arena for a post XC roll. Up drove Rod in his gator. Uh oh Simon, we're busted for screwing up the footing! But no, Rod just chuckled, "Spoiling your Ferrari? Good, he deserves it!"

Thanks Rod. Good job pony. I hope we can do it again next year!

Day 2 Stadium Jumping

by Nahmi Jones

When you feel nothing....add

Jimmy's sage advice for Simon

Jimmy's lectures are free form which is cool. He opens the floor for questions about anything that is on our minds. Today's lecture led to a discussion about seeing one's distance.

To paraphrase his take on the subject: If you feel the fence leaning away from you, you're going to be long, better add leg. If you feel the fence leaning towards you, you're going to be short, better half halt. Then every once in a while, it just feels sweet and you don't have to do anything to get to the fence and its a good day.

But what if you feel nothing? Then you're on the perfect half stride kid.

Isn't it wonderful when you can take what you just learned in lecture and apply it to your riding to solidify the learning process the very same day? Yeah, grrreat.

We warmed up for stadium jumping and started to string together a course in Jimmy's ring of related distances. I was just getting over the pucker effect caused by facing a whole course of Prelim sized fences when on the approach to the second line....nothing, yup I felt nothing.

My solution to the nothing feeling was to drop my shoulders and pray--Simon, please get us out of this!--oops...no surprise...no go. And this was how I demonstrated for the class what the perfect half stride looks like. Jimmy pointed out that we get that nothing feeling because our brains can't sort out whether we're long or short on the perfect half stride and that the solution is to fill up the empty feeling with ANOTHER STRIDE. Ok, got it Jimmy, another stride, not prayer.

We went on to complete the exercise in the ring of related distances. There was a 4,5 and 6 stride line set up in a ring and we were to connect them with circles in between each line. This simple stadium course allowed us to practice asking for the correct leads over the fences, adjusting stride length in lines with related distances, and balancing in the turns (or in Simon's case, regaining some semblance of control), all the details we were going to need to have a clean, flowing stadium round.

I finished the day with the wonderful, confident feeling of staying softly connected with my horse as he stepped lightly over a series of large fences. And lots more details to add to the homework list.

Gymnastics day: Pat the head, rub the belly

by Nahmi Jones

"Going Training, schooling Prelim" was the chorus for our one sentence intros to Jimmy this morning. Whew, maybe I'm not the only rider who foolishly said "yes" when Karen Hisken asked if I of course wanted to be in the Prelim group for the 2011 Wofford clinic at Eventful Acres. It was a great comfort to be with many of the same horse and rider combos who joined me in the training group last year. Maybe I am in the right place...

Last year on day one of the clinic, the sea of white poles in Rod's huge stadium arena intimidated me. This year, I welcomed the challenge (er...the speed bumps). Simon, the veteran, had the gymnastics game figured out as soon as he set foot in the arena and was eager to show off. Clever with his foot work and able to lengthen and compress easily, he didn't start to settle in until the exercises got more complicated. Bring on those bounces please!

Sea Of Poles

Although Simon had his job figured out, Jimmy was quick to point out that I needed some reminders of where we left off last year. Let go of the reins, ease off on the heels, don't make him anxious and flat by kicking too much. Relaxing the tension in my body came a little quicker this year thanks to all those hours this winter of doing my homework with Susan and Brian's encouragement.

The rest of the day's lesson was about focus. Ironically, focusing on riding the whole course and holding off on celebrations until the whole exercise (or round) is complete is something we've been discussing at home this year.

Jimmy's advice today was about the opposite end of the party spectrum. Focus on setting the horse up straight, let him do him job through the gymnastic, and the focus on pulling up in a controlled fashion. Only after the round is complete should you let the hyper-critical internal dialog start. If you start thinking about what you've done wrong while the horse is still in motion, then he's going to start driving. And Simon definitely likes to drive.

We finished the day with a few encouraging words from Jimmy. "Give yourself permission to be better. You are better, but you don't believe it yet."

Focus the mind, relax the body. Pat the head, rub the belly. We know what this year's homework is gonna be.

