Joel Conner Horsemanship Clinic Reports
SAFE has had the good fortune to work with horseman Joel Conner for several years. Joel was recommended to us by Buck Brannaman, and it took sending him one horse to re-start — Kai — for us to know that we’d found the right person to help us. From the very start, Joel showed a deep commitment to developing a horsemanship program at SAFE to help staff and volunteers learn solid and consistent skills for working with the horses. He began coming to SAFE multiple times each year, putting on 3 day clinics to teach us these skills, focusing on groundwork and riding. In 2018, he began adding starting young horses under saddle to the program. He also has donated his time to teaching basic horse handling skills to SAFE volunteers, allowing those with little to no horse experience get safe, hands-on practice. In Joel Conner, we feel we have a partner who understands our horses and our mission as rescuers, and we are sincerely grateful for that!
Below, volunteers who work with SAFE horses in these clinics are asked to write up a short piece for the website about their experience and what they learned. These updates, collected over the past three years, will give you a feel for what a Joel Conner clinic is all about.
Joel Conner Clinic Report: Ben
SAFE’s volunteer riders and their horses spent last weekend working with Joel Conner. Here’s a report from Melinda SAFE’s Herd Health Manager about her session with Ben: I had the pleasure of working with Ben for both groundwork sessions of the Joel Conner clinic over…
Joel Conner Clinic Report: Prince
SAFE’s volunteer riders and their horses spent last weekend working with Joel Conner. Here’s a report from Lori about her sessions with Prince: Prince and I entered the Saturday groundwork class. Prince started out being extremely herd bound and more focused on his…
Joel Conner Clinic Report: Rosie & Bridgit
SAFE’s volunteer riders and their horses spent last weekend working with Joel Conner. Tess worked with Rosie, our new intake, in the morning groundwork sessions and with Bridgit in the afternoon riding workshop. Tess writes about the clinic and shows a ton of…
Joel Conner Clinic Report: King
SAFE’s volunteer riders and their horses spent last weekend working with Joel Conner. Here’s a report from Ann A about her session with King: I worked with King in Sunday’s groundwork session. I had not worked with him before and really enjoyed getting to know this…
SAFE Receives a Training Grant from the ASPCA
We are proud to announce that SAFE has been awarded a $5,000 Training Grant from the ASPCA Equine Fund. This grant was given in recognition of SAFE’s commitment to producing good equine citizens who are ready to succeed, through the use of professional training and…
Saddling Stevie
Today, after much preparation and groundwork Stevie was ready to be introduced to the saddle. He had just a few bucks feeling out the saddle but quickly settled to a nice comfortable and relaxed walk, trot and lope. Volunteer rider Casey A. has done great work…
The Evolution of Sophie
Today Sophie was officially upgraded from a Prospect to a Riding Horse. Admittedly, this is a fairly minor development in Sophie’s career, but quietly behind the scenes, Sophie is making a big impact on how we think about horses here at SAFE. As a SAFE horse, Sophie…
Anderson in Training
Early in July of this year, we made the decision to put Anderson back into training, this time with Joel Conner. Although Anderson had a good start as a riding horse, there were some holes in his training that had started cropping up. A bucking incident unseated SAFE…
Ben at the Joel Conner Clinic, September 9–11, 2016
(as reported by his regular rider, Lisa Garr) In September, Ben and I once again worked under the tutelage of Joel Conner at a SAFE-hosted clinic. This weekend showed a completely new horse in our big ol’ redheaded fellow. Now able to handle pressure from the bit…
Saddling Session at the Joel Conner Clinic
Sunday morning, three young redheads were saddled up and worked in the roundpen at the start of the clinic. This included Jessel (who met the saddle for the first time at yesterday’s clinic), Sophie, and Lacey. Here are photos from this session: [gallery link=“file”…
