 Showjumping Training Clinic – James Kernan
The NER season kicked off Sunday 17th Jan with a Show Jumping training day held in Kerman’s Equestrian Centre. The training day, which was organised by Cheval, catered for all grades and despite the cold morning attracted a large audience.
The day was free for people to watch with a minimal charge for the guinea pig riders to cover the costs. James Kernan was the coach for the day and he started the day off with a course walk - James went through the course from start to finish in-depth and spoke about the importance of approaching the fences straight with enough impulsion to give the horse the best possible chance. James also spoke about the importance of walking the distance of both doubles and related distances for all levels. He emphasised that the rider should know exactly what distance and stride they are going to take down each line before coming into the ring.
After the course walk the action started with primary and progressed up through the grades to the Open riders. James warmed up each rider up on the flat and over fences. Once warmed up the riders then progressed to the full course. James watched the horse and rider and then offered some advice and tips. Each rider then repeated the course, and it was noticed by all that each rider improved significantly in their second round. There were 10 guinea pig riders in all, two for each grade.
Primary - Michelle Lynch and Patricia Corcoran
Advanced Primary - Teresa Ward and Emma McQualie
Intermediate - James Walker and Paul O Reilly
Advanced Intermediate - Laura Carrick and Karen Gibney
Open - Louise Mc Enttagert and Joe Hughes.
The course was built to the maximum height for each grade and although most riders were exhausted on competition, all felt like they had gained a lot and were more confident about the upcoming shows. James was open to questions throughout the day and overall the day proved a great success with both riders & spectators taking a lot from it.
A special thanks to our Chevalian guinea pigs and to Maria and Laura Carrick who arranged the date with James.
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