A Great Time at Farewell Farm
Returning home to Maplewood.
I just returned from giving a three-day clinic in Oklahoma at Farewell Farm for Libby Barrow. This is the fourth year they've had me back, and every year I have a great time and get to work with amazing horses and riders.
The highlight for me this year was a fabulous party at the beautiful home of Amy and Mindy Coretz. Mindy is the pro rider for Farewell Farm, and not only rode in all four groups of the clinic, but also hosted a party that would be the envy of anyone!
We had a discussion on judging, where I talked about designing the Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals and what went into judging the class. We handed out an article from the current (January) issue of USHJA In Stride magazine about the course we were building and jumping the following day. This was the year Geoff Teall and I judged.
There were a lot of riders, parents, trainers and fellow judges in the audience, and we had great questions and discussion. On Sunday we built the course, and every group jumped some version of it. A great time was had by all :)
More than a foot of new snow helps to hide the flood damage we're still working to repair at Maplewood.
When I arrived home at 1 a.m. on Monday morning, I was greeted with over a foot of new snow. It was beautiful—especially because it masked the awful flood devastation we experienced two weeks ago. We have such a long way to go to clean and repair everything that was damaged, and at this date we've not been able to move the horses back into the main barn. We hope to do that by the end of this week, barring any unforeseen problems.
Cynthia Martinez from Equine Exchange was kind enough to set up a GoFundMe account for Maplewood. Even though I originally said I didn’t want the charity, everything is costing a lot more than originally estimated, and with no insurance money, I appreciate everyone who has donated!
I'm also thankful to everyone that has contacted me about buying my nice young horses to help fund the clean up and rebuilding of Maplewood!
I am so grateful to be able to work with horses as my existence and am so fortunate to have such support from all my horse friends :)
Until next time!
Julie
P.S. Here are a few wonderful comments I received from clinic participants!
A huge thank you to everyone who made last weekend so special and so full of learning opportunities. Julie Winkel understands horses so very deeply, and her ability to communicate to others how we can best get inside their heads in order to become better horse-people by thinking like a horse to communicate with clarity and empathy in a way that is fair and that they understand is so special and something we should all aspire to. Thanks to the whole team at Farewell Farm for putting this weekend together, to the owners who allowed me to ride and learn from your phenomenal horses, to the horses themselves, and to all of the participants and auditors who showed up each day with enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! - Mindy Coretz
So thankful I had the opportunity to take two of my horses to the Julie Winkel Clinic. To say I learned a lot is an understatement. Thanks @amycoretz for this pic! And thank you @mindyrebeccaa @farewellfarm for being the best barn fam and putting this clinic together! - Shelby Leigh Sherba