Hi Riders,

With the evolving regulations around the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing its spread in our beautiful county. As per Equestrian Queensland recommendation, we have up dated our practice for lessons offered by CLM Equine, effective immediately.

– No outside horses to be bought to CLM Equine for lessons!

– CLM Equine will provide lessons only at the property to which the ridden horse resides

– Lessons will only be conducted in a suitably safe riding area on that property, preferable within an arena!

– Clear and safe access needs to be provided to the designated riding area, that requires minimal surface contact.

– Lesson cost will remain in accordance with CLM Equine’s current prices.

– If you or a family member at that residence is showing any symptoms of ill health we ask you to cancel your booking immediately.

EQ Covid-19 advice

https://www.qld.equestrian.org.au/news/equestrian-queensland-coronavirus-covid-19-update-–-31-march-2020

If you require agistment assistance during this time please contact us, we might be able to help!

Thank you all for your patience and support towards CLM Equine during this time! We are not quite ready yet but we are working towards some exciting online content including lessons and test reviews, stay tuned !!

Happy riding and stay safe

#clmequine #coaching #lessons #coronavirus #covid-19 #2020 #australia #queensland #horselife #newworldorder #staysafe #flattenthecurve

Hi Riders,

Hope your all well and still managing to keep your horses going during this crazy time!

We have been paying particular consideration to the role CLM Equine will play during the current health crisis in Australia and particularly South East Queensland. With the advise from our government and health authorities we have decided to keep our services accessible to the equestrian community!

Given the nature of our work, being outside and with minimal to no personal contact we believe our services to be low risk. Taking into considerations the advise of maintaining “an income” we have also considered the advice for people’s health, to remain active with exercise and to continue learning, both attributes of our services! We are taking this very seriously and will endeavour to stay up to date with the evolving laws and regulations as we step forward into the future!

I have outlined some changes to our regular operation of CLM Equine below as of 30th of March 2020.

– private lessons will continue as usual, student are to provide their own ear phones for headset and headsets to be cleaned between students.

– Hand sanitiser will be available at the arena

– Lesson times will be separated by a minimum of 30 min

– Outside wash bay will be made available

– Outside sink will be made available for personal hygiene

– Group lessons and classes will be limited to groups of 2

– No spectators or visitors other than those necessary for safety.

💆‍♂️ ECH Physio will still attend CLM Equine for Equine treatments where Mitch sees fit and we will abide by the requirements enforced by ECH Physio

🐎 All training horses will continue as usual for the horses currently in training and any new horses for the immediate future. We ask that owners wanting to visit their horses do so by appointment and abide by CLM Equine and government regulation and advice.

👨‍🏫 CLM Equine asks all riders to,

– Stay up to date and observe government regulation

– Respect social distancing rules of 2m at all times while on CLM Equine premises

– Engage in good hygiene practices

– Be aware of your current health and if your feeling “off” or have “cold/flu” like symptoms to please cancel your booking and stay home.

– Respectfully arrive and leave your lesson promptly where practically safe.

We hope to see you all at lessons and still enjoying our lovely horses through this extremely difficult time. If you have any concerns or would like to discuss you situation please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Regards

Craig

CLM Equine

The world has changed as we know it!!

While things are quite tough right now for many people and there is a lot of uncertainty for the immediate future, CLM Equine will continue to evolve and adapt with the emerging laws and guidelines being put in place for the management of Covid-19 pandemic!

Our day to day training of horses still complies with “stay at home” rules and there for will not change! For anyone wanting their horses trained or exercised we can accommodate a few more horses in our program, especially with having Lee stuck here !! So those wanting horses rope trained 🤔 this might be a good opportunity 😉

Where lessons are concerned we will continue to conduct lessons and adapt future precautions outlined by Equestrian Australia. Listed in picture 2!!

I’d also like to remind everyone having lessons to provide your own earphones and please avoid unnecessary time in the CLM Equine Barn, we will endeavour to supply an outdoor wash bay and provide disinfectant/soap for good hygiene 🧼

We are devising protocols with ECH Physiotherapy at the moment so we can continue to offer Equine treatments here to keep your horses happy over this period.

If anyone has questions or concerns please do not hesitate in contacting us via DM or you can contact Craig on 0413 411 746 !

Over the years we have looked to supplement our equestrian training and injury management with some form of equine body worker. Having worked in the veterinary industry as a Equine NICU Nurse I have always been sceptical of some alternative therapies and they benefit or detriment to my horses wellbeing. Also being quite new to the area of south east queensland I was unfamiliar with the local reputation of professionals which I struggled with a lot, not knowing who to trust.

