At the start of Mike Brashear’s clinic in Nunn, Colo., he invited—or nearly commanded—students to ask questions and speak up if they didn’t understand or needed extra help.

“You’re paying good money to get help,” he said. “Make sure you’re getting what you need while you’re here.”

Brashear’s mission is to help horses and riders get the help they need to keep working together. After hosting many clinics, he says he can often tell if the horse and rider pair will keep progressing on an upward trend after the clinic: It’s all in how the student approaches the clinic, prepares to learn, and asks questions to make sure they can keep working at home.

Here, Brashear helps you learn how to learn. He provides tips to find and attend a horse training clinic and get the most help possible so that you can constantly improve your horsemanship.

Make Sure the Clinic is the Right Fit for You and Your Horse

“You’re never going to know all of it when it comes to horses,” he says. “Let go of that pressure on yourself to have to know all of it already. But if you never go get extra help, you’re not going to get any better.”

Brashear recommends searching online, getting input from reviews, and asking friends about clinicians who will be near you. He says you need to find a teacher who you can work with—and who has your best interest at heart. If you ask about the clinician’s approach and style, you’ll find someone who feels approachable.

“There are horsemen who are great with horses but may not teach humans the way you personally want to learn,” Brashear says. “You need to find a personality match. Ask someone who’s been to a clinic with the person you want to learn from. What is their teaching style? What are you going to learn? How is the clinic set up?

“A clinic needs to be fun. It’s not a horse show. It should be informative. When you leave there, you shouldn’t feel worse about yourself than when you showed up.”

Consider Training Styles

Brashear says that he finds that most of his clinic students board their horses at a location without a trainer or keep their horses at home. However, sometimes riders who have trainers for specific disciplines reach out for horse behavior help or to get a different perspective.

“I think that if you have a trainer, it’s good to find out if the clinician that you want to work with shares the same horsemanship philosophy,” says Brashear. “You have to be careful with that because you can get confused. If you like that your trainer at home uses natural horsemanship, look for someone who trains in that style. If you learn natural horsemanship in one setting, and at the clinic it’s all about positive reinforcement, that can be confusing.”

However, he says there are times when it’s good to question how your usual trainer works.

“If you’re starting to question your trainer, maybe you go to a clinician because you’re looking for a different way,” he says. “You’re looking for what’s right for you and to learn about the new style. Don’t dismiss something because it’s new.”

Once you’ve found a teacher with the right approach and style, think about what you want to learn. Brashear says many clinics now can help you with trail obstacles or to hone your skills for ranch riding or a specific event. Even if you have a trainer you work with regularly, seeking help for a specific event or to expose your horse to a new event can be a good way to keep learning.

“Sometimes there might be a trainer who says, ‘This clinician is coming to town and this is who I learned from/want to learn from.’ Good trainers know that they need to keep learning and getting different perspectives, too.”

Prep Your Gear for the Clinic

Once you’ve selected the clinician you’ll ride with, find out what they like riders to have ready at the clinic. Brashear says he likes students to have a rope halter and a long training lead (at least 12 feet).

Some clinicians may have a kit to help you prepare and have their tools before you arrive. However, Brashear says if you take some good-quality gear from home, you should be able to work your horse well in what you have.

“Don’t go out and buy all new tack because you’re going to a clinic,” he says. “You don’t want to confuse your horse by changing everything to match what you think the clinician will want. Find out if what you have works or if there may be a good reason for changing up your gear—if it applies to what you need help with. There’s going to be somebody there that’ll let you borrow something if you need it, and we always come with lots of training gear, too.”

Have the Right Mindset at the Clinic

Brashear’s first tip for attending a clinic with your horse? Choose a growth mindset.

“Have an open mind and an open heart,” he says. “You might get a different perspective than you expected about your horse or the problem you’re asking about. That’s why you’re there—to get different info. If you go to get help, but then you’re closed off and say, ‘I don’t do it that way,’ or ‘I’m not doing what you say,’ you’re not going to learn a thing. I think that all clinicians at the core want to help people and horses, or they wouldn’t do this.”

Brashear also advises watching and listening when the clinician works with other riders. If all riders pay attention, he says he can often get into deeper topics because he doesn’t teach the same lesson over and over.

