With Debbie’s eye and skill as a former competitive rider and an osteopathic trained lecturer, she has the unique gift of guiding riders in developing the FEEL that is necessary to change negative compensation patterns in the horse and rider.
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**NEW OFFERINGS POSTED EVERY YEAR
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Clinics and Workshops
These riding clinics and unmounted workshops go beyond reading a book and integrating academic information, as they are filled with hands on lab opportunities to develop the students feel and eye. From this educated place, horsemen and riders empower themselves with knowledge that improves their riding and horsemanship skills.
The curriculum of workshops is divided. One grouping is the muscular system, designed to offer the student a deeper understanding of the muscular/skeletal system as it relates to correct form and function in the horse under saddle.
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The other grouping is related to the nervous system and teaches students in a very effective manner, the interconnectedness between correct posture, form and function of the horse and the nervous system. The nervous system workshops provide complex information broken down to enhance the students’ knowledge of the inner organization of the horses’ body, which relates to his health and wellness. Also discussed in this series is the effect of equipment, feet and teeth balance on the entire system, and what students can do to influence this system in a positive way.
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Workshops
Muscular System
Nervous System
INTRO TO THE EQUINE NERVOUS SYSTEM I (ENS – I)
2 DAYS
This is the first of 4 lectures in a series, teaching participants the essential connection between the inside and the outside of the horses we ride. It is also directly related to potential issues that show up and are misinterpreted as “training problems”. In this clinic, students will learn how these connections affect health, movement and training.
EXPLORING SELF CARRIAGE
2 DAYS
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During this 2-day workshop, students will learn about the complex cycle of muscles, ligaments, tendons and the structure, which are behind the cycle of movement that expresses as self-carriage. We will look at the training pyramid and dissect each section to deepen the understanding of not only what self-carriage is, but also how it is developed correctly. Painting a horse and exploring which muscles are functioning and which are not, along with a short riding session to develop a new feel of a horse with the cycle of muscles turned on, will complete the 2-day workshop.
PARTIALLY MOUNTED
EQUINE NERVOUS SYSTEM II (ENS – II) “THE NECK”
2 DAYS
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This is the second of 4 lectures in the Equine Nervous System series. The focus of this workshop is the neck and the connections from the inside to the outside that have to be functioning in order for the horse to move in balance, with flexion, extension and correct weight bearing posture. Understanding the neck, the effects of riding, biting, bridling and rein contact is essential to the overall function of correct movement and straightness. In this clinic, students will learn how these connections affect health, movement and training.
MAPPING THE JIGSAW
2 DAYS
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This 2-day workshop helps identify bracing patterns in the horse that inhibit correct movement patterns and prevent accuracy within the gait. Sometimes these inhibitions are demonstrated by the horse as so “behavior challenges”, because of overall discomfort in the horse. Students will go through every moving part of the horse in order to understand how each joint or junction should move, and learn static groundwork movements to help re-establish limited movement patterns. Students will also receive a map of the horse with the connections of the skeleton and muscles and their influence on other systems of the horse, including the effect of under saddle movements and transitions.
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EQUINE NERVOUS SYSTEM III (ENS – III)
“THE HINDQUARTERS”
2 DAYS
In this third of 4 lectures in the Equine Nervous System series, students learn the essential connections between the hindquarters and the neck. The focus of this workshop is the mirror effect of the opposite ends of the horse and the essential communication between the 2 parts in order to have the correct circle of muscles working and the horse moving through his back. Students will learn the importance of correct locomotion and longitudinal flexion and extension, and the effects and wear and tear on the limbs if correct locomotion is not facilitated. In the lab portion of the course, students will learn in hand work, which is the basis to dressage at all levels, and indeed all movement.
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EQUINE NERVOUS SYSTEM IV (ENS – IV)
“BACK MAGIC – PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER”
3 DAYS
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In this forth lecture in the Equine Nervous System series, students study the mysteries of the equine back and the essential connections throughout the spine and the spinal column that govern all we do under saddle. Understanding locomotion through the back and correct postural and locomotive muscle is essential to the health of the spine and therefore the whole horse.
