Monday Wrap Up - clinics, stallions, sales, communication and lessons

So it is a bright and sunny Monday morning with predicted highs in the 40's! Not bad for late February! This post is going to be a bit of recap and questions for those who like to clinic!

To start - thank you again to all of our loyal students and clinic participants for bearing with us during the winter that seemed to deliver storms on each and every Friday! It was a joy to work with you all and we hope to continue to offer a clinic format throughout the year to help everyone advance their horses.  (see below for more information)

Secondly, today is an awesome day to consider Dressage Royal if you are debating breeding your mare! We have another DR offspring undersaddle and she is as calm, cool and collected about becoming a riding horse as all the others have been. Our older DR offspring (2007's) are progressing beautifully in their training and providing plenty of reasons to breed to him again each and every day. Charming personalities, sweet natures, super gaits, easy flying changes and great elasticity in their way of going...we are smitten! Come see them in person and that might make you a believer in his prepotency too!

Thirdly, if you are trying to contact Ellie or Anne to arrange interviewing for the working student position(s), view sales horses or to discuss any of our stallions, please email your information, requests and/or questions to Ellie@watermark-farm.net or Anne@watermark-farm.net .  The cell service at the farm has gotten more unpredictable and the riding list is quite long - which means getting a prompt (and coherent) answer will be a challenge unless we can sit down and type it out during some down time. We are happy to call you back but it can be difficult to mesh schedules during this hectic time. Email truly is best for now. We are all on Facebook, so that is another means of reliable contact through the Farm Page.

For lesson scheduling, please email or text what would work for you and remember to include your name in the first message so we know who it is coming from! ;) Thank you!!!!!

Fourth on the list - future clinics.
There are several clinics in the works with different topics than we have offered thus far. Check back in a few days as there will be an opportunity to weigh in on when and what will be on the schedule.

For those of you who wanted to participate in the Winter Clinic Series and could not - we are planning on offering the topics again in May as a series. It may be an afternoon/evening series during the week, however, in order to avoid conflict with the competition schedule.

The other alternative to signing up for clinics is to sign up for lessons. We offer private, semi-private and group lessons for beginner to advanced students. We will be offering a Weekly Group Lesson one afternoon per week starting the end of May to help those with young horses that need mileage in a more friendly atmosphere with equine company. For the more advanced work (flying changes, lateral work, etc), we can provide a demonstration horse and rider for the more visual learners. Private lessons for the advanced work on the schoolmasters are also available for those with a good seat and kind hands.

So I think that is everything for today! Communication is the key! Check back in a few days for the updates on the new clinics!

~Happy Riding!~

February Clinic Schedule and Information

So we have our last clinic in the first Clinic Series today! It's the Flying Change Seminar! Yippeee!

And that is also exciting because Series II is just around the corner with our Riding Fundamentals Clinic on February 3rd, Demystifying Lateral Work on the 17th and the Flying Change Seminar on the 23rd! Mark your calendars!!!

Some things worth mentioning -
   We recommend riders audit the first 2 clinics (at least, riding would be more beneficial) if they are interested in working on their changes as there are many subtle training tools that go into building a clean single change and it is too much to cover in a single 45 minute session for most horses.
   We are offering a $10 discount for each clinic session to any/all TB's (OTTB or just full xx blood) for this series. Anne has a solid foundation in transitioning the TB from racing horse to Grand Prix, so this an opportunity to help encourage better dressage scores for our equine friends that were bred for more speed than their warmblood buddies.
   In case of inclement (seasonal) weather - we will push the clinics back 1 week. However, that being said - the Series must wrap by the end of the first weekend in March, so check back often for updates!
   For those interested in using a WF horse for the clinics - we are happy to provide a trained FEI horse for you to learn on, however, they are not machines and can take great exception to a strange rider at times. It would be beneficial to your learning experience to ride them a few times prior to the clinic(s). Contact Anne@watermark-farm.net to discuss which horse suits your riding style and schedule best.