“Clinics are meant to be a fun time and a time with friends—just don’t get so involved in your own conversations that you don’t watch and learn what others are working on,” Brashear says. “You may not need that specific lesson now, but there’s something you can learn from everyone in the clinic. Think: How does what’s being taught affect me? How does this coincide with what I do with my horse?”

Create a Healthy Balance for You and Your Horse During the Clinic

Brashear says that many times horses and riders need some “soaking time” to relax and watch and learn from another clinic attendee. He says some riders have told him they want to be moving and learning all the time. That can be a lot for the horse and human—especially if the horse isn’t used to being ridden all day for a few days in a row.

“I tell people to be careful of when they go to a clinic,” Brashear says. “They can’t be so excited to learn everything that they miss what they really needed. If you wear your horse out early, you might be done by the time the clinician teaches what you really wanted to learn.”

Brashear suggests checking in with your horse and remembering that only you and your horse matter.

“When you get there, try not to be thinking so much about everything else that’s going on,” he says. “Just be there with your horse. That’s how you’re going to create that partnership that I’m working toward all the time—it’s by being there and being present with your horse.”

Brashear says that when he takes a clinic, he plans ahead to build in some downtime for himself and his horse.

“I’m going to work with my horse for a bit, then I might sit out for a little bit and take some notes,” he says. “I’ve got notes from [clinics] 25 years ago. When you take notes, it gives you something that you can refer back to.”

Brashear warns that if you want to record or video the clinic, make sure the clinician allows that before you begin.

Brashear’s Final Tip for Horse Clinics

As for Brashear’s final tip for you and your horse, he advises that when you’re at the clinic, remember that you’re the customer. Trust your gut. You’ll know what’s best for you and your horse to continue learning safely.

This article about horse clinic tips appeared in the November/December 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Tips for Getting the Most Out of Horse Clinics appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Chris Irwin really gets horses.

Watch him at work—communicating with a horse—and you can see why Ireland’s Equestrian magazine boldly stated, “Chris Irwin is more horse than human.” As a world-renowned horseman, professional trainer, riding coach, and author of the international best-selling books Horses Don’t Lie and Dancing With Your Dark Horse, Chris Irwin artfully unravels the complex relationship between horses and humans. And attendees at his U.S. or European clinics leave with a renewed desire to build a more meaningful connection with their own horses.

Finding a Real Home Through Horses

Irwin didn’t grow up enveloped by the love of family and horses.

“I dropped out of school and left home at 16,” says Irwin. “It was an extremely violent, dysfunctional family and I ran away to survive.”

He played guitar and hitchhiked from Canada to North America, eventually landing in Seattle, Wash. Around the age of 20, he was homeless and living off tips tossed in his guitar case. He heard the racetrack was hiring and decided to check it out.

“As soon as I walked around to the barns, smelled the horses, heard the horses, I literally froze and every cell in my body was tingling,” Irwin recalls. “I knew for the first time in my life that I was home.”

At the end of his first day, the trainer told him he was a natural, gave him a full-time job and a place to stay—a cot in a stall—and Irwin worked his way up from mucking stalls to grooming horses.

Later, he worked at dude ranches and enjoyed success in training wild Mustangs. After ten years, Irwin needed a change.

“I was struggling to earn a living, so I took a six-month break and went back to Canada to ski and do some soul-searching,” says Irwin. “And at the end of winter, I so missed being with the horses. The horses were my medicine, and I needed to get back to work with them.”

He took his passion for horses to the next level, transitioning to trainer-for-hire. After moving to Nevada, he had a long waiting list within six months—”starting young horses, problem-solving with difficult horses.” Veterinarians and farriers were amazed at how much gentler the horses were that Irwin worked with.

At 37, Irwin moved back to Canada—now as a family with his wife and child—and got right to work, reinventing himself as an author, becoming an in-demand clinician, and making videos.

“I wrote Horses Don’t Lie with a good friend,” says Irwin. “By 2000, Horses Don’t Lie was being published in multiple languages and I was getting called to Europe and North America. I was very surprised with how well the book resonated with people because nobody really said anything like that at the time. I wrote a book talking about how I’m finding my psycho-spiritual healing through working with horses. It didn’t have any practical training tips. It was one of the first books that started leading North American horse culture in the direction of working with horses for personal development. I thought there was a good chance I would become a laughingstock.”

