Dressage clinics -- some UGLY TRUTHS

What should you be able to expect from a clinic or lesson? The most important two things to me are: 1) honest knowledgeable evaluation of me and my horse and 2) help making my horse be better/happier/more obedient/confident/stronger.

Often neither of these are met as we watch a clinician teach the same old "go here, go there." "Do this movement, do that movement" lessons with narry a mention of the significant, underlying problems with seat, legs and hands that plague the rider's success of any of these movements! The clinician is being dishonest because she is often saying "good" when it's not even near good, and the onlookers are being misled in the development of their "eye." You can't learn to see and do good dressage when you are at a clinic like this.

At a recent clinic I saw rider after rider rewarded with "good" when the horses were obviously out behind, slow with the hind legs, not through nor up in the back, let alone forward. The only benefit of a clinic like that is for ego of the clinician and the riders who think they are "all that." I grant you, it's a safe clinic. You can't go wrong because you, as the clinician, can always slightly improve something and then you can say, "Gee aren't I great, I was able to make that horse's half-pass so much better." But most of the improvements that are made, are made by the riders' efforts that have nothing to do with what the clinician is saying. For example, the rider figures out she has to use her gut muscles more in order to not pull on the reins. Or the rider figures out she needs to make the hind legs quicker in order to execute better balance in the half halt.

In addition, when a clinician gets an upper level horse, the poor horse has to put up with a poorly ridden (because the rider is lacking basics) version of all sorts of extremely difficult movements, because those make the clinician look good.The rider might say to the clinician in advance, "I want to work on my passage and my piaffe." A good clinician takes that with a grain of salt until she sees who she is dealing with: the capability and engagement of the horse, and the capability/knowledge and core strength/influence of the rider. Without all these lower level skills, these movements will only be detrimental to the good of the horse. Plus, the rider will think, "Gee, now I can practice that fun stuff." Wrong! Because you still don't have a clue of the correct aids, the correct use of your core, etc., etc. So you are doing the movements WRONG and your horse is being exhausted and injured and untrained! And you got absolutely nothing you NEEDED out of that clinic.

So, why do riders and observers celebrate this type of teaching?