Dressage pony becomes showjumper for the day

At my livery yard we hold regular clinics, from Show jumping to Natural horsemanship and today it was Equine dentist and Eventer James Arkleys turn to come and give us all a few pointers.

I run the clinics myself and am very conscious of the fact people do not have a lot of money to spend in the current climate so when I look who to get in for the clinics I try to get those who aren't too expensive but on the otherhand are very knowledgeable and have a good reputation.

James Arkley is not only an equine dentist but also formerly a Riding Staff Instructor in the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment. James was there for 14 years and has competed to Advanced British Eventing Level and represented Great Britain Internationally for Rural Riders.

During his time as Riding Staff James was a senior staff member responsible for teaching new recruit soldiers to ride competently on Royal Ceremonial duties and compete at entry level within 12 weeks.

James is very well sought after in not only the Lincolnshire area but all over and has huge waiting lists for both teaching and dentistry.

When I rang up James to arrange clinics I dealt with his wife and explained I wanted someone with knowledge, expertise but also affordable.

In the past I have arranged clinics with heart-throb Joe Whitaker and both Lionel Dunning and Pam Dunning. All have bought different types of lesson plans to me and all teach in very different ways. It is good from my perspective to watch these different people teach and listen to the feedback that comes from my clients.

As you may know, Ceaser and I haven't had much chance to do some jumping lately as we have been concentrating on Dressage so one of the liveries, Megan and I did a deal that if one joined in then the other would too - so I was somehow convinced to get my jumping boots out of the dusty locker and get on.

I am so glad I did as Ceaser was fantastic. I explained to James that both Ceaser and I were not 100% fit due to me being away at university a lot of the time and he then asked all of us to explain why we were there and what we wanted to get out of the lesson.

I explained that at 14 I had a jumping accident that has left me rather afraid of spreads! I was a show jumper before my accident as often was found whizzing around 3ft courses on my 12.2hh, but sadly now my confidence to jump any bigger than 3ft has gone! I wish I could get it back but I am very aware of the look on my doctors face when I re-broke the same arm I did in my accident just a year later and him telling me if it happened once more it would need surgery and I would be off riding for a good few months.

James was very good in taking in to consideration every bodies abilities and what each individual wanted to get out of the lesson. Its not often you find an instructor that asks for your aims and fits his lesson plan around you.

James noticed that sometimes I tend to make Ceaser ride a course of jumps like he's about to go and do an Elementary dressage test again. He said I need to allow him to poke his nose out more when jumping and forget we are a pair of dressage specialists. I explained my ultimate aim this year jumping wise is to go out and do a BE80 course and James said he thinks we could easily do it which is lovely.

I enjoy having a lesson and getting something back from it - there is nothing better than positive feedback after having a bad week at university and hearing something you are aiming for is reachable.

We worked on lots of related distances, dog legs and getting different striding. James set up a course so we had to work on 10 tone and 12 tone canters so we approached each jump differently according to how it was set up and what it was paired with. Also we worked on jumping jumps on various angles how to approach them. For me jumping a decent sized parallel and spread was a brilliant achievement and Megan was particularly pleased to jump her first dog leg!

Within the different groupings riders ranged from those who hadn't jumped over 1ft before to those who were regular show jumpers and it was interesting to see the way James approached each different rider and took the time to concentrate on them despite working in groups.

I must admit when I first approached James and asked about him coming to do clinics at my yard I was told he would only work at groups. "That's silly" I thought, but then his wife explained that he feels riders get more out of watching others riders attempt the same jumps as them, but in very different situations on very different types of horses.

I really did get a lot out of watching the others in my group, especially a girl on a very forward horse. At university I am constantly put on the forward horses and often think "How the hell do I approach a jump at 90MPH and expect to get over safely" but James explained the techniques in working with a very forward horse and told us it was not always a bad thing!

All others that attended the clinic said they really felt positive after their lesson with James and would love to have him back. I think overall all of us at the yard, whether we were watching or riding got something out of the way in which James taught and I am pleased to announce he WILL be coming back very soon.

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