Feature
Phil Rodey’s Recent Trip to Western Australia
By Janella Patience
Travels with Phil
Whew can it only be two weeks ago that we picked Phil Rodey up in Perth and travelled to Geraldton. Such a lot seems to have happened that it feels like two months. Someone once said if you sit and wait for life to happen then time will fly by, whereas if you go out and meet it, it will last forever.
Phil hates being called a ‘master’ horseman, but I find it hard to describe him any other way. Although he could become the ‘guru’ of Geraldton dressage, a couple of local dressage riders dared to look ‘outside the box’ and turned up for help with ‘advanced’ moves, all of which went rather well. Phil was here for a week and a bit doing private lessons, helping start young horses under saddle, and working with student who wanted to move to the next stage. Then we had a fabulous two day clinic, with 13 riders on the Saturday and 11 on Sunday, weather was kind, fly’s stayed away, sea breeze turned up on que, and life was sweet.
Phil certainly can talk, more even than me, I was the only member of my family not allowed to kiss the ‘blarney stone’ (the stone that is famous for giving one the gift of the gab!) ha! I have been to lots of Phil’s clinics over the past years and have heard him talk horse sense so often, and yet I still have ‘light bulb moments’ those blinding flashes of ‘why haven’t I heard that before....’ this time it was if you want to get good with horses you had better ride the life in the body through the mind to the feet, let his feet become your feet. I have heard this time and again, yet this trip it suddenly hit me, I knew I could ride the life up through the paces, but hey, maybe I could also ride the feet down to a stop rather than pick up on the reins, and guess what it started to happen.
From Geraldton it was off to Jurien Bay, where Phil did a one day clinic on the Wednesday. 8 keen riders turned up and in spite of some rather wet squally, very unseasonable weather, we had a great day, country hospitality was wonderful as always, with a great bring and share lunch. We were rather late leaving to head to Perth for the night.
You know life is on line and everything going to plan when things fall into place and become easy, this was how my last two weeks have been, even almost running out of fuel after finding the local fuel station closed, became an adventure rather than a disaster.
We finally arrived in Perth and Phil went off with Lisa Draper who had more private lessons organised for Thursday and Friday, with another two day clinic scheduled, day one in Wooroloo, and day two in Millendon. Again I had the privilege