Dennis Reis Clinic

 

Last week was a crazy week with girl scout cookie sales, sickness, visitors, boy scouts, and a lacrosse game.

By the way, thank you all for the sweet, caring comments for my daughter. You all really touched my heart. Jen is feeling much better all ready. She started off this bug much worse than I did, but she’s bouncing back much quicker and is already able to eat and play and is talking about having her birthday party later this week.

Now if only I could bounce back as quickly. I’m still feeling a little run down and “floppity” in my tummy from my bout with this flu virus. Oh to be a child again.

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It was so busy last week, that I failed to mention anything about the horsemanship clinic I audited the previous Saturday with my neighbor and friend, Val of Fantastyk Voyage blog. She had gotten a couple free tickets and was kind enough to think of me and asked me to join her on Saturday. Actually, the clinic was both Saturday and Sunday, but we both had prior commitments and weren’t able to attend on Sunday. Bummer because it was supposed to be focused on riding and I would have really enjoyed that day, I’m sure.

I was really glad to discover that children under 12 were free because I I wasn’t going to be able to go unless my daughter went with me because both of my twinlings were spending the weekend camping down in Socorro with their boy scout troop, and Ranchman John was joining them, too. They were down there to watch several Civil War Reenactments. I was really disappointed I couldn’t go to that, too, because there was going to be lots of horses in the battle field. (Ranchman John took some photos, though, and I’ll be sure to post them later this week)

But at least I was going to be doing something else that involved horses: The Dennis Reis Clinic!

Anyway,  I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got there because my friend Renee and her husband went to one of his clinics a couple years ago and weren’t very impressed when they sat there for over 2 hours while Dennis Reis and his crew kept trying to set up scenes and did re-takes for videos, instead of actually doing any instruction or communicating to his audience.

You can see the camera man over there on the left.

But it seems that he and his wife and crew have cleaned up that act and, even though we were being videotaped, it wasn’t a distraction and didn’t take away from any of Dennis Reis’ instruction on Saturday.

When we first got there, everyone was watching a video of Dennis Reis working with a horse in a round pen. At the end of the video, the horse gave Dennis Reis a double barrel kick which knocked Dennis to the ground.

Watching that happen to Dennis Reis reminded me of my own double barrel kick to my face last summer and made me wince. But I immediately had admiration for this man who wasn’t too proud to show that we’re all human and not invincible or perfect, and that anyone who works with horses can get hurt by them, even those who are experienced horsemen. You don’t often see or hear about the well known trainers getting hurt by the horses they work with. They seem…well, perfect. They can make the rest of us feel inadequate and doubting of our own abilities.

So, that aspect of Dennis Reis gave him some huge points in my book.

Saturday’s clinic was all about handling of horses on the ground to keep us safe and keep horses out of our space while not allowing them to get pushy. There was also a fascinating section on trailer loading. And at the end of the day, some fun horse games with a few of his long term students, too.

The horse he worked with in the round pen and with trailer loading was an older mare who was pushy and had dangerous trailer loading issues. I was impressed that he had no problems with re-training an older horse, who was obviously quite stubborn and stuck in her ways. Everything he did with her took much longer, and it was easy to see that it was all due to this mare making it harder on herself, by putting up a wall and wanting to to do things her own way, than it would have had he been working with a young horse, but it was really positive to see that you can really teach an old horse new tricks.

For the most part I really liked how he worked with this horse, except to me, there seemed to be an awful lot of hitting with that stick he was using. Most of the time it was warranted, but sometimes I felt the mare was really trying to figure out what he wanted, but wasn’t fast enough, and then he’d hit her.

I would have maybe liked to see a little more time in between “asking”, before “enforcing”. She became so terrified of the stick, eyes and nostrils flared and her entire body in a lather and soaked in sweat, that he was constantly having to stop and “rub out” the memory of the stick and reassure her.

  

Of course, the mare was in her winter woolies, and hadn’t probably been worked that hard for a very long time, so she was bound to get hot and sweaty. But I was glad when we finally took a 30 minute break so she could rest, cool down and get some water.

That’s Val of Fantastyk Voyage in the blue hoodie and jeans visiting with the mare’s owner.

One of the lessons I’ve learned along the way from other trainers is to start with your energy quiet and small in your requests. If you start off big and strong right away, you can only go much bigger and stronger. The goal being that you want the horse to do what you ask with very little effort from yourself. You don’t want to always have to be demanding and aggressive anytime you ask your horse to do anything you ask of it.

Granted this mare needed “bigger and more aggressive” energy quite a bit as she seemed either very slow to “get it” or just stubborn. And it was great to finally see her figure out what it was he wanted, especially when he wanted her to slow down and transition from a trot to a walk.

I found it interesting how similar Dennis Reis’s “package” is to Clinton Anderson’s. Of course, Clinton Anderson is much more flashy and more about the show and less about the actual instruction. Even their private membership sounds similar with Clinton’s being called “No Worries Club” and Dennis’s being called “No Dust Club”. They both have the very pricey Lesson Videos to purchase along with the ‘carrot stick’ and special ‘rope halters’, and they both spend about 30 minutes in between instruction to advertise their wares, although Dennis Reis is more low key and less flashy.

