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Karen O'Connor Clinic(s): Day 4: Cross Country

http://kocclinic.blogspot.com/2010/05/day-4-cross-country.html

Monday, May 31, 2010. Day 4: Cross Country. Karen began the day asking riders to show off their galloping positions…and then she asked them to change gaits, do shoulder in, haunches in, etc. while still in galloping position. “you should be able to do anything in this position! 8221; Riders had to lower their heads below their butts without moving their legs. “Feel those quads burn! Karen and David call the place on the withers where the hands go “home plate”. It’s big enough! We worked on banks, and I n...

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Karen O'Connor Clinic(s): January 2009

http://kocclinic.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

Monday, January 12, 2009. What a Long Strange Trip it's Been! Now, part of the reason that my head is exploding (even still) is that some of what I learned flew in the face of what I’d learned elsewhere, and what I’d been practicing both on my own and with other clinicians/instructors. What happens when ideas and world view collide? I have to say that I was a bit…overwhelmed? Karen wanted us to have our hands on the horse’s withers: NO CREST RELEASES IN XC. We practiced raising and lowering our bodies fr...

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Karen O'Connor Clinic(s): Day 4: Cross Country/Putting It All Together

http://kocclinic.blogspot.com/2009/11/day-4-cross-countryputting-it-all.html

Sunday, November 8, 2009. Day 4: Cross Country/Putting It All Together. Karen and Cathy gave us a XC lecture the night before so that they wouldn’t have to waste time doing it for every group. 8220;Cross country is a continuation of what we’ve been doing: it’s all about the rider’s responsibilities, knowing how to jump different kinds of jumps, and being able to adjust your horse’s stride to be appropriate.”. In the galloping position, there are three points of contact:. EVERY jump needs preparation!

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Karen O'Connor Clinic(s): Day 3: Stadium Course

http://kocclinic.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-3-stadium-course.html

Sunday, May 30, 2010. Day 3: Stadium Course. Both Karen and David set up a thoughtful, technical course to challenge the riders on the second day of stadium jumping. Both courses had odd distances, bending lines, and lots of rollbacks. Karen’s first question to the participants: How does the specific technicality of the course affect your warm up? Why is it SO HARD for me to do that? After that line, we were to send our horses strongly around the first jump to a triple combination of one stride to three ...

kocclinic.blogspot.com

Karen O'Connor Clinic(s): May 2010

http://kocclinic.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

Monday, May 31, 2010. Day 4: Cross Country. Karen began the day asking riders to show off their galloping positions…and then she asked them to change gaits, do shoulder in, haunches in, etc. while still in galloping position. “you should be able to do anything in this position! 8221; Riders had to lower their heads below their butts without moving their legs. “Feel those quads burn! Karen and David call the place on the withers where the hands go “home plate”. It’s big enough! We worked on banks, and I n...

kocclinic.blogspot.com

Karen O'Connor Clinic(s): Karen and David O'Connor Clinic at Holly Hill: Getting Here

http://kocclinic.blogspot.com/2010/05/karen-and-david-oconnor-clinic-at-holly.html

Friday, May 28, 2010. Karen and David O'Connor Clinic at Holly Hill: Getting Here. Once again, it’s a long way to anyplace from Lubbock…but Holly Hill is a particularly long drive. Thankfully, it’s almost all highway, which is nice (albeit boring), so if anything bad happens, I won’t be stranded like I was coming to Road Runner Farm a few years ago. As I was tooling down 84 just between Slatin and Snyder, I felt a big “BUMP” and heard something disturbing. “Shit! Which I gave to Paddy.

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Karen O'Connor Clinic(s): DOC and KOC Clinic, Day 2: Grid and Stadium Exercises

http://kocclinic.blogspot.com/2010/05/doc-and-koc-clinic-day-2-grid-and.html

Sunday, May 30, 2010. DOC and KOC Clinic, Day 2: Grid and Stadium Exercises. Pre day (and pre-coffee! Let the faint of heart beware! Karen and David O’Connor mean BUSINESS. And that’s one of the many reasons why they are such a popular, effective training team. The day was all about adjustability, and the morning began with the prelim group. Perhaps because this was the most advanced group, Karen was the hardest on them. I’m impressed that every one of them rose to the occasion. Event horses, Karen expla...

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Karen O'Connor Clinic(s): KOC and DOC Clinic: Day 1, Dressage!

http://kocclinic.blogspot.com/2010/05/koc.html

Sunday, May 30, 2010. KOC and DOC Clinic: Day 1, Dressage! Jennifer, I thought of you as I started the day on the floor of my trailer stretching my hips! I think it really helped me last time, and I needed all the help I could get, since I didn’t sleep well: it stormed last night, and I kept walking up thinking “are the horses ok? Is the trailer going to blow over? And it gave Karen a chance to see us to determine what we might need to work on (other than what we talked to her about. I warmed up whil...

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Karen O'Connor Clinic(s): Lunch Talk: On the Way to XC!

http://kocclinic.blogspot.com/2010/06/lunch-talk-on-way-to-xc.html

Sunday, May 30, 2010. Lunch Talk: On the Way to XC! Lunch Talk Day 3. Karen and David made sure we knew that XC was the part of our sport that we practice the least, but the one that had the most profound consequences if we made a mistake. We needed to make sure we could apply what we’ve learned the last few days. Just as Stadium is won or lost between the fences, so, too, is Cross Country made safe—or not—between fences. There are three parts of a XC course:. 1 Galloping from jump to jump. Karen wants u...