Lucinda green Clinic - I Confess to Being a Little Disappointed.............

I am afraid that all of these comments just reinforce by belief that it is best to stick with a regular trainer that gets to know you and your horse. Going to one off clinics is rarely as much help as the equivalent amount of money spent on regular lessons.
 
I do actually agree in principle BUT I have also been to clinics that have literally been life changing and I suspect there have been riders who felt that way about LG.

I would say a good start would be to stick to people recommended by your usual trainer, friends etc and to audit as many clinics as possible.
 
I think its important to have lots of tools in the box as there are lots of ways to skin a cat and I find clinics really good for adding that extra bit of polish sometimes. I think its very important to know what style you like being taught, try and watch them teach first and to only spend what you would not be very upset to lose if it is slightly disappointing.
 
IMO one off clinics can fall onto a pleasant but expensive day camp and it sounds like what OP had.
But one off clinics are helpful they make question how you are doing things and at there best can really push you to the next place .I have a trainer that I work with regularly but she encourages me to try different trainers it makes you question and sometimes you get a something that makes a huge difference . I took a five raising six year old to one this week in the jumping the trainer picked up that now and again he does not jump off both hind legs at the same time and is not even in front ( TB who was in training and probably started over hurdles)
The trainer said what do you feel I said he feels like he just does not get what goes wrong.
She said lets jump single fences from walk what a difference after about six times he really got it it was worth the whole clinic for that . That's what a one off can do at its best.
OP look on the bright side ,better what happened than you could do a thing right and LG spent her time on you and you came home thinking what on earth was I doing thinking that I was ready to go out and complete !
 
LEC I would say that Blyth is a very enthusiastic teacher who gives loads of encouragement. So do go to a clinic if you get the chance. If you are anywhere near the NE he is here in June.
 
LEC said:
I would be rather peed off if me. Not to say anything, even to talk about your aims and discuss them is pretty poor. £120 is a lot of money as well especially if there is 4 in your group that is £620!!
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I'm not a maths expert, and am probably missing something vital... 4 x £120= £480? and even 5 x £120 = £600 ...
 
When it comes to a system rather than an organic/instinctive approach, Chris Bartle has to be your man. Can't recommend him highly enough. And the results speak for themselves.
 
I think when you are in the lucky position that you and your horse have done very little wrong you have to be ultra aware to pick up the little things you are told. I like group lessons as I find I often learn as much about me and my horse by watching other people. What they are good at and what not so good at. What worked for them and whether it would or wouldn't work for us.
When you are an established partnership you probably aren't going to have the real light bulb moments or get the same level of help for someone where the wheels have badly fallen off.

I recently had a lesson with Ian Stark where happily my horse went really well and coped with some very difficult exercises. So in one sense I maybe didn't get as much feedback as for the ones where it went a bit wrong but I still thoroughly enjoyed it and felt we had been stretched. Any comments I did get were spot on and things I definitely need to work on though!I find with the one off trainers I have always come away with something that's given me food for thought and to work on. Sometimes quite minor sometimes major!! You do tend to get most from someone you see more regularly though - which is where it has been good to go to someone like Blyth for 4 lessons on 3 separate occasions over about 18 months as he has remembered the horse and rider and can see the differences - perhaps more than a regular trainer that sees you month in and month out.

Of course it doesn't help if the venue you go to doesn't quite match up to the level you are at - although good instructors can make a good lesson out of very little! A couple of my best XC lessons have been where the instructor has had to think on their feet to make the best out of what they have available!!
 
I have to say I agree with the coment that some people are great riders but cant translate that into teachng. I had a lesson with one famous eventer once and I asked him if he could tell me what he was doing with the flatwork as he was riding my horse at the time & he couldnt explain it to me.
 
tbh reading through various clinic reports and queries on this forum about different instructors it is very obvious that there are wide ranging opinions on their abilities. My daughter did a clinic with one of our top trainers quite a few years ago on her established Novice horse and rather like CM didn't get an awful lot of comeback, but it was an interesting if somewhat expensive experience. I was a bit :eek: when the trainer got a bit bored when a horse wouldn't go in the water and her solution was to wave her umbrella behind it.
 