Chip's Blog - Day One Eventful Acres

Chip & The Tres Guuiness

Hello, Chip here again. Thursday was Travel Day to Eventful Acres for the Jimmy Wofford clinic. Its was a good day. No one slept through their alarms. Like a well oiled machine, the tres hermanas rolled out of Goldspirit at 10 min till 4am, long before any sane cock would be crowing.

We flew over the grapevine, ducked the heat and landed at Eventful Acres before lunchtime.

Simon and Junior were settled into their corrals, bedrolls unfurled for the girls. Now what's for lunch? Why Guinness please...its a drink and a meal rolled into one! A great start to the summer getaway!

Simon The Likeable's likeables

After a short siesta, a light hack was in order to stretch the ponies' legs and backs after the long trailer ride. Simon and Junior got a look around the property to familiarize them with the playground at Eventful Acres. Creeks, ditches and lots of inviting green grass...pony heaven. Everyone now relaxed and ready for whatever Jimmy had in store for us.

We enjoyed a great dinner served up by Carol and whoopee (cushions :-O) rootbeer floats for dessert! Yum, but at what age does lactose intolerance set in?

Chip's First Blog

Hello world, things are all aflutter at the Jones household this week so I thought I'd take a moment to introduce myself...since the bird brains here don't seem to have the time to. My name is Chip. I'm the official mascot for the next eTwist adventure and self appointed guest blogger. I'm going to give you a bird's eye view of clinicing with Jimmy Wofford. Since birds of a feather flock together, the tres hermanas are gathering for a road trip to Oregon House. Yes, this summer time migration pattern is becoming an annual ritual. The eTwisters along with a gaggle of fledgling eventers are once again participating in the Wofford Clinic at Eventful Acres. The etwist chicks have been hatching their plans for summer vacation, gathering camping gear, road food for the 8+ hr trip, bathing suits with at least a shred or two of elastic still intact, a fully stocked trailer bar and of course single malt for Mr. Wofford. Ponies on their best behavior clipped, cleaned and tack organized. Eventful Acres, here we come. Although the early bird gets the...well you get the picture...this sparrow's opinion is that the departure time of truly obscene o'clock is for the birds.

Jimmy Wofford at Eventful Acres: Sunday

Jimmy Wofford Clinic:  Day Three by Dr. Nahmi Jones

Last day of the clinic. Cross country! The fun stuff!! Time to play on the Hisken's beautiful property and sample Rod's creativity in fence building.

My videographer and now professional dog wrangler Carolyn was still hanging in there. Invaluable as a groom, networker and drinking buddy also, I shall forever be in her debt for allowing me to drag her along on my little summer vacation.

Of course since things had been going far too smoothly so far, I had to find a way to complicate things. I spent most of the morning worrying about my double reins...keep the snaffle rein? yes or no? Brian Sabo had suggested them the weekend before. They seemed to be working well and the emphasis so far had been on a softer feel with my hands so far but Jimmy was working on a hand slap technique for shortening reins after a drop. Geez, that was going to be complicated with four reins....

In the end I decided not to change anything but still had the choice on my mind. Several times I thought of asking Carolyn to remove my snaffle reins since Simon was more than high on Canadian goose impulsion. You know that kind of impulsion? The kind where you don't know which direction you're going to go next? Jimmy's generous description of our warm up? "Like a hog on ice".

What happened to my co-operative pony of the past two days? The professor had gotten the memo that it was cross country day...no doubt. Perhaps after 18 months off from cross country jumping, the four XC fences we did last weekend with Brian may not have been enough to knock the rust off.  Perhaps I was just overthinking everything as usual.

Jimmy's sage advice had nothing to do with riding position today. " Are you riding this horse?"
"Yes" I answered meekly, unsure of where he was going with this line of questioning.
"If you're riding  this horse then you're going to be ok"

Clearly Simon, now nicknamed the professor, had earned Jimmy's approval, although I'm pretty sure my abilities were still suspect.

"It's ok to be nervous, after all you do need to feel  something while riding cross country. But try to organize your butterflies so they fly in formation"

After a few bad jokes and a couple of deep breaths, I was able to coax my butterflies all to fly in the same general direction and the rest of the day went pretty smoothly.

Most of what Jimmy was trying to teach on XC day will have to wait until I can practice at home: quiet galloping position without posting the canter, the transition from 2 point to light 3 point in front of fences, slipping and gathering the reins efficiently, proper position on up and down banks.

