Before leaving CA, I talked with Susan Harris about her coming to Alaska and doing a centered riding clinic. I hesitated before asking because I knew that this would require some organizational savvy on my part. But now that I’m home, it seems like putting on this clinic is well within the realm of possibility.

Susan charges $1,000 a day plus lodging and airfare. The clinic would be for 3-4 days. Say then, if this clinic was three days, and there were ten people, the cost would be approximately $400.00 per person. This is the low estimate. Susan might, on the fourth day, offer private or semi-private lessons.

I checked with Brit and Greg, and was told that their Saddle Up Arena will be available on the dates that are best for Susan – August 21-24. This would be the ideal venue for this. Dick Stoffel is currently building an arena (build it and they will come). I don’t know if holding a clinic there is an option – if the weather turns bad, we’d be screwed. Plus, boarding is available at the Saddle Up.

Add to this, I might be able to get grant money to defray some of the costs. Susan says that because this clinic would take place in a new area, the centered riding people might pitch in for funding. I might also be able to get a Dressage Federation grant – I will first need to find a sponsoring organization that is a nonprofit organization. Pete suggested that I contact the competitive trail riding people – they might be interested in signing on. So, I will soon begin to look into doing all this.

I will also need to get on Facebook and see if I can generate interest on the part of attendees. I’m not a big fan of Facebook – this seems like an obtrusive space/time waster to me. But I’ll do this, if this is what this takes.

The prospect of my doing this is daunting. But the benefits – more instruction time for me, more interest in centered riding – outweigh the drawbacks, some of which are time-related. Plus, I am not a very good administrator. My eyes begin glazing over when faced with having to deal with the minutiae that accompany such endeavors. And, I’ll have to organize information and stay organized. Plus, I’ll have to ASK people for money. The latter reminds me of being a kid, and going door to door, and standing on street corners, in the former case selling flower cuttings, and in the latter case selling roses, roses provided by a disreputable local businessman.

My mantra should be “I can do this,” “I can do this,” “I can do this.” Baby steps. Today I’ll work on grant stuff. In a few days Pete will be done with school, and he can then help me with the Facebook stuff.

I might even get to ride Raudi in the clinic. That would be an added bonus. I can’t really fail. No clinic, no one would be the wiser for this.

Next: 105. 4/22/15: When it Rains, it Pours