Sabine Birmann Clinic

[Christine]

I went to a 5 day clinic with Sabine Birmann (German) in Norway (basic + intense).

Since I promised to report back.... here it comes: 

It was very interesting, I learned a lot. But to be honest it wasn't always as gentle and calm as I wished it would be. Sabine said it was because of the very unusual horses and ponies present. There were some ponies which are used as tourist-tracking-ponies, they had no inclination of moving more than the absolute minimum and even Sabine's assistants had problems to work with them. Some other horses were dominant and challenging and so the seen work was quite energetic. There was a glimpse of what it could be like as well but only with very few horses. Since there were so many participants there wasn't much time to exercise everything we learned with a horse and often a human-human exercise was all we got. 
I think a lot of people have quite some difficulties with Sabine's straight to the point directness. It sometimes came across as a bit rude, even though I believe she doesn't mean to be. (I was told that there are other trainers who are much worse - so I might just be spoilt by Gina Sivyer and Peggy Cummings) The clinic was all a bit chaotic, Sabine is not on sure footing with her English, the weather was quite bad and we didn't have a hall. However, I was told by an assistant that the clinics in Germany are totally different.  The plan for future clinics in Norway is to have a smaller number of horses and to find a roofed arena. 

What are your clinic experiences??  Is it better to learn a lot roughly in a short time or not so much but learned thoroughly?   

[Courting the Horse]

That's interesting Christine,

Do you think you got more from the clinic than just reading a book?  Or do you think that reading the book was good and then heading to the clinic added other elements? 

I am beginning to realise that I like to just watch a person I haven't seen before and then I suppose you can join in another time if you like them. But of course this is hard to do when the clinic is in Norway!

Did you see her working with horses herself much?  What was she like?

[Christine]

Hi Maria,
I think without reading the book first I would have been quite lost since there was not much theory. But that might be down to me being a total beginner in horse-work... 

I am quite crap in learning anything which has to do with body movement from a book. So yes, it was important for me to go to a clinic and anyway her book + DVD are no step-by-step instructions.

I totally agree it would have made sense to go to one clinic as a spectator and then decide to go to another one with horse. But there was a tiny money and time issue here and since I can't (and wouldn't) take a horse to any clinic it was a good opportunity to work with one of the tourist ponies. Btw. that won't be possible again since this is a quite intimate work where you form a connection and it is not fair on the horse to open him or her up to a human and then walk away never to be seen again... or for the human to be in desperate need of buying that horse you developed such a deep bond with and be disappointed. So it was decided that it won't be done this way again.
So lucky me, I had 2 sessions with 2 different ponies before I decided not to continue to work with a horse.
However I don't think it is possible to learn the skill of free lunging just by theory, human-human exercise or watching - it is so subtle. And I was told it takes years to get perfect but once you got it  it is amazing!!

Best would be to have weekly lessons.... 

Sabine did only about 3 short sequences herself (she has a health issue with her knee), but her husband Dan worked with the dominant horses to start them off.  It would have been too difficult for the beginners. Her other assistants did a bit of work too.

One problem with clinics I think is that there is a certain amount of pressure to give everyone the same time in the arena. But the horses had different issues, a traumatized pony I thought should only have been in for ~5 minutes each time with lots of positive experiences and then go out again - while another one needed meditative lunging in order to relax and to realise there is no agenda, no goal to reach. But both owners paid the same money so they tried to work on the lunging with the traumatized pony.... there was a psycho session with him too which was very good but got a bit spoilt by the lunging attempt afterwards.

One important thing I forgot to mention before: except for the traumatized, depressed pony all the horses looked very proud and happy after each session. So that is quite a big achievement in my book!!