Judging Clinic Report! :)

Well this is a rather overdue "Clinic Report"!  :)

 

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of hosting a judging clinic with guest speaker Ann Harris!  She's a veteran at this sort of thing and was full of interesting insights on the subject of judging... having been a judge and mentor for over 20 years!

Ann and her husband Rob at the races the day before the clinic!

It would be hard to even summarize the whole 6hr clinic in a few paragraphs.. I know a large # of folks asked for video but even with the ones we took there's just simply too much footage to whittle down....!  At some point I will hope to have another.   I'm in the process of refining my video clips and didn't get a change to overlay some of the bone structure but those are generally more geared to strictly teaching sculpting... "seeing" anatomy is another matter.  Still the video clips ran & hopefully helped augment (and not complicate!) common issues seen that were being discussed! :)

I must thank my neighbor Crystal who brought over the most sweet mare I've gotten to use yet for demo purposes.  She's new to Crystal's herd and had gotten in a scuffle in the pasture the night before with an even newer horse, yet she was calm and totally tractable while we prodded & yanked on her.  Originally I'd planned to paint on her but she was still a bit shaggy (although it was warm so she was shaggy AND sweaty).. oddly charcoal showed up better!  Grace (the lovely mare) was at least easy to thank with carrots and love.  She definitely seemed to have a great time! :D

All the ponies judged were painstakingly picked out in advance from the vast personal showstring of Beth Patterson.  I kid you not it was really fascinating to go over her house & come up with a HUGE (and tough!) classes of really nice work!

Big thanks too here for photographer (and sculptor/painter) ;) Maggie Bennett who really had no choice in the matter because I'm a little pushy sometimes I guess.  She took so many photos for me it's sort of sad that I am sharing so few here!  In part I wanted many photos though of the horse for future teaching purposes too... so perhaps the mare Grace here will make more appearances on the blog? ;)

Lastly I also need to mention and thank those who traveled HUGE distances to attend - 2 gals came from all the way up by Maryland (separately!).   And just everyone for attending & making it so  much fun!! :D

And with that, some more photos! 

 

I posted this to my FB page yesterday but apparently here I am threatening my clinic attendees with either a kick or a fist?  I'm kidding of course but I really wish I could remember WHAT ON EARTH I'm talking about here..  Nicely shows how the stifle joint swings out a LOT to accomodate the rib cage but the leg here has a lot of range of motion below the hock.  Here her hoof/pastern joint angles out but I know I also was talking about how they can kick a fly on their belly too! :)  Well, I sure hope I mentioned that! 

 

Discussing how nostrils can often fit in between the ears!  I suppose that's a bit of a pet peeve of mine (clunky noses, I've only seen noses get larger when a horse was bitten by a snake.. & fortunately never in real life!).

The all Salinero CM class... yes.. Beth has an addiction!

 

Here I'm using halter leg placing techniques to show her patella pop in and out in the stifle joint "stay apparatus".

 

(Seriously I would love to OWN this horse for teaching - she was totally mellow & cool with all sorts of "don't do this at home" type handling!) 

My neighbor is showing the range of motion this super patient mare has & a nice view of how the stifle moves.  We did a lot of video on this subject as it seems like a big pet peeve of a lot of judges.  Below is what happens with the stifle when the patella moves incorrectly!  This is on a real horse in a vet diagnostic video of  rupture of the peroneus tertius tendon.  It's something a lot of horse sculptures show however as it's hard to figure out how that whole complex moves if you aren't looking at something in that precise position.

  

Here is something I really need to make a blog/video tutorial about with graphics.. measuring from the proper points, bone fulcrum  to fulcrum...

 Here I'm showing the shoulder angle opening and closing..  & earlier the mare's owner pulled her knee under her so folks could see how much the shoulder (scapula) angle can change... Thus why it's hard to say a moving horse sculpt has a steep or level shoulder (not impossible but tricky!).

 

There were 5 or 6 classes, I can't remember.  

I spelled Ann for the last one, CM foals (squee! The wee foals are a favorite of mine!). 

 

And here is a random photo of a Steeplechaser with a Gulastra Plume from the day before! :)

That's the long & short of it! :)  Hope to hold another one eventually!