Equi-ed is absolutely thrilled to announce that Dr. Deb Bennett, an esteemed equine expert will be joining us this July in Ireland. This is an incredible opportunity to learn from one of the best in the industry and we can’t wait to share this experience with you. Dr. Bennett will be traveling from USA in July to collaborate with Equi-ed to hold one not to be missed incredible Horsemanship Improvement Clinic, which will be a unique opportunity to experience a Horsemanship Masterclass with Dr. Bennett.
There will be 20 spaces available for each clinic, The clinics will be held in Knightfield, Co. Kildare. Stables will be available for €25 per night if you want to stable your horse overnight. Dr. Bennett rarely rides participants’ horses, so come expecting to ride your own horse. So, bring a horse you feel confident riding in a group situation at walk and trot – so a reliable ride, NOT a “problem horse”, because the problem horse will probably not make it easy for you to learn the skills being taught. It is the PERSON that is going to learn the skills at our clinics; the intention is that you will apply and practice the skills at home with all your horses.
"There's a reason why my horsemanship events include the word "improvement". If you read about me, you know that I spent many years learning how to ride and handle horses, and that I learned from plenty of mistakes made along the way. Everyone, including me, has to live and learn. The overall goal is improvement, and if you hang in there long enough, that may culminate in excellence and even mastery. Mastery is my own quest, and I hope it's also yours. I enjoy coaching and take pride in inventing ways to get horsemanship students to acquire and practice the right skills and "feels".
Dr. Deb Bennett has a Ph.D. in Vertebrate Paleontology from the University of Kansas, and she writes us to say, “most people have no idea how a degree in Vertebrate Paleontology could qualify anyone to teach horse anatomy or horsemanship, but there is a surprising tie-in: I got into giving public seminars and clinics forty years ago because a V.P. degree involves a large amount of training in the study of skeletons (comparing all kinds of animals) – in other words, it is the study of how the proportions of one skeleton (and therefore the proportions of the body as seen from the outside) differ from one type of animal to the next, and also how they might differ within one species. This is exactly the same thing as judging conformation, and that’s how I started out – teaching skeletal anatomy and working as a horse show judge for the so-called ‘halter’ classes.
“Early on, the topic of my presentations was almost always “conformation” or “form to function”. This is a subject of perpetual interest to horse owners and breeders, and it’s important because a correct understanding of the horse’s anatomy, external form, and biomechanical functioning is crucial to our ability to select good breeding stock from which future generations of horses will come. My qualifications for teaching this material derive directly from my training as a vertebrate palaeontologist, with its heavy emphasis on comparative anatomy. The process of analyzing (“taking apart”) a living horse to appreciate the relationship between the animal’s external form and its internal skeleton is simply the reverse of what palaeontologists normally do, that is, re-create (“put together”) the living appearance of a fossil dinosaur or extinct horse from its skeletal bones.
“The other thing that a V.P. degree carries is a huge amount of study, again comparing different kinds of animals, concerning how the body actually functions. This is called “biomechanics”, and from Day One I was also teaching that too, because the general public is usually very interested in form-to-function – in other words, people want to know how a horse intended to be a jumper, a dressage horse, or for enduro riding should be conformed”.
Dr. Bennett says, “while enrolled in graduate school, I also for the first time had the opportunity to learn how to ride and handle horses – something I had wanted to do all my life. I have been fortunate to be taught by numerous excellent horsemen and have learned the craft from them. This is the “practical” or “hands-on” aspect that must go with all the skeletal and biomechanical study. One must actually ride, and hopefully build on that to learn how to educate horses as well as oneself. All the bone study in the world would be of no avail without the real-world application to real, live horses that the person actually owns and knows.”
Dr. Bennett studied dressage for many years and took lessons from several U.S. Olympic team members as well as from two gentlemen who had been bereiters at the Spanish Riding School. One of her two greatest teachers has been honored by inclusion in the California Cowboy Hall of Fame, and the other has been included in the even more prestigious National Cowboy Hall of Fame.
She recalls, “I started out forty years ago with teaching for the Public Education department at my graduate school, The University of Kansas Museum of Natural History. That was the first place I taught seminars to the general public on horsemanship topics, including anatomy, biomechanics, conformation judging, and riding styles and techniques. Much more recently, I have twice been an invited teacher at U.S. Olympic team “young rider” events, and since the 1970’s have taught horsemanship, horse anatomy and biomechanics, and livestock judging in Canada, Scotland, England, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand and all over the U.S.A. During the 1980’s when I was employed at the Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of Natural History, I gave talks and lab sessions on horse anatomy, biomechanics, the history of horsemanship, and riding and training techniques. I have been an invited speaker many times for the various “horse Expo’s” that go on here, and since the mid-1980’s have been a feature columnist and consulting editor for EQUUS Magazine. I also regularly write for The Eclectic Horseman and The American Farriers’ Journal”.
If you would like more information concerning Dr. Bennett’s training in both “English” and “Western” styles, you can refer to articles published in EQUUS Magazine and/or The Eclectic Horseman Magazine (in both cases, on the subject of “Mastery”). To receive a .pdf copy, Email office@equinestudies.org. To see Dr. Bennett live, you can also sign up for one of the Zoom classes currently being sponsored by The Eclectic Horseman >
Read More about Dr. Deb Bennett, Ph.D. | Equinestudies 2019 >
Read More about Dr. Bennetts Clinics >
If you would like more information concerning Dr. Bennett’s training in both “English” and “Western” styles, you can refer to articles published in EQUUS Magazine and/or The Eclectic Horseman Magazine (in both cases, on the subject of “Mastery”). To receive a .pdf copy, Email office@equinestudies.org. To see Dr. Bennett live, you can also sign up for one of the Zoom classes currently being sponsored by The Eclectic Horseman >
Read More about Dr. Deb Bennett, Ph.D. | Equinestudies 2019 >
