More about the Shannon Peters Clinic

Shannon Peters worked on each rider’s position throughout the clinic

The theme was rider position being perfect first and foremost and then teaching the riders to get their horses looser through the shoulders in half pass and all lateral work.

Shannon pointed out that many riders make the mistake of trying to fix the position of the haunches before positioning the shoulders.

Some riders were critised for giving too many aids to the horse at the same time therefore making what the rider wanted unclear to the horse. Shannon described many aids at the same time as being like “white noise to the horse”

She mentioned pointing the inside toe toward the marker in half pass work. This was something I had never heard of before but I’m looking forward to trying it.

I will say that it did improve the half pass when the riders did this; however I would point out to my readers that they must be well versed at leg position to do this without mistakenly putting the spur in the horse as that was not the intension Shannon had.

Shannon used a long whip and put it upright at the back of the saddle and allowed the riders at halt to lean back against it.

She was trying to get the riders to use their back and core to resist being pulled out of the tack and loosening their seat.  As a teacher I found this to be a useful tool.

Shannon used the long line with one horse with the rider on his back which was wonderful to watch.

This should never be attempted by someone who is not well versed in long line work as it could put the rider in a bad spot, however Shannon was very confident and knew what she was doing. She used this excersise to stabilize the rider and horse on the outside rein and stabilized the rider’s position.

Several times Shannon came behind horses with the whip. Again this should never be done by someone who does not have good timing and respect for the horse. Shannon was able to help the horses from the ground for more jump in the canter and some passage and piaffe work.

Shannon kept on one subject until both horse and rider achieved the goal. She kept everything simple and pure and there was no flash and dance just correct classical teaching always fixing the rider before the horse.