That’s Dennis’ wife beside him.

Dennis’ main sponsor is Wrangler, so he spends quite a bit of time advertising them, too. Clinton does the same thing, but he seems to have quite a few other sponsors, so you tend to get a different product advertised during each break. He also does more giveaways of products, too. But Clinton’s shows are usually more crowded and your chances of winning are very low. I also thought it interesting that the majority of Dennis Reis’ audience seemed to be men, while Clinton Anderson’s shows…err…clinics tend to be mostly women.

But the selling of products is how these trainers have to make their money, though. Dennis does tend to spout off a lot on how much things cost and why you need to buy his videos and memberships and attend clinics at his ranch, which tends to make my mind go blank after a little while. Good time for a potty break, I say. And Jen enjoyed playing with the huge red ball and some other kids during the breaks.

 

Dennis also earned a couple more huge points from me for his support of the use of helmets for equestrian sports. This is not something you tend to see with Western Riding Clinicians. Cowboy hats are the norm. But Dennis spent at least 15 minutes chatting about helmet wearing…or rather wearing a “brain bucket” (his words) during riding. I really liked how serious he was while talking to a room full of mostly cowboys and western riders, encouraging them to wear a helmet while riding and working around horses.

Several of his students were wearing helmets, too, like this lady who was jumping her horse At Liberty.

I was also impressed with his trailer loading technique and how he insisted on using the owner’s trailer to load her horse instead of his own. Many of the well known trainers prefer to use their bigger, fancier horse trailers to show how to load a horse in a trailer, but not everyone owns one of those. Their issues tend to be loading a horse in a smaller, darker trailer, a two horse bumper pull, or one with a ramp. So it’s great to see a trainer work with what the owner has to work with.

This mare was terrified of loading and would rather kill herself then get inside. Her owner said she had to get help to load her mare before this clinic and they had to chase her inside with a broom. During the process, the mare hit her nose on the roof of the trailer and tore a chunk of hide off.

If asked, I would have suggested that her owner always use a padded head protector on her mare and use a foam pool noodle, split down the center, to fit over that very jagged rusty edge at the top of the doorway. It looked very dangerous, and I’d be afraid to scrape my own head on it while climbing up inside, too.

It was also very encouraging to see him training the horse in steps…..nothing was done with the trailer until the very end. The loading practice was on a wooden platform and they added panels to each side as the horse became comfortable.

There were a few times that I thought Dennis Reis might get ran over as the mare tried to jump over the platform or side jump into him, but he seems to move pretty fast. And we all had to laugh when watching one of his assistants lifting the mares front hooves onto the platform to show her what to do, because she just wasn’t getting it and would almost fold herself in half in front of the platform, instead of stepping up.

It took a very long time to get her to the point where Dennis felt she was ready to face the trailer, and when he did move her there, it only took him working her a handful of circles at the back of it and she was practically begging to get in there…..and he just stepped back and let her do it.

She worked herself into a serious lather, and was just dripping in sweat.

The mare didn’t even want to come out after she got in the trailer, so Dennis Reis let her stay inside and eat hay and relax while the rest of us got ready for the lunch break.

I’ve only audited 5 other Horsemanship Clinics: Clinton Anderson (Reno, NV), Bob Allen (ABQ, NM), Mike Sikorski (Corrales, NM) and Mark Rashid (Santa Fe, NM). All of them are very similar in their methods, but they each have something different and unique to teach and learn from. They each have their own style and some people may relate better to one over the other. So far, my favorite trainer is Mark Rashid.

Last Fall, Val and I paid $35.00 to audit his clinic and it was obvious he wasn’t there to entertain us, but instead was very focused on giving instruction to those who had signed up to work with their own horses. I would love to to sign up with my mare to ride in his clinic.

You can read more about that clinic from my previous two posts:

Mark Rashid 1

Mark Rashid 2

We also met up with Breathe of Horsecentric Blog during Mark Rashid's clinic. She was riding her new (then) colt, Smokey in his clinic. Breathe wrote up a couple detailed posts about her experiences.

And our friends Dan and Betty, who are avid horsemen and own an Icelandic gelding and Rocky Mountain Horse mare were there, too. They did a great post about Mark Rashid and what they learned from him over on their blog Dan & Betty's Place.

Even though it wasn’t free to audit Mark’s clinic, his hosts did provide a table for everyone to help themselves to plenty of hot and cold beverages, yummy snacks and a delicious hot lunch during the clinic. Mark Rashid is someone I relate to well because of his quiet, calm, level-headed demeanor. (I'd like to be more like that myself) He has a great sense of humor, is easy to talk to, isn’t interested in using his clinics to sell stuff or advertise for sponsors, and is all about the horse.

But like I said before, there is always something to be learned and taken away from all clinics we attend and from all experienced horsemen and women involved in riding, working with and around horses. Anything we can learn to improve our horsemanship is a good thing for us and our horses.

 

To be continued……..

You can read more about the clinic and see some great photos over at the Fantastyk Voyage Blog.