Wednesday, January 6, 2016

An Auditor's Experience of the George H. Morris Horsemastership Training Session

by Elizabeth Stein

Most of us are never going to get to ride with George Morris. It’s the inconvenient truth of our sport that there are only five spots on the Olympic Show-Jumping Team and one is an alternate. Even though you might not ever get to ride with any of the greats, that doesn’t mean that there are not still plenty of opportunities to audit and learn from them. Youtube, usef.org, and eqsports.net (just to name a few) are the places to go for most of us, and maybe some top riders come to stables near you for the live experience.

This year though, one of my closest friends got the chance to go down to Wellington, Florida and audit a bit of the George H. Morris Horsemastership Training Session, and I get to live vicariously through her and tell all of you about it.  First though a brief interlude into how we met just so no one’s confused on why I’m telling this story.

Cristina Wiersma, Beezie Madden and Julia Wiersma.

I met Julia Wiersma when I transferred to Northern Illinois University last year. She was on the equestrian team and I had my heart set on joining. We bonded over our love of horses (I know its totally a cliché but it’s the truth) and now we’re roommates and I count her as one of my closest friends. So when she told me she was going down to Florida over winter break, I was insanely jealous not only because Chicago is cold and desolate, but also because she was going to visit Wellington, or to be more specific WEF, and get to see the George H. Morris Horsemastership Training Session.  
As we all know, this year’s Training Session was different than the past because there was no George Morris. Luckily, Julia and I were able to audit one of last clinics George taught last year at Annali-Brookwood Farm. However, even though the master wasn’t present, nothing was lacking with Christine Traurig, Beezie Madden, Lauren Hough, Anne Kursinski, and Laura Kraut at the helm.

Julia was able to relay her time at WEF back to me first hand so I can share it with you and I’m not surprised by the positive experience she had.

STAR STRUCK

“Being at Wellington was such an amazing experience,” said Julia.  “Just walking onto the property was so exciting. I was just there on vacation with my family and we were able to go visit on Friday and Saturday. Seeing Beezie Madden and Laura Kraut was like seeing a movie star! It was such an amazing opportunity watching Beezie ride and to listen to her teach. I’ve watched many of George Morris’ clinics, and Beezie and Laura did a great job as the clinicians for his Horsemanship Training Session. I thought it was a great opportunity for anyone and everyone to go watch the clinic, especially since it was free. Even though it was live streamed online, being there in person gave it a more realistic feel. After each day at the clinic, I was able to get a picture with both Beezie and Laura. I was definitely star struck by them and was nervous to ask but they were so nice! They are my role models and I hope one day I will be able to ride with them!”

Julia also shared with me another important part of the clinic and that’s the sportsmanship and camaraderie it teaches outside of riding. You always hear about it but its nice to see it in action. For IHSA, we ride borrowed horses not only to practice on but at shows as well and to see others in the sport participate in the same way and loan their horses to other riders who might not have been able to participate otherwise, is always nice to hear about. 

As Julia stated, “Being on the NIU Equestrian Team, it was great to see that people offered up their horses for some of the riders to use. It means a lot to us when people so generously offer their horses."

Our sport giving back in such a unique way with clinics from our top stars, really sets us apart from other sports, especially with the fact this clinic in particular was free to audit and can still be seen for free online. It’s opportunities like these from our top riders coming back to teach up and coming riders and auditors that help to advance our sport in a real way. Even if we won’t all get to ride with George Morris, its through clinics and experiences like these that we can all benefit from his teachings.


To view the clinic online visit www.usefnetwork.com.

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