I know what you mean - I was at her MK clinic a day or so before your clinic, and she actually said very little to me. However, she was saying more to some of the others and giving them more help and I think she said little to us as she didn't really need to. What LG did say to me was actually very helpful - I have a lot of confidence when riding in some ways in that I'm happy to try most things and I don't really get that nervous, but in my own ability I have zero confidence and I always assume that anything that goes wrong is 100% my fault, and that it has indeed gone wrong. LG helped me realise that sometimes the horse needs to meet you half way! Sounds obvious I know, but what I think of as things going wrong, she thought of as learning experiences. My horse can be tricky to ride to a fence, although I have always assumed I'm doing it wrong, but she said that I'm actually doing the right thing and with the right timing, but that Bill is resisting and fighting. She suggested a change of bit to a Waterford and it's early days but it does seem to have made a difference.

So on the one hand I would agree with Charliemouse - she doesn't give tonnes of feedback which is what I had been expecting (I had gone there expecting to be torn apart) but I think, from listening to what she said to others and watching a lot of her clinics on Youtube etc, that she concentrates her advice on the areas that really need it - and as long as in her opinion you can get safely from one side of the fence to the other, then the world according to LG is good.

After all the clinic is called XC the Safe Way and is really about training the horse to think for itself and contemplate its own fate.
 
daisycrazy said:
When it comes to a system rather than an organic/instinctive approach, Chris Bartle has to be your man. Can't recommend him highly enough. And the results speak for themselves.
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I second Chris Bartle, I would save up for one lesson with him over ten lessons with somebody else - totally transformed my riding. abosolute legend.

I went to a LG clinic a couple of years ago and had a similar experience, very interesting to watch the others and how she worked them through thier problems but got very little feedback for my mare who just popped everything. I imagine the people that get the most out of it are people with problems xc.
 
Very interesting.
Someone I know organised for her to come over our way last year.
I didn't have anything in full work at the time so didn't do it myself, so cannot comment on that part.
Feedback seemed to be good but the overiding issue was the expense.
LG is one hungry lady. It cost a fortune and ever part had to be organised for her including her flights (which I thought was a bit ridiculous). If you are making that much money get a secretary.
Someone who had done a clinic with her previously (a few years before) thought she had paid money for old rope as nothing had changed.

So value for money seems to be the fundamental issue.

Have heard really good things about Pippa. Has anyone had a clinic with her?
 
charlimouse said:
IMG_1780.jpg
sure Jem was on the ball.

if you have got this far you may have noticed, whilst describing the exercises we did, I haven't said much else. This is due to the fact there really isn't anything else to say :eek::confused:. I didn't get any feedback, I just did the exercises I was told to do, competently and that was it. I don't think it helped I was the only one in the group wanting to progress beyond BE100, and Lucinda was just kind of like, 'well you can jump that fence if you want'. Nobody else in the group did, but despite this I still got no feedback from LG when I took myself off to jump the more difficult fences. I don't know weather this is a good or bad thing. I didn't earn a single well done, nor were any corrections or comments made. It was like I wasn't there :confused:. I just feel for £120 I didn't get much out of it. It would have been more productive to have taken myself off to Somerford Park on my own to jump some more combinations and play round some more interesting fences

I did one of her clinics 2 years ago at our yard. I was very excited as she was my heroine growing up. I was disappointed the same way as you. I got no feedback, Lucinda was more interested in the people with more eventy looking horses wearinf breastplates and all the gear than my chunky Andalusian.

She comes every year to our yard and does exactly the same thing, arrowheads in both directions etc etc no doubt it will all be the same again when she comes this month I think.

I'm glad I did it but I wouldnt pay that amount again for another clinic with her.
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amy_b said:
I second Chris Bartle, I would save up for one lesson with him over ten lessons with somebody else - totally transformed my riding. abosolute legend.

