Eventing High Performance Clinic with Grant Wilson

Tanaya Redecker and Emily Early shares their experience at the recent Eventing High Performance Clinic

Eventing High Performance WA were fortunate enough to have Grant Wilson for 4 days of lessons for over 50 horse and rider combinations last week. With two days of lessons at being hosted at Oakford Equestrian Centre and the last two days at Taminga Park.

Grant worked extremely well with everyone in attendance with his patient, friendly, and very approachable manner. He was able to positively instruct riders, who left their lessons feeling accomplished and like they had learnt something new. He structured his lessons consistently ensuring every group had the opportunity to ride through the same exercises, modifying them for each individual as necessary and allowing us to work through our problems.

Over the four days, Grant used exercises that helped get the horses around the riders’ legs, moving forward, switched on and using themselves. Exercises consisted of tough bending lines, replicating possibilities you may find on cross country, instilling confidence in both horse and rider. Grants eye for detail and understanding the needs of each individual horse and rider is motivating to watch. With riders jumping 80cm to 4* level, Grant was able to adapt his teaching style to all levels. He took his time with to explain the purpose of the exercise, why it will benefit us and by the end when the jumps went up and we were able to do more common show jumping lines, we got to see the impact the exercises had had on both our riding and the shape our horses made over a fence.

The two days at Oakford Equestrian Centre would not have been possible without Mike Dagistino allowing us to  use his arena and indoor arena with a large variety of jumps for us to train over and we are grateful to Mike for sponsoring our squad riders to use his facilities. The two days at Taminga Park were kindly hosted by Gail Hillier and we are incredibly grateful for both hosts generosity. We are also grateful to Bates for the sponsorship towards the Senior Squad, Beci Equi for sponsoring the Brumbies Squad and Glenbaile Stables for their continued sponsorship towards the entire High Performance Squad, it would be impossible to have these opportunities without your continued generous support.