From Outside the Rail | An Adult Amateur's Takeaway from the Scottsdale George Morris Clinic

By Ambassador Allison West Hughes

It’s 8 a.m. and I am in a folding camp chair I have fished out of the horse trailer. There is a soft breeze, bright blue skies, sunlight filtered through swaying trees. The smell is unmistakably horse show; hoof oil, fly spray, show sheen, freshly shampooed horses and faintly, coffee. Through a perfect set of happy accidents I am at the George Morris Clinic at Smoke Tree Ranch in Scottsdale.

I am in the very abbreviated break in between two demanding sales leadership roles. One ends today with the termination of my email access at 10am and a new one begins Monday at 8am. And then, the clincher, I happened upon a free 3-day audit ticket: a gift given in exchange for housing a junior rider who lived 40 minutes away and wanted to trade windshield time for sleep.

The first group of the clinic is assembling in front of George’s golf cart. He faces them from the back seat with a few general instructions on stirrup length and overall horsemanship. For once, I have no email to check, nowhere to be, and the second half of the day to deal with my own herd. This group would learn quickly and ride beautifully.

Three days later he called this group “a very good group”. They tackled the challenges he presented them quickly and were able to advance again and again to the next exercise.

So what did I learn from the audit rail in 3 days of watching him teach?

1. I love this. The last 8 months have been more vet bills, hand walks, injections, scratched classes, exhaustive online research of various ailments, MRI’s, anxious phone calls to vets and did I mention the bills? So there have been bills upon bills. My only highlight was placing second in the Arizona adult medal finals in October on my trainer’s borrowed lesson horse, and I show…. a lot. Sitting there watching great riders get better reminded me that this is what I want to do at a time when it has made little financial or logical sense to continue.
2. I can do this. At my tender ammy age of 43, I have done a little of everything over the years. GHM put all the pieces together in a way that made them all related
   and cumulative. Dressage, jumping, position, horsemanship, and above all, practicing (“horses learn by repetition and association”). I know the doing is much harder than the observing, especially for 2 hours as the exercise constantly changes in the sun, but I didn’t leave feeling like I had a big gap. More like I need to put everything I have learned together into one system, vs. applying them as acquired, in pieces.
   
3. I need to get fit. George told my junior buddy she needs to “be a tiger not a mouse”. Tigers have muscles, not impeccable resumes and professional references. Seriously, if I ever want to do this I need to be in the best shape of my life. It is an intense 2-2.5 hours a day on the saddle with and without stirrups. This makes a long horse show day look like an air-conditioned nap.

I took a lot of great horse tips, too. My bay gelding needs a consistent “nip” with the bit to elevate the pole and balance his heavy front end, my super sensitive chestnut mare needs me to stay. off. her. back. or her jump will stay hollow and flat, my huge gray mare needs is lots more lateral work to make that enormous stride adjustable. I also ate bagels, said hello to a lot of friends, and thought maybe, just maybe, if I can get a break on the vet bills I would have the courage to do the clinic from inside the rail next time.