He was wrong; people appreciated his authentic voice deciphering natural horsemanship and our connection to horses.

Helping Horses to Rebuild Confidence

Irwin travels to clinics worldwide, helping horses regain courage and confidence, profoundly impacting their overall well-being—and each horse has a story.

“There’s a horse I work with now in the Netherlands who was rescued as a bull-fighting horse from Spain,” says Irwin. “He had brutal training, had been gored by a bull in a fight, and was full of PTSD. I’d been looking at him, knew trauma was in him, and I knew how to help him get it out, how to release it. I started working with him last year. And what a breakthrough! He is very near and dear to my heart—he shows a depth of appreciation for the healing that he has gone through.

Horses often bring me to tears… I’ve wept in public because of what’s coming out of the horse… There’s much more depth in learning what it takes to help horses who have already decided that human beings are evil and don’t want anything to do with us. That’s where my focus is.”

Chris Irwin as the Empathetic Shepherd

Irwin wants horses to see us as empathetic shepherds and thus want to be in our presence.

“The premise of everything in my work with horses is that the frame of their body affects the frame of mind. It’s physiology,” says Irwin. “Their body goes into different shapes, different frames… A hollow-backed horse with his back collapsed and his neck up high is producing adrenaline. And enough adrenaline on a consistent basis leaves the body full of cortisol.”

Irwin explains, “The goal is to use groundwork and riding where you use your body to shape a horse’s body so that its internal chemistry produces oxytocin and endorphins, not adrenaline. That’s why it’s feasible for a horse to walk away from the feed and other horses and meet you at the gate, because he knows this is going to feel good. When I ride a horse, it’s like giving them a day at the spa. My seat is a chiropractor. My legs are massage therapists. My contact is like osteopathy. Horses love it when they feel better with you than without you. That’s how they know you’re the shepherd.”

Horses Test Your Awareness Through Body Language

Purposeful groundwork with a physical connection can be complex; some riders mistakenly underestimate its value.

“Groundwork is competing in body language with the horse—to earn respect, trust, and acceptance of your leadership,” says Irwin. “When you walk in to meet a horse you’ve never met before, it doesn’t automatically respect you. Even the nicest horses in the world— if you are a stranger—will test you very subtly with body language.”

Your body language can cause a horse to feel safe with you, allowing them to relax and view you as the shepherd.

“The horse knows if you have profound situational awareness,” Irwin explains. “He’s tested you. And your response when challenged makes them feel good.”

Tapping Into Chris Irwin’s Insights

Irwin explains his riding approach as “physio from the saddle—helping the horse to relax in his body. The softer and more supple we can get the horse in their bodies, the more relaxed they will become in their minds.”

Eager to share his experience, Irwin created the series of hugely popular online courses, Mind Your Horse and the Irwin Insights: Horse Sense Redefined Skills Certificates and Masters Certification courses.

“The courses are a combination of evolved equestrian insights, cutting-edge production quality, and use of graphics and illustrations as learning aids,” says Irwin. “And I have a completely different approach—due to the depth of minutia of awareness.”

Citing an example, Irwin says, “The single greatest, unspoken dysfunction in the horse world is defining inside and outside as direction instead of flexion. And when you ride a horse according to flexion instead of direction, it melts. It gets so soft. And whether it’s five or fifteen minutes later, now you are riding straight down the long side and you are getting true bends in the corners because you warmed up working with the horse and not against it.”

Spoken like a true shepherd.

To learn more about Chris Irwin, horsemanship, and clinics visit chrisirwin.com and Ray of Light Farm, a nonprofit animal rescue center and riding school in East Haddam, Conn., where he serves as a clinic director.

This article about Chris Irwin is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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When I first met Julie Goodnight for an interview, I was reminded of how much I love “real” horse people. People who care more about the horse than a ribbon. People who take horsemanship to the next level. People who smile from their eyes as they talk about horses, and no matter how much more they know about horses than you ever will, they make you feel at ease, and the conversation flows naturally.

