March 16, 2016 
There are thousands of clinics every weekend, everywhere, in all breeds and disciplines. What can you expect to gain from one of these?
Well, the first thing I would ask, is what will you bring to the clinic?
Will you bring a horse that is prepared for the level you will be riding? And have you entered the correct level for you and your horse?
Will you bring to the clinic the solid, undivided attention that a serious college student brings to a lecture? Or is this clinic a chance to be entertained, meet some friends, have a good time with your attention wandering in and out of what’s happening in the ring?
©Flickr/Bambe1964
Will you arrive in time for your clinic slot, ride, pack up and leave, or will you be there dawn to dusk, notebook and pen in hand, trying to elicit as much by watching and listening as from your actual riding session?
Will you have any prior sense of what this clinician is all about? Does his/her teaching style fit your learning style? Because learning is not a passive enterprise, as in, “Open mouth, pour knowledge in.”
Henry Ford got it right when he said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.”
Never, ever think that a clinic is something you attend to learn how to ride. Learning how to ride takes years—decades, really.
Never think that a clinic is a lesson. A clinic is more like a distillation of the clinician’s ideas, methods and systems. You will miss out entirely if you aren’t prepared to absorb this by being engaged in the other lessons.
Conrad Schumacher Clinic, 2015 IHSA Nationals
Never go to a clinic to show off how great you and Fluffy are doing. Clinicians can spot fakes from miles away.
Never stay at a clinic if the clinician is abusive to the horses. You should try to discover before the clinic if the clinician is a quiet, humane horseman or a bombastic showman.
Never think that going to audit a clinic is a waste of time. Paying for an unknown experience that you then discover doesn’t work at all for you, now that is a waste of time and money.
