Highlights of Stuart Walker clinic

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] Stuart Walker Showjumping Clinic was held over the weekend of 19-21 February, 2016, at two venues in Gaborone, one in the north and one in the south. The clinic was hosted by the Horse Society of Botswana and the lessons were subsidised by the HSB so that the cost to the rider for a one hour group lesson was BWP250.00 and for a private lesson was BWP300.00. Thank you HSB. HSB also provided water for the arenas in the south. The clinic was organised totally by Mrs Belinda Irish who had the unenviable task of allocating lessons and scheduled times to suit the individual riders with their current jumping height. She also tried to organise lessons around the extremely high temperatures throughout the weekend. The temperatures reached forty degrees on all three days. The clinic was held in the north at Penndragon Equestrian Centre, Ruretse, by kind permission of Sean and Belinda Irish and in the south at Per Erik Bergh and Sandy Davies private home at Stone Ridge Stables, Crocodile Pools, Notwane. Both these well organised, orderly, tidy, happy, peaceful and stress free venues are extremely welcoming and friendly to all the visiting horses and riders and also to the spectators. Both have constant on-going improvements to the stables, arenas, garden features and property in general.  Both these hospitable venues had drinks available for everyone. Stuart taught at Penndragon Equestrian Centre on Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, late on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. He was driven across to Notwane by Sean and Belinda to teach on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Stuart was kindly accommodated at Penndragon Equestrian Centre.

About Stuart Walker

Stuart first came to Botswana to teach in March 2009 and in April 2013 he became the designated HSB show-jumping coach to provide consistency to all our riders. Stuart is a versatile instructor who teaches riders and horses at all levels. He has gained an enormous amount of knowledge and competitive experience over the years and he comes to sunny Botswana to impart this to our riders and interested spectators. Stuart teaches at private yards in South Africa most days of the week and at weekends he competes on his own horses and client’s horses at the big shows there.

Superb surfaces

The 75m X 45M arena at Penndragon Equestrian Centre was beautifully prepared by Sean, Belinda and Theuns and this wonderful sand surface was perfect for all the horses and ponies.

Stuart built three gymnastic lines. The first was four canter poles on the ground to an upright and five strides to a parallel. The second was a canter pole on the ground to four cross-pole bounces and one stride to a parallel. The third was a canter pole on the ground to three cross-pole bounces, one short stride to an upright and one longer stride to an upright.

The 62M X 40M sand arena at Stone Ridge Stables was also beautifully prepared by Per Erik and Kya to make another perfect surface for jumping. Stuart built four gymnastic lines. The first was four canter poles on the ground to a parallel. The second was a canter pole on the ground to four cross-pole bounces and one stride to an upright. The third was a canter pole on the ground to three cross-pole bounces, one short stride to an upright and one long stride to a parallel. The fourth was three canter poles on the ground to an upright and three strides to an upright.

Text: Sarah Ward