windurra camp ‘26

All the way back in July 2017, some friends and I embarked on a casual informal “adult camp” that included a day trip out to Boyd Martin’s legendary international eventing facility Windurra for a guided tour. 

That was a great and memorable day — so when I won an educational grant this year from the MCTA, it was a no-brainer to splurge on auditing the official Windurra Camp: a three day extravaganza full of demonstrations, lectures, and unmounted sessions in addition to traditional clinic lessons!

the auditors’ goody bag came complete with branded swag, natch

The clinic was an immersive experience of long days chock full of content and material from a broad range of professionals. And, as you might expect, I took a TON of notes! And pictures, omg so many pictures LOL!

So I’ll spend the next couple days working through the mountain of material — hopefully digesting and distilling it all down to the biggest themes, takeaways, learnings, observations and ideas. 

Today’s post will focus on cross country, pulling the threads together from a few different sessions, including auditing participant lessons, former steeplechase jockey Mark Beecher’s session on galloping position, and Boyd’s demo schooling session with Liz Halliday Sharp’s Paris Olympics horse, Cooley Nutcracker. 

brace yo’self, bc i took a LOT of notes!

Subsequent posts will be dedicated to show jumping (featuring Peter Wylde), dressage (featuring Silva Martin, Brett Parbery and Laura Graves), and then a miscellaneous catch-all from the unmounted demos and sessions, including: 

- The Champion Mindset with Natalie Hummel

- Bitting Discussion & Demonstration with Xander from Stübben

- When To Call The Vet with Kevin Keane, DVM

- General (and also Personal!) Conditioning Discussions with Steph Simpson and Peter Wylde

boyd did a cross country galloping position demonstration on this chromey chestnut

Hopefully at least some of that will be interesting to the average reader lol… So let’s dig in, yes?

Tho, lol, I’ll be honest with you… I’m starting this recap series with cross country bc it’s the easiest for me to get out quickly… mostly bc… ymmv but I find auditing xc clinics to be less impactful than other phases, in the grand scheme of things. 

So much of cross country riding is really just about feel. And since most of us don’t have the luxury of setting up our own schooling fields, it’s not like we’re taking away exercises or combinations to recreate at home either. The lower levels are most fundamentally just one jump at a time, applying skills and training developed from normal every day ring riding.

lessons were replete with lots of discussion of principles

What WAS interesting to me, however, was the number of recurring themes throughout the entire clinic: no matter who led the session for which phase, certain patterns and concepts emerged again and again. And one major theme related to techniques for warming up the horse, preparing for a ride in any of the three phases.

Shocking exactly nobody, the name of that theme is Adjustability. Also known as forward and back, lengthen and collect, transitions within and between gaits, forever.

every session had tons of auditors too!!

For the cross country clinic lessons, Boyd started by having riders find a light seat at trot, immediately working on adjustability in the gait off just the rider’s position: trot, nearly walk, then trot off again. Rinse, repeat, then canter. 

In canter, riders would shorten the stride on a small-ish circle, maybe 15m, then ride forward again. With the intention of right away trying different lengths of canter — including opening onto a more open stride in a truer galloping position.

random flashback to a million years ago when charlie and i did epic things like jumping that same jump <3 <3 <3

In Boyd’s demo rides, Peter Wylde offered a sort of live-stream narration (audible in the video below!), and in his words, “the warm up is intended to help the horse take a breath and get in sync.” The purpose is to connect and feel ready, and that just doing the short quick bare minimum in order to start jumping jumps can be less helpful in the long term (Editor’s note: guilty as charged!). 

For the first couple jumps, Boyd suggested “don’t think cross country yet” — just keep it really simple. And in his demo with Bali, he started with a simple figure-8 over two inviting tables — focusing on politeness and turning both directions equally well on landing.

back to boyd, doing another demonstration — this time a serious but simple schooling ride with Cooley Nutcracker

As a schooling ride progresses, Boyd encouraged riders to try to recreate the feeling of being on course — taking longer straight approaches and big sweeping turns, vs more twisty show-jumpery type lines. The first few fences are really thinking about turning each way, checking all the aids, checking for politeness rather than “desperation.”

Relating to pace, Peter advised that when on simple flat ground — non-complex / combination scenarios — you’re basically looking to do one less stride to everything than you’d do in show jumping.

it’s insane how easy these two make it all look

Former steeplechase jockey Mark Beecher tag-teamed the galloping position sessions with Boyd, and encouraged riders to practice catching jumps on a more forward flying stride — the “minimal set up” type galloping fence. 

While he said it’s inevitable that riders will make mistakes doing this practice (and therefore suggested practicing in low-consequence scenarios like with a ground pole or small safe slope-y type jump), he was adamant that it was a critical part of learning to be smooth in cross country. 

Riding forward, keep coming forward — don’t necessarily commit to the forward with your body while you work on developing the feel — but keep riding forward.

Bali trying to act like he wouldn’t accidentally murder boyd while spooking at his own reflection lol

For each session, and especially for Boyd’s demo with Bali, he talked about the importance of keeping it simple. You don’t have to jump every jump every time — especially if schooling is something you can do more frequently. 

The checklist is basically to practice the gears (forward and back), check the turning, try a little terrain (jumping up and downhill), and hit the three main hallmarks of xc (ditches, banks and water) — with any combinations as appropriate by level.

video from their schooling ride here — short and sweet!

Horses at Windurra generally jump twice a week — maybe one session is show jumping and the other is cross country, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be both. 

Especially for the veteran campaigners, cross country days can be selected base on optimal conditions. For example, it rained on and off all day Saturday, so the ground was perfect on Sunday for Boyd to bring Bali out for his first cross country jumps since Kentucky.

tfw you get home early after an inspiring clinic and can’t wait to get on your horse, denim be damned!

I’m sure the riders had more takeaways from their various lessons — likely with specific homework related to posture, technique, or how to help their horse with various questions etc. For example, Boyd was adamant in his coaching about position details like keeping the upper body back with hands forward especially down banks or for jumps with stuff on landing.

But for me, the breakdown on how to approach the warm up is probably most applicable. Namely bc I’m literally notoriously terrible about just rushing through it bc Doozy is so much easier to jump than to flat lol… Sigh…  

More than anything, tho, the cross country sessions just made me feel a little sad, jealous and #FOMO-y — and eager to get Doozy fully recovered so we can get out there for ourselves again!! All in good time, hopefully. 

And in the meantime, more to come on the rest of the sessions soon — definitely lmk if there’s anything either from the xc sessions or from the stuff yet to come that seems particularly interesting to you!