Terry Church clinic in Boston, any info?

[marki]

Looking for info on this clinic, anyone have any information? Has anyone been to a TC clinic before? It opposes the BB clinic in Maine, which I would like to go see also.....Dressage at Devon is the same weekend too bad that too would be fun.....

[FrancaV]

I like Terry Church very much. But opposite Buck Brannaman ... in terms of all-around good horsemanship I would go see Buck.

Terry Church is primarily dressage oriented although she will work with wherever the student is at (and with whatever tack the student shows up with). At the Terry Church clinic I audited, only one student showed up in western tack; everyone else was concentrating on dressage. Terry worked extensively with Tom Dorrance and has been trying to bring something of Tom's special view of the human-horse relationship to her dressage students for years.

People working in all kinds of western and english disciplines do ride with Buck because his horsemanship is universal, but the majority (though this can vary quite a bit by region) tend to ride western and I understand that Buck encourages riders (in the colt classes, at any rate) to use western tack. In my local area a somewhat higher percentage of english riders attend Buck's clinics than in parts of the country that have bigger ranches and wide open spaces. The same may be true in New England - when I lived there most of the horse farms were oriented towards the english disciplines so perhaps Buck's clinics there attract more english riders.

Clinic style/format might make a difference to you. Unless she has changed her format, Terry Church's sessions are private or semi-private, so they are very focused. With Buck everyone in a class is in the arena at once. If you prefer watching one-on-one interaction, you might get more out of watching Terry's clinic. If you like having a lot to look at all at once, Buck's format is perfect for that. :)

Oh - almost forgot one the most important things. At the Terry Church clinic I audited she did not ride herself. She conducted the sessions from the ground. When I've seen Buck he has been on horseback in the arena along with everyone else. From an auditor's point of view especially, the clinic experience is hugely enhanced by being able to watch the clinician ride. When I am riding I am concentrating on my own horse (and traffic management) and not able to spend as much time watching the clinician ride, but when I'm auditing it's a fantastic opportunity to take mental snapshots of top-notch horsemanship that I can call up out of memory and refer to over and over again.

But whichever clinic you attend, there should be plenty of good knowledge to absorb!