I went to a LG clinic a couple of years ago and had a similar experience, very interesting to watch the others and how she worked them through thier problems but got very little feedback for my mare who just popped everything. I imagine the people that get the most out of it are people with problems xc.
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How does Chris compare price wise with LG?
Sounds like he is an excellent trainer.
 
Fourlegsgood said:
I am afraid that all of these comments just reinforce by belief that it is best to stick with a regular trainer that gets to know you and your horse. Going to one off clinics is rarely as much help as the equivalent amount of money spent on regular lessons.
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I have to agree with this, I have heard more negative stories about clinics with "names" than postive stories. Alot of people can get over faced or asked to do exercises which result in a loss of confidence. For 120pounds (without counting fuel) you would get alot of lessons with some1 who knows you more and also, has more of a interested in you enjoying the lesson as you go back to them time again.
 
I did one of the petplan clinics with LG last year entitled 'xc the safe way' to boost my confidence before my first BE.

It was horrid.

LG wasn't massively helpful, at the outset i'd said my horse could be nappy, and we had a ditch issue..... (more mine than the horses). anyway, did all the skinny exercises no problem, then we came to a double of ditch and trakenher, well he didn't like that, after trying a few times unsuccessfully to get horse anywhere near it, she and the rest of the group left me, and i was told 'not to re-join them until i had jumped both'. Good plan, leave not very experienced rider, with prone to being nappy and now wound up horse in the middle of xc course!

anyway, to my relief a camera man was there, and he evented, so he stayed with me and asked if he could give me some tips. He did, and 15 mins later we had jumped both fences in both directions a few times. On rejoining group (who were now at water complex) LG said ' i suppose you can't do water either?' to which i (metaphorically) stuck 2 fingers up and turned around, cantered into water, out over fence, then did same thing the other way.

When i pulled up her helpful advice to me ' you should give your horse to a man to ride??!' (not sure how that's helpful. he's a TBxID 16.1, i'm 5'9 and weigh wrong side of 11st, so i wouldn't describe myself as being overhorsed in terms of physical size compared to a man!

fuming i was. More confident about xc i wasn't.

I also complained, to petplan, but never heard anything back. Lesson learnt. i would NEVER recommend her though.
 
Another vote for Chris Bartle.

I also had a FAB XC lesson with Leslie Law a number of years ago. Very quickly picked out my faults and really good advice on dealing with them along with asking what I wanted to get out of the lesson and ensuring that was looked at as well.
 
Thats a huge shame, and a waste of money. FWW I always think clinics are a bit of an expensive luxury and unless it was going to be a once in a lifetime never to be repeated experience, I wouldnt pay for something like this for Mini TX, or even myself. The best 'clinics' both Mini TX and I have gone to have been ones where our ususal instructor comes to our yard and teaches the whole yard. We all end up watching and learning, having a good old laugh and beer and pizza afterwards with instructor.
 
Spangie said:
I did one of the petplan clinics with LG last year entitled 'xc the safe way' to boost my confidence before my first BE.

It was horrid.

LG wasn't massively helpful, at the outset i'd said my horse could be nappy, and we had a ditch issue..... (more mine than the horses). anyway, did all the skinny exercises no problem, then we came to a double of ditch and trakenher, well he didn't like that, after trying a few times unsuccessfully to get horse anywhere near it, she and the rest of the group left me, and i was told 'not to re-join them until i had jumped both'. Good plan, leave not very experienced rider, with prone to being nappy and now wound up horse in the middle of xc course!

anyway, to my relief a camera man was there, and he evented, so he stayed with me and asked if he could give me some tips. He did, and 15 mins later we had jumped both fences in both directions a few times. On rejoining group (who were now at water complex) LG said ' i suppose you can't do water either?' to which i (metaphorically) stuck 2 fingers up and turned around, cantered into water, out over fence, then did same thing the other way.

