Bitterroot Dude Ranch
Riding
Clinics
Centered Riding Clinic
It is an honor that one of America's top riding instructors feels our ranch is a good location for her centered riding clinic. Donna Snyder-Smith, a level III centered riding instructor, is returning in June and August. In recent years there have been a number of important innovations in horsemanship philosophy and Donna provides insights into how you can improve your riding and enhance communication and cooperation with your horse. To insure a maximum learning opportunity in the clinic, classes are limited and instruction is offered in a variety of learning styles, including auditory, tactile and visual. Each day includes unmounted exercises, classroom lecture, and mounted work. With the proper technique and training you can improve your equine relationships and help to alleviate any aches and pains associated with riding. Riders of all levels and disciplines can benefit. There is no better way to prepare for an Equitours trip and enhance your enjoyment and confidence in riding.
Donna Snyder-Smith Centered Riding Clinic
We are particularly pleased to have Donna Snyder-Smith, unquestionably one of the world's
leading riding instructors, running instructional programs at our ranch May 30-June 6 and August 29-September 5, 2010. She will teach you how to be at one with your horse and how to
ride more effortlessly, enjoyably and safely. This training combines morning
lessons and afternoon riding at your own level in the spectacular terrain of
majestic, snow-capped mountains and wide open plains around the ranch.
Donna has worked with such world famous and innovative teachers as Sally Swift and in the endurance field she has coached World Champion Valerie Kanavy and many other top endurance riders. She holds the prestigious Lifetime Award from the American Riding Instructors' Association and is the author of THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO ENDURANCE RIDING AND COMPETITION. We feel this is an exceptional opportunity to improve your riding skills in an ideal, horse friendly atmosphere far from civilization.
Donna is a master teacher of the bio-mechanics of effortless,
effective riding. Using lectures, ground excercises and mounted
work, each student is helped to find a better "body map".
The techniques are easily learned, even by the novice
rider, with improvements often immediately evident.
A successful competitor herself in the sixties and seventies in open jumping, eventing,
dressage, western pleasure and endurance riding, Donna understands the needs of riders
with a wide variety of disciplines. Her clients have
been successful competitors at local,
regional, national and international levels including two World Champions in
Endurance.
ITINERARY May 30-June 6, 2010 and August 29-September 5, 2010
This instruction will make you a better rider, no matter how experienced you are or what your discipline is. The goal is new brain patterning which will lead to better communication with your horse. Since the body is the tool of communication and tensions hold imbalance, we can confuse our horses. We need to clarify how to use our body from the joints with a minimum of interference.
Ground exercises lead to kinesthetic understanding of how your body works so each day more than half the lesson will be devoted to unmounted work.
SUNDAY: Arrival in the afternoon.
MONDAY: Focus: find out how the horse's back moves through feel.
TUESDAY: Rebalance the horse longitudinally. Work on stopping the horse through balance.
WEDNESDAY: The mechanics of the rising trot.
THURSDAY: The dynamics of the bending line with the horse traveling in an arc.
FRIDAY: Morning and afternoon rides.
SATURDAY: Enjoy a long picnic ride in the National Forest.
SUNDAY: Departure after breakfast.
Monday through Friday will entail 4 hour sessions each morning followed by 2-3 hour trail rides in the afternoon.
"I just got back from my Bitterroot Ranch vacation. I had a great time and am REALLY GLAD I took your course before going. The "stacking" exercises you had us go through were so helpful to me in maintaining my balance at all speeds and over all types of terrain. I progressed to the point that I can now, not only post the trot without thinking and with my heels down, but was also able to canter almost effortlessly. I was completely confident in the saddle at all times and rode with the intermediate group all week. Perhaps most significantly, as you predicted, my backside was never once sore!!
--Kevin Whalen
"I have been working hard on the stuff that I have learned, and you know what? My horses have never traveled so well, and so light! The centering with the breathing and the soft eyes is just incredible. Yesterday I did a five hour ride in the desert and I have never felt so well on a horse; and the horse as well trotted up afterwards as never before! In summary, I am just happy and amazed about it all, and so are my dear ponies."
--Dr. Jaber Bittar, UAE (Five day clinic.)
For more information on our Donna Snyder-Smith RIDING CLINIC, please contact Roz.
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DUDE RANCH
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Bitterroot Ranch
1480 East Fork Rd
Dubois, WY 82513
800.545.0019
307.455.3363
Fax: 307.455.2354
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