So over the years I continued to work with the horses in their ridden training and daily routine where we felt things were progressing as they should be. As with all horse training we ran into some road blocks, one of significance was a reasonably serious White Line Disease (WLD) infection that saw the resection of nearly 1/3 of the horses hoof wall. Whilst this post is not really about the disease or the recovery of that infection, the horses recovery played a huge role in the importance of finding someone I could trust to help my horses be better. Needless to say there was a lot of box rest, graduating to small yard time etc etc and approximately 10 month before we were to return to ridden work. During the time of bring this horse back into work slowly I really felt like I could do more to help this horse. Aside from the fact horses aren’t designed to be in a stall 24/7, there was muscle wastage, loss of flexibility and strength and I also felt he had developed a favour to one side of his body. Which in reality makes perfect sense given his prior condition. So the hunt began, I needed to get serious!!!!

I found Mitchell Carney, who is a fully qualified and practicing Physiotherapist. Mitch owns and operates ECH Physiotherapy (Equine, Canine, Human Physiotherapy) and I remember the first phone call I made asking about his qualifications and practices with horses.. I decided to bite the bullet and I booked an appointment, the initial consultation was very pleasant and Mitch’s skills and mannerism where very kind and informative. Firstly the horse didn’t object to any of his treatment, there was no pulling or riffing, no magical tricks or quick fixes. I felt I got an accurate assessment of my horse (to which I will add I tried not to give to much away) which fitted with what I was feeling, I was kept informed of the “what” and “whys” as he was treating my horse. Then before Mitch left he had given me a treatment plan and ensured I understood what I was to do. Now before I got inside for the evening and a lot of you fellow horse people will understand that comment. I sit down to check my emails and I have an email waiting for me from ECH Physio!!!! No it wasn’t the invoice cause I had paid cash at the appointment but yes it was a report and written exercise prescription that we had discussed earlier that day… Having had the vet nurse training this was very impressive and a valuable resource for me, having multiple horses in work at one time i sometimes need reminding of things that need doing. Over the coming weeks and after I had invested so much time and money and not only into this Physiotherapy but the entire recovery of the horse. I decided I was to do the exercises as prescribed, looking back over the written report from time to time to jog my memory, giving it my proper attention. This is when things started to really change, I not only saw a physical difference in my horse but a behavioural difference too his work ethic changed.

Low and behold just when i thought things were starting to get back on track we get another WLD infection, not as serve as the previous time but still bad enough to curb our ridden work!!!! Gutted…. This is where the real value of having other professionals involve with the care and maintenance of what really are our “Equine Athletes” has shined. We didnt need to confine the horse to box rest but he did have to have a smaller paddock and discourage any high impact movement which meant we had to back off his training as well, until this 2nd resection grew out with health hoof again!!! Much to my disappointment I was thinking another length of time of no work which meant muscle wastage etc all over again… Back to square one!!! Well that was not the case I spoke to both my farrier and my Physio and we came up with a plan to keep the horse in some form of work. My main concern was not to push the horse before he was ready but to have the horse ready to resume work once his hoof had grown. I didn’t want to waster another 6 – 12 months of building strength and suppleness from when he could ridden again.

Myself the farrier and the Physio discussed the options to achieve my goal and we came up with a plan. A plan that’s proving to be beneficial and has really changed my thinking towards the therapy this particular horse has been getting. We introduced a lot of low impact exercises and have a weekly program for this particular horse and he continues to get stronger and more supple, things like hydrotherapy, core strength exercises, hand walking incorporating hills and poles have all kept this horse looking fantastic. It’s actually frustrating, I see this horse moving around the paddock and walking in and out of the stall, standing tired at the wash bay and he is a very different picture. Its a picture that makes you want to ride, one that you get excited about, the horse looks amazing !!! I cant actually wait to be back in the saddle on this horse to see what the real results are…

Never the less I have restructured my training program and involve Mitch with the rest of my team, not because they have injuries or “problems” but because I want them to perform their best. I have also substituted a ridden day for a core strengthening session and are all improving so well. We are currently working with ECH Physiotherapy to develop some programs and packages to offer through CLM Equine for our students and training horses. Its a very exciting time and I can not wait to share more and more results as we produce them.