When i pulled up her helpful advice to me ' you should give your horse to a man to ride??!' (not sure how that's helpful. he's a TBxID 16.1, i'm 5'9 and weigh wrong side of 11st, so i wouldn't describe myself as being overhorsed in terms of physical size compared to a man!

fuming i was. More confident about xc i wasn't.

I also complained, to petplan, but never heard anything back. Lesson learnt. i would NEVER recommend her though.
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Wow! I have to say, that's a pretty shocking story :eek:

I have stayed out of this debate till now, as I've had many good experiences with Lucinda, both a few clinics myself over the years (she was very involved in the "2*plus" ones they introduced after there were all those deaths :o) and most recently when my daughter did the Pony Programme one with two ponies a few weeks ago and had a truly wonderful, inspirational time.

I think it would be simplistic to assume you only get something out of it if you are having problems XC: as an example, both T's ponies are fab XC and neither had the slightest problem at anything in the clinic, yet T still felt she got a lot out of it, more in terms of the philosophy of XC riding etc than anything else, perhpas, plus the exercises with the skinnies really made the ponies think: with the more advanced group she had a skinny course set, by the end, within a say 20m by 25m box, and including a bounce (angled) 1.5 strides to another one on the turn...

However, I have heard a few other stories of people not having a good time (a pupil of mine did one a few years ago and hated it). Maybe sometimes she gets fed up/tired etc and goes through the motions a bit - but still no excuse for the above :eek: :eek:
 
Definitely echo what others have said re one off clinics. It's hard to establish a rapport with a trainer in a one off session so these clinics can either be fantastic or a big let down. Back in the dark ages when I competed regular trainers weren't so common but clinics were often run over a 3 days which allowed the trainer to get know the participants better. 3 days with Dick Stillwell was quite something and I still regularly use many of the exercises I learnt then today.

My son had a xc clinic with Blyth Tait which was great - horse had no real issues but it gave him confidence that he was tackling things the right way. For show jumping he found John Leddingham good too. He has also been a guinea pig at demos on a few occasions and got a huge amount out of ones with Chris Bartle and Kenneth Clawson - others maybe not so much from but as a guinea pig you're not paying so expectations perhaps shouldn't be as high.

We tend to view clinics as extra experience from which we can pick and chose what to take away from but rely on our regular trainers for consistency. Having attending an L G clinic for coaches I must say I didn't find it as valuable as many others I have been to and thought her approach to some problems was somewhat inflexible and not designed to boost confidence.
 
Spangie said:
I did one of the petplan clinics with LG last year entitled 'xc the safe way' to boost my confidence before my first BE.

It was horrid.

LG wasn't massively helpful, at the outset i'd said my horse could be nappy, and we had a ditch issue..... (more mine than the horses). anyway, did all the skinny exercises no problem, then we came to a double of ditch and trakenher, well he didn't like that, after trying a few times unsuccessfully to get horse anywhere near it, she and the rest of the group left me, and i was told 'not to re-join them until i had jumped both'. Good plan, leave not very experienced rider, with prone to being nappy and now wound up horse in the middle of xc course!

anyway, to my relief a camera man was there, and he evented, so he stayed with me and asked if he could give me some tips. He did, and 15 mins later we had jumped both fences in both directions a few times. On rejoining group (who were now at water complex) LG said ' i suppose you can't do water either?' to which i (metaphorically) stuck 2 fingers up and turned around, cantered into water, out over fence, then did same thing the other way.

When i pulled up her helpful advice to me ' you should give your horse to a man to ride??!' (not sure how that's helpful. he's a TBxID 16.1, i'm 5'9 and weigh wrong side of 11st, so i wouldn't describe myself as being overhorsed in terms of physical size compared to a man!

fuming i was. More confident about xc i wasn't.

I also complained, to petplan, but never heard anything back. Lesson learnt. i would NEVER recommend her though.
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I hope you got your money back, thats bloomin ridiculous, and not safe either
 
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