But perhaps learning to being still in my mind was the most important lesson. After all, as Jimmy pointed out, my horse knows me better than I know myself. Maybe I can control the agitated energy that gets in the way of finding my version of Nirvana, jumping out of stride at 520 mpm now that I've had a glimpse of how being an intelligent passenger leads to a happy horse.

Thank you Jimmy Wofford for your patience and generosity with this duffer. I was amazed by the individual attention I received at your clinic. Your attention to detail and useful insights are very much appreciated.

And a huge shout out to Rod and Karen Hisken for hosting this clinic at their beautiful facility. 

Jimmy Wofford at Eventful Acres: Saturday

Jimmy Wofford Clinic: Day Two by Dr. Nahmi Jones

Day 2 was showjumping, but deconstructed.

We watched the preliminary group go from the comfort of the stands, while we enjoyed yummy french toast and fresh fruit. Have I mentioned yet how fantastic the food was all weekend? Many thanks to Carol Von Brandt, the wonderful woman who slaved over the hot grill all weekend to bring us our gourmet meals.

The emphasis was the same as the day before in the gymnastics. Steady rhythm through the lines, don't build to the second fence, soft in the upper body so we don't influence the horse to have a rail either in front or behind.

Jimmy broke the show jumping down into small logical pieces and the gradually introduced more technical questions.

I started out the day with my usual bad habits, locking my hips and elbows over the first few fences. As we warmed up I was reminded to incorporate the lesson from the previous day. Softer reins, then softer leg so I didn't chase Simon out the front door. Simon remembered also, jumping up more lightly over the fences with a softer neck. Wow Jimmy! This stuff really works! He just laughed "Yeah, the professor is actually simple, now you just have to ride him that way!"

Our deconstructed show jump course was a series of simple lines that progressively became to more technical. We jumped a 5 stride oxer to oxer line, then one stride rails on 45 degree angles then on to squeezes.

Jimmy had me concentrate on softening my arms by straightening my elbows every other stride on the approach to fences. By the time we moved over to the corner, the logical progression from the angle/ squeeze questions, I was slowly unlocking my body and Simon and I jumped the corner easily and accurately on this first try.

Jimmy's final comments after our last line of the day, "See those little adjustments you made to make the oxer come out right? That's what we call riding."  I have the proof on video, I may have graduated from duffer to rider. That's a good feeling.

Jimmy Wofford at Eventful Acres: Friday

Jimmy Wofford Clinic at Eventful Acres:  Day 1

By Dr. Nahmi Jones

I usually think of gymnastics as simple, straight forward exercises. A couple of innocent standards set up as a chute. The instructor sneaks the rails up. The next thing you know, you are jumping a challenging question without realizing what's been built up.


For the Jimmy Wofford clinic at Eventful Acres last weekend things were a little different. Rod Hisken's huge jumping arena was full of freshly painted white rails and standards, laid out everywhere like an albino logging disaster.

As I rode in I thought: Uh oh Simon, you and I are going to have to do a lot of thinking today. There's nothing simple about what Jimmy has in store for us today.

I knew that at least Simon would get the benefit of the doubt from the 3xOlympian from his comments at our early morning lecture/ introduction. Jimmy's amazing enthusiasm for our sport and our equine partners was summed up in his response to a question about selecting a young event prospect. "I'm automatically going to like it if its a horse". 

Jimmy's message for day one, in fact the message for the whole weekend was to teach us to be intelligent passengers.

The goal of his gymnastic exercises was to allow the horse to jump in a way that simulated his natural balanced jumping style unencumbered by the rider.

Through the wide and low oxer/ bounce line Simon had to reach out to stretch and compress his body horizontally. Though the double bounce/ hogsback line he got to reach up vertically to stretch through his bascule.

I was encouraged to ride with a longer rein. Did I lose Simon out the front door this way? You betcha. Jimmy's solution to keep a steady rhythm, to take my lower leg off to prevent driving.

I struggled to keep my position over fences by stabilizing my body with only my upper leg and without using my hands as a crutch. I was thrilled to find Simon responding to my efforts to find the happy balance between a lighter hand and a lighter leg, by jumping with more freedom through his neck and back in a happy relaxed rhythm.