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Re: [RC] APEX Clinic Review - Sharon LevasseurWOW, that sounds AMAZING, I wish I were closer. How much did it cost? -Sharon L. in Maine Quoting rides2far@xxxxxxxx: Well, I'm just back from the APEX Clinic that Stagg & Cheryl Newman hosted on their *gorgeous* farm and the neighboring Pisgah View Ranch near Asheville, NC and I'm just kind of overwhelmed trying to replay all that I soaked in this weekend. I can honestly say I picked up more *new* things in 36 hours than I'd been exposed to in a long long time. I think a lot of us have kind of hit a plateau where we've mastered most of what's in the "how to do endurance" books. It's seems that most of the books, articles, etc are aimed at people who are somewhat new to the sport...or they're medical journal articles which sound like latin and dare not say anything that 10 double blind studies haven't confirmed. But this was stuff for the person who is wanting to go a little past their comfort zone, whether it was a 25 who wanted to do 50, a 50 who wanted to do 100, or a 100 miler who was toying with the idea of international. There was such a low student to clinician ratio that the participants who went for the top level of the clinic had a full hour to just sit with John Crandell and discuss what they had done, would like to do, how they'd been training, etc. and get some tips on where to go from there. Lucky me, since I was in charge of videoing the clinic, I got to sit in on several of these meetings so long as the person was OK with that and I learned so much. Each person had totally different goals and obstacles and it was so much better than just hearing him talk to a room of 300 people. He's such a low key guy that everyone seemed almost instantly at ease. It just took a minute or two to realize you wen't bothering him...his time was ALL YOURS for that hour. Stagg Newman worked with the participants focusing on training. Groups of maybe 10 riders saddled up at a time and for anyone who didn't have a heart monitor they had rounded up enough to loan them one. They took base pulses, warmed the horses up, then went off on a mountainous training ride right out the back of his farm. It was hard not to envy them looking up at that ridge line. Stagg rode his young horse in training whose name I'm sure we'll all be hearing soon enough. He's called Winston and I've been in here admiring his stride in slow motion on my videos. >sigh< Under the heading of "Luckiest little girl in the world" my daughter Josie got to ride Jayel Super for Stagg and was about to burst with pride when she got to call out his unbelievably low heart rates as they trotted up the continueous climb. I could tell it was really valuable to have that many horses calling out their heart rates to share them with each other. The heart rates were recorded on a computer read out and participants got a copy before they left. I heard several of the riders who were the cautious "I don't know if I should ride my horse farther in competition" types who were very pleasantly surprised that their horses were more fit than they'd realized. Another "station" was where participants had their horse's conformation analyzed by Ann Stuart DVM Chef d' Equipe for team USA, and shoeing analyzed by USA's team farrier Jeff Pauley. They sort of worked together, going over the horse somewhat like a prepurchase exam making notations, checking levelness of shoulders, hips, signs of overdeveopment on one side, shoeing problems (many of those) etc. Then they trotted them which showed many problems with balance in shoeing (I feel their pain). Jeff wrote out suggestions for improvement that they could give their farrier, or they could have him work on the horse. They also offered radiographs (digital) on the spot and bloodwork (which some took advantage of as they came in off the training ride with Stagg) They also did flex tests. Not often you can get the full attention of a good vet & farrier working together at the same time. Another station was the arena where Lisa Maxwell gave riding lessons. If I recall correctly, Stagg has told me about her before. She is the one who helped with Super's dressage training and has taken an Arab to Grand Prix level before so has maybe a bit more insight than many instructors care to have about dealing with an Arab. I really enjoyed videoing standing next to her...but got dizzy so quickly I just couldn't hang out there for too awfully long. >g< She was very soft spoken, very kind, and stayed unruffled when little distractions like 10 horses returning from a mountain trail ride totally blew the concentration of the participant. :-) This was the first of what the APEX group hopes will be many "continueing education" type clinics. My personal reaction to it was excitement. It's so easy to just get in a rut and do the same "safe" thing over and over until you become bored. We may be able to ride 50 miles without improving our equitation but 100 would force us to make changes and improve...do we do it or just keep on doing the same thing we've been doing? It's easy to look at the price tag on these things and rule them out...but when I think about how I saw a young horse that most of us would kill for and the rider was absolutely crazy about tolerating a shoe job that was absolutely wrong for him, I *know* she was probably saved months of problems, and lots of money in diagnosis and I'd say it was a BARGAIN. The cost was probably much like going to one or two rides. The atmosphere of having a fun weekend with your horse was much the same, and the lasting affects were probably far more valuable than two more completions on your record...and FAR more valuable than two pulls that might have been caused by things we're doing wrong if we have to learn it the hard way by ourselves. The Pisgah View Ranch, a really neat old vacation type facility that is next door to Stagg's place. Word from Stagg is that they're going to open it to outside horses this summer so some of your Floridians may want to go to the mountains for a training holiday up there this summer. It was a really neat place with a big old lodge where we had the lectures in a knotty pine paneled room surrounded by screened in porches. Whew. I've talked so much but I guess you can tell I thought it was a wonderful experience. The APEX group's goal is simply to offer furthering education to those who want *more* knowledge, experience, guidance, to continue to shoot for higher goals...whatever they may be. They are hoping to have possibly one more "intro" clinic repeating the same subject areas as this time, then go on to occasional (maybe semi-annually?) clinics bringing in new experts and focusing on other subjects...so they will build on one another. Again, avoiding that getting stuck in a "intro to" level world. I hope I didn't misrepresent any of this material, if I did I'll blame lack of sleep and Stagg is welcome to correct me. I can't thank them enough for putting the clinic on. I know they must be exhausted from it all. I came home pumped and ready to get out of my rut and try and improve myself and my horse. Angie McGhee =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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