“Treat your horse like a Champion and they’ll become one”

Happy Riding

Clinic 1st February 2020

Mitchell Carney is a practicing special interest sports and musculoskeletal physiotherapist, completing a Masters of Veterinary Physiotherapy through the University of Liverpool in the UK. Mitchell is a Doctor of Physiotherapy, and holds a Bachelor of Exercise Science and Rehabilitation, educated in biomechanics, movement assessment, injury prevention, exercise prescription and rehabilitation of both humans and animals.

Involving the past several years Mitchell has worked within multiple sporting disciplines including elite and Olympic level athletes, and consulted with professional breeding stables and veterinarians for equine physiotherapy.

Mitchell is most interested in utilising his animal physiotherapy knowledge, expertise and higher education to enhance the welfare and nature of horses whether they are top sporting athletes, or farmyard pets.

Utilising CLM Equine as a facility to hold clinic days, Mitchell will be available for physical assessment, treatment and exercise prescription for your equine athlete. Physiotherapy is a great way to improve your horses performance by adding specific low impact exercises to strengthen particularly weak areas and improve suppleness and flexibility.

Mitchell also works closely with veterinarians to aid in recovery and rehabilitation from accident or injury.

CLM Equine will run this clinic on the 1st February where initial consultations will be $140 and revisit consultations $100

Please contact CLM Equine for bookings via DM or email –

CLMEquine@icloud.com

All other enquiries can be directed to Craig via DM, email or 0413411746

Note: All lameness concerns need to be assessed and diagnosed by at veterinarian before being referred to ECH Physiotherapy. If your unsure about your horse soundness please don’t hesitate to contact CLM Equine or ECH Physiotherapy for guidance.

We are excited to get Team CLM up and running again for the 2020 competition season…

Last years team saw some great successes along with some great friendships developing along the way for support and encouragement …

This year we will run the Team the same way starting in February 2020. To become a member of the team you are required to have regular lessons at CLM Equine and be competing at any level in either offical, participant or club competition.

There will be a closed Facebook group for all members of the team where posts of up coming competitions, clinics, and important information will be made available. It also becomes a platform for team members to communicate and coordinate their competition schedules..

CLM Equine will also provide warm-up support at competitions, test feed back, training days, team merchandise and lots more exclusively for Team CLM Members

If this is something you are interested in please contact Craig at CLM Equine. Hope you see some new horse and rider combinations for another fun and successful year 🦄

Riding is honestly one of the toughest sports around ! While any sport is seriously challenging at the elite levels, a lot of the olympic sports are enjoyed by many as a social interaction or even a form of stress relief. Now “horse riding” can be both of these too, there are so many levels of riding and different types or styles of riding that can be done.. I will specify this blog post to Dressage but at the same time I believe the same for any equestrian discipline performed at a competition level..

I don’t believe that any one training method has any more or any less value than any other … my belief is to provide a consistent systematic approach to all training and allow the horse time to learn. As we all know people learn at different rates and in different capacities, this also applies to horse! Having said that I am trying to relate this to the topic of being a good student because the rate at which the horse learns can sometimes dictate the rate at which the rider learns! For example, a rider can not learn to ride a flying change before the horse is taught the aids for a flying change.

As a coach I see a lot of students coming and going, trying different things, expecting the horse to “just do it” and I hear things like “it’s hard”, “he won’t do it”, “you get on and do it” and amongst other similar lines my all time favourite “I can’t” !! While I have a small amount of knowledge, I still feel everyday is a lesson for me too. My journey as a rider is still very young and I am guided by those around me and mostly by my horses. I have and still experience difficult rides, not understanding exercises, managing my timing and feel, correcting my position and improving the delivery of my aids. I don’t truely believe I will ever stop trying to improve my own riding, my training and my knowledge for horses and horse riding. The one thing I keep in the back of my mind is to not give up, to work harder, to understand better and to stay open to other people’s knowledge and experience. Because no one horse is the same !

Now going back to the consistent systematic approach I try to maintain for the training of my horses, I also apply this same method with my riders as their coach. Every rider I see has already a basic understanding of the concepts of riding and more often than not have had lessons with other coaches prior to their first lesson with me. From my perspective I need to gain an understand of the knowledge each riders has and their understanding of that knowledge. I also need to work out what each rider feels in the saddle and what they don’t, this being one of the hardest things to not only teach but also learn. And then I have to set the riders on a path, with, like my horses training, a consistent systematic approach. Going back to the example I mentioned before with the flying change. We can also take this to another example towards the other end of the scale.. How do you make your horse walk? Some might say kick, some might say squeeze, some might simply just say leg! Then we pose another question, How do you get your horse to trot? Many riders will answer both these questions with the exact same answer. So is this right or wrong ? I ask another question, when I’m riding my test and I want my horse to make a nice big over track in the free walk, do I just kick more ? Or this asking my horse to trot? Either way if you train your horse through repetitively kicking to walk and kicking more to trot that is exactly what he will learn to do. Sometimes horses can be systematically trained to do the “wrong” thing without the rider even being aware.

