NEW CALEDONIA

Between 3rd and the 11th of April I travelled to New Caledonia to judge a Cutting and working Cowhorse show, conduct a 5 day clinic and then judge a western performance show. All events were held by the AECW, and were run in a very professional manner that was easy for competitors and officials alike. 

New Caledoniawas somewhat of a mystery to me, a place I had heard of but knew little about. After a short 3 hour flight from Sydney I was ready to begin my education on this region. Thank you very much to Nathalie and Gerard for showing me around and answering all my tourist questions.

The cutting and Cowhorse day was held at the picturesque Ranch of the Rolland Family. Many cutters in Australia may be familiar with the Rolland brothers Phillip and Serge as they have made numerous visits to Australia and have purchased some very nice horses from here. They also breed Limousine Cattle and Farm Deer. I was pleasantly surprised by the level of competition and the quality of the horses being shown. The competitors were all very enthusiastic and passionate about the sport of cutting.

 Day 1 is always about introductions, of horses, people and the basic principles involved in making any training program work. Also there was the communication part to take care of, as the majority of New Caledonians only speak French. (Thank you very much to my hard working translators.) On a whole I was again presently surprised by the level of horses and riders. After going over the basics of solid foundation with everyone we organised groups and discussed desired outcomes for the rest of the week. 

As the week progressed we worked more on gaining control of the horses and teaching techniques to develop different areas of performance, always emphasising the need to keep the horses soft relaxed and confident, as well as the importance of a solid basic foundation. 

One of the things that really impressed me was the number of questions the riders asked and the thought they had put into these questions. Good questions make a teachers job easy and despite the language barrier the communication was not difficult.

 On the last day we worked on how to apply what was done during the week to the horse show on Saturday, I tried to let the riders show me how well they understood what I had shown them and to tell me what they will do to train their horses when I returned home. Everyone had taken on the principles of keeping their horse soft relaxed and confident and understood the make up of a solid foundation and how important this is to the horses development.

 I would like to thank Nathalie for introducing me to ACEW and for her hospitality. Also to Gerard for opening his home to a week of horse madness, and for the fine beer wine and whisky. To the ACEW for believing Nathalie and inviting me to New Caledonia and for the wonderful way in which everything was organised. To the translators, I am sure your job was the hardest of all thank you so much for your effort. And of course to all those who attended the clinic, thank you for making it so enjoyable, I look forward to seeing you all again soon.