This clinic gives riders and horseman a deeper understanding to the effects of riding on the nervous system and how we can support that very system in the horse to maintain optimal health, happiness and performance.
THIS IS A PARTIALLY MOUNTED CLINIC
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Groundwork is where Muscular and Neural Work come together!
SUPPORTING YOUR HORSE FROM the INSIDE OUT WITH GROUND WORK
2 - DAYS
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The fundamentals of riding from the ground to enhance under saddle work, is the thread that ties this clinic together. Using the equine skeleton and comparing the correct skeletal movement to that of a functional horse, allows students a deeper understanding of how the body should move and assists students in developing their eye to recognize potential blockages and how to release them. Understanding that not all blockages and bracing patterns are physically induced, we learn of primal and instinctual bracing patterns that are foundational evolutionary teachings transmitted from mare to foal. Using neuro muscular reorganization, students learn how to shift these patterns. Throughout the clinic, students learn short and long sequences of ground work that influence the horses mind, body and spirit and make changes that begin to reorganize the nervous system and change riding postures.
While you will benefit from taking these workshops in any order, we feel this is the optimum order of progression.
1) Mapping the
Jigsaw
2) ENS1
3) Exploring Self
Carriage
7) ENS4
4) ENS2
5) Supporting
Your
Horse
6) ENS3
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1) Mapping the Jigsaw
2) ENS1
3) Exploring Self Carriage
4) ENS2
5) Supporting Your Horse
6) ENS3
7) ENS4
Equine Self Expression is also proud to offer two formats of riding clinics. A clinic that support riders with their own specific riding goals in a group setting, and a clinic that offers a more structured riding format.
In the series encompassing the more structured, educational riding clinics - riders have a chance to recognize patterns both structurally and mechanically in both horse and rider. As students begin to feel the delicate balance between compensation and learned feel, versus postural relaxation and improved spinal movement, riders attune themselves to the subtle feel of transitional weight shift from the inside out, that is necessary for the finesse and soundness that goes into every stride.
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Riding Clinics
Structured
Generalized
GENERALIZED RIDING CLINICS
2 - 5 DAYS
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Debbie offers 2 -5 day riding clinics to assist riders in evaluating where they are with their horse, what the next steps are to solidify where they are, and what is needed to move forward to where they would like to be. Clinics encompass the body of knowledge Debbie has as a competitive rider and trainer, as well as her knowledge of correct equine movement and performance as it relates to the individual disciplines and needs of each horse and rider combination. Debbie is also a senior instructor for Connected Riding and incorporates those techniques into her clinics. Debbie will ride clinic horses as and if requested.
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FILL IN THE MISSING PIECES OF THE RIDE
2 DAYS
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This 2-day riding clinic will give participants the opportunity to explore the steps necessary to progress with their equine partners, to the next level of training. Students will learn Equine Self Expression’s “ABC’s of training” in relationship to the training pyramid, breaking down the foundational principles of training for horse and rider. Each rider will learn how to recognize the holes in a horses training and how to reapply foundational basics to assist them in fully functioning at the level they are at. Students will also learn how to apply foundational basic principles to more advanced work. Each participant will ride twice daily and have the opportunity, should they wish, for Debbie to ride their horse, for rider assistance and evaluation.
RIDE IT, SEE IT, FEEL IT
2 DAYS
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This clinic is put together so riders can systematically begin to relate the feel of what their horse is doing in movement, and then have the visual of an equine skeleton to observe both functional and dysfunctional patterns in their own horse. With the aid of an equine skeleton, riders will have an opportunity to simulate the correct biomechanical function during certain movements, having observed the correct functional movement in parts of the skeleton. As understanding of the skeletal movement is seen, riders are coached to ride and feel the changes under saddle.
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In addition to her Equine Self Expression Clinics & Workshops, Debbie is a Senior Connected Riding Instructor and offers Connected Riding Clinics.
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Lessons
Private, Semi-private or Group Available
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1Hr 15min $115 private
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1Hr 30min $85 each for shared
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1Hr 30min $65 each per group of 3-5