Appaloosa News Monthly – March 2022
The second day of the clinic, we arrived in the morning to see how the two unbroke horses would fare and if Nick Dowers would be able to get on them for a first ride. Again, Nick took us all through his process and was able to get on both horses with no issues and help them both have a positive experience.
The next two clinicians up were a pleasant surprise to the very small number of us who are also pleasure people. Charlie Cole and Aaron Moses came in to spend some time to share their process for teaching a horse to change leads. Both Charlie and Aaron worked horses with Aaron’s being green to the lead changes. It was really interesting to see two clinicians come in to teach changes for western riding as this highlighted both the similarities and differences between how the changes are taught in the two disciplines.
The rest of the day was spent working three-year-olds and younger horses. The afternoon session covered everything from circles to spins to slides. Day two was topped off by another podcast in the evening.
The final full day of the clinic was devoted to older finished horses. Andrea, Shawn and Nick rode finished horses and first described their process for preparing these horses for the show pen. In this section of the clinic, there was a really fun interlude where they again brought Aaron Moses in to share his preparation process for the pleasure classes. With the same levity that was evident all three days, Aaron and Andrea swapped horses with Andrea trying to get his way around the pen on the pleasure horse and Aaron working his way through the reining maneuvers. The final section of the clinic was each of the three running the audience through a paid warmup. Both what they are thinking and what they are working on during that time. Nick did a full cow horse warm up and Andrea and Shawn a reining pattern.
To say this was an amazing event would be an understatement. The amount of knowledge in the pen was amazing. Several things were the most impressive. Having never seen Nick Dowers before, it impressed all with his natural ability to read a horse and get into his mind. He also has an incredible ability to explain what he is doing and why he is doing it. Shawn also has an excellent ability to teach and explain concepts in an easily explainable manner and Andrea is just a phenomenon to watch.
The most impressive aspect of this entire three-day clinic was how these three competitors interacted. They are all avid learners and were obviously learning from each other the entire time. Most of the clinic felt like you were hanging outside the pen while they worked horses together and talked about how to help each other get better. The respect they all have for each other was evident. The friendship, camaraderie and banter were a joy to watch.
