The Todd Flettrich Junior Young Rider Clinic
By: Keni Kerin
During the weekend of October 29th and 30th international rider and trainer Todd Flettrich came to North Star Training Center to teach a junior and young rider clinic for the NCDCTA. The weekend started off very cold and windy, and with rain in the forecast, the weather did not look promising. A few of the riders arrived on Friday to school their horses in the covered at the beautiful North Star Training Center to prepare for their rides over the next few days. With only a few frisky moments from all of them, Friday’s schooling session ended successfully.
Saturday morning started out extremely cold, luckily for auditors our wonderful host Lynn Leath had multiple heated blankets for everyone’s lap. First to ride Saturday was Madison Dwyer on her Arabian Gelding KF Kestral, Madison had a successful ride and worked on getting Kestral to move more through his body. The rest of the morning consisted of upper level rides including Lauren Gibson and Katelyn Whicker who both worked on gaining a bigger more through canter in the halfpass. Todd helped Lauren work through passage and other upper level movements. Julie Hjulmand rode next and Todd helped her with her mare Risky Business work on second level movements including shoulder in and renvers. After lunch which was graciously provided by the Dembosky’s I tacked my mare Idolace up and headed to the ring eager to ride after watching such great rides earlier in the morning. Todd worked with me to get Idolace to loosen her top line and reach for the bit in a much lighter and more correct manner which in turn gave us better gait quality. After achieving this feeling we were able to work on halfpass at the trot and canter. Bernie Dembosky and her Without A Doubt were next and had a good ride which ended in beautiful trot work. Last to go for the day was Jordyn Dunson, who rode her trainer Rebecca Nelle’s Vested Interest. Unfortunately for Jordyn her mare Shadow became lame a week before the clinic. With only a week spent riding Vested Interest, Jordyn had an educational lesson and Todd helped her especially in the trot work with shoulder in and halfpass. It was nice to see that every rider ended much better than they began.
Sunday started cold as well but with the elimination of the wind it was much more comfortable to be sitting ringside. There were high expectations after yesterdays improved rides. Lauren started the morning off on Rocadero. During their lesson Todd got on Rocadero. He rode the pirouettes and canter halfpass demonstrating how he wanted it to be done. Katelyn Whicker was next, Todd also rode Empire he worked on canter halfpass and even rode a line of two tempis. Katelyn finished the ride being able to feel the better canter and Empire moved through his shoulders more. Bernie rode next and was pleased with her ride saying that he was much better than the day before. I had the ride before lunch; Todd helped me improve my warm up and then offered to ride Idolace. He really helped her in her canter work and helped her to achieve a better uphill balance in the canter. She felt much better when I got back on. At the end of my ride Todd worked Idolace in hand in piaffe. After lunch Julie Hjulmand rode and worked on flying changes with her mare. Her ride was followed by Anna Fields on Robyn Hahn’s Silvermist. Todd helped Anna obtain better balance in her turns and a more effective aid in the downward transitions. Madison Dwyer rode next and worked on much of what she learned on Saturday. Jordyn wrapped up the weekend with another much improved ride on Vested Interest.
Overall it was a very successful clinic; all riders showed much improvement and came away with new tools and exercises. The clinic could not have been made possible without the help of those involved. I know I am representing all juniors and young riders when I thank the NCDCTA for giving us all the opportunity to ride with a trainer of Todd Flettrich’s caliber. I would also like to thank Lynn Leath for hosting the clinic at her farm in Chapel Hill