If your looking to ride for pleasure and just hack out from time to time then there is nothing wrong with anything your doing provided you and your horse are both safe and happy! If you are looking at improving your riding into a specific discipline where you would like to be competitive you need to work and work hard. There are going to be times where things go wrong, there are times when you learn something new and the things that were good seem to fail, there are times where you feel like you get stuck and most of all there are times where you need to wait for your horse to learn!

Dressage is a sport where we take 2 individual minds with a massive natural language barrier and ask them to work as one ! A sport where you not only need a lot of knowledge but also great body awareness and control, timing, rhythm, quick decision making skills and healthy amount of confidence. Combine all of that into developing a language where the rider can talk to their horse and the horse listens and understands to be able to produce a beautiful performance in a test.

You might ask where am I going with all this?

In developing this language riders utilise coaches to help them on their quest to improve, we might just talk a little bit about what attracts coaches to a rider. A coach to me needs to firstly be someone that has worked and trained in the discipline I’m wanting to learn, I want my coach to have experiences similar to what I am having, I need to be able to trust them, I need to be able to listen to them and also ask questions of them to gain a proper understanding and most of all, for me personally, my coach has to like my horse!

So I have chosen a coach, to be a good student I need to respect their experience, trust their system works even though I might not be able to see where the result will be. Ask questions where I’m confused and listen carefully to the answers, understand the “problems” and also the “corrections”. I need to PRACTICE! problems aren’t resolved in a lesson, remember horses need time to learn! Lessons are for the rider to gain understanding and knowledge, every ride between lessons is where the horse gains understanding and knowledge. The single biggest importance for a student is to not give up! Training is hard! Your coach doesn’t give up on you, they constantly try to help you improve and to understand. Remember success comes from a consistent systematic approach and even though you sometime feel like your stuck in your training, you quietly keep pressing on and that problem will resolve. Stick with your coach and keep practicing, remember we spoke about giving your horse time to learn ? Sometimes the “rut” or the stall in your training is because your horse needs more time. Sometimes it’s because you haven’t really understood the timing or the feeling, sometimes it’s because the you have misunderstood the information from your coach and sometimes it just takes miles in the saddle for it to really sink in.

Every coach and every rider is out there to do their best and enjoy their horses participating in one of the most difficult sports. Remember your coach is there for you and often goes above and beyond to help you and their reward is seeing you do well. As a rider, believe in your coach and yourself and keep working, work hard and if it sucks or feels bad it probably is. But that doesn’t mean give up or stop training, there are so many reasons it could be like that and most of the time they get better by continuing on and riding through the ugly bits.

Trust you coach, give your horse time and enjoy your personal journey to success in the Dressage arena!

Happy riding 🙂🐴

We are hoping to secure Robbie McKinnon from the southern Highlands in Nsw for future clinic dates here in S.E.Qld…

Robbie partnered with Dave McKinnon run McKinnon Sport Horses successfully training and competing at the highest levels of both Dressage and show … Trained to FEI Grand Prix guided by Miguel Tavora she needs no introduction to the Dressage circles, nor do her achievements in the show ring. A multi National Champion Rider and numerous Show Horse championships, she has a wealth of information to offer both Dressage and show riders..

You can find more information about Robbie at their Facebook page – www.facebook.com/mckinnonsporthorses or from their web page – http://www.robaliequestrian.com/robbie-mckinnon.html

If you would like to be added to the mailing list to stay up to date with the future of these clinics please PM us your Name, Email and Contact Number or email us at – CLMEquine@icloud.com

We could be holding a clinic as soon as the 5th and 6th of July 2019 😀

#dressage #showhorse #clinic #lessons #horserider #learn #robbiemckinnon #clmequine #mckinnonsporthorses

CLM Equine offers Buckwell Park Juliette for sale, this Galloway mare will go place and is in the prime of her life ready to start a serious show/competition career..

Juliette is registered with Equestrian Australia and has current Pony Dressage Licence and Height Certificate (14.1 5/8hh)

She is offered to the market for $17 000 neg