Julie has turned her love of horses into a hugely successful career. She started her training business in 1985, and in 2008 was named the Exceptional Equestrian Educator by Equine Affaire — the same year her award-winning TV show Horse Master with Julie Goodnight first aired. She travels the world educating horse owners everywhere through her online training programs at JulieGoodnight.com/Academy.

And she’s passionate about living a well-balanced life—spending time with her husband, Rich Moorhead, relaxing on her boat “LEGASEA,” skiing, biking, and savoring life’s happy moments in the company of old friends and easily making new ones.

JM: What is the meaning behind your brand message “Helping horses… One human at a time”?
JG: We can only help horses by helping the people who own them. When I first went into business as a trainer, I thought I just wanted to ride horses and didn’t want to deal with people. Well, that’s a real immature, unrealistic attitude. All horses have people attached to them… Training a horse does no good if I don’t train the person.

JM: With over 260 episodes of Horse Master with Julie Goodnight, is there one that stands out?
JG: One of the most meaningful ones—and kind of funny—was an episode filmed at my place where the rider stated her horse wouldn’t cross water. Well, we have a nice big pond in a grassy field. The cameras were set up all around the pond to capture the problem. She saddled up her horse and we filmed. She starts walking this Arabian toward the pond. That horse looked at one camera, turned and looked at the other camera, and then walked straight in the water without hesitation! It’s uncanny how often that happened to us.

I never interacted with the people or the horses before we filmed, but I watched the footage that captured the “problem.” So, I told her we couldn’t do the water episode. I asked her if she had another problem. And she said, “Yeah, actually my horse bucks when I ask him to canter.” So I said let’s work on that. We rebooted and moved the cameras over to the arena. And when I got over there and saw her riding on the flat in the arena, I could instantly see she had a horrific saddle fit. As I’m watching, the horse bucked. And it was a buck you might expect from a horse being pinched in the withers. It was clearly uncomfortable.

She rides over and I tell her that I think we can help her horse—that it is a saddle fit problem. After we switched the saddle out, she got on and he went right into a beautiful lope. Then she came over and was in tears—not because she was happy, but because she felt horrible that she had unknowingly been riding this horse in that saddle for two years. She was just devastated. And it broke my heart. But she owned it and apologized, and we were able to profoundly impact her and her horse by just changing one thing.

JM: As a spokesperson for the Certified Horsemanship Association, what’s your primary message?
JG: We are an organization primarily focused on safety and horsemanship. Horsemanship should be safe, fun and effective. We provide education, information, and mostly support to riding instructors, trainers, and barn managers who are the actual frontline influencers. I don’t believe, nor does CHA, that getting hurt has to be a part of horsemanship.

JM: What’s the secret to balancing your busy professional life—work and travel—with your personal life and husband, Rich?
JG: So Rich is the secret sauce. Our relationship has always been based on total equality, a high level of respect for each other both personally and professionally. We met at the ski resort—which he is now one of the owners of—and it was a workplace romance. I really respected and admired his professional success and he recognized my work ethic. But now I’m on the road a lot, and he is good at being alone. He misses me, but he also just totally understands.

And during the pandemic, I was spending a lot of time on my boat. I would always come up with an excuse of why I had to go to the boat. And one day, he says, “You know, you don’t have to have an excuse to go to the boat. You love the boat. I want you to do what you love doing. And by the way, you’re in a lot better mood when you’re doing stuff you love to do.”

JM: What’s next on the horizon for Julie Goodnight?
JG: I have a couple of exciting things going on… The one horse I have right now is pregnant. And I hope to buy a yearling colt this fall.

Also, an assistant trainer—honestly, the only person that I’ve ever thought of as a protégé—has made a commitment to work with me. Not to replace me, but someone I feel like I can hand the reins to when I want to. She and I are working on some new projects. We’re putting together some private international riding tours with me and T. Cody as your guides. We’re in the early stages of figuring it all out—riding and immersing yourself in a new horse culture. It will be fun!

To see Julie’s entire lineup of upcoming events, riding adventures, and appearances, check out juliegoodnight.com.

This Q&A with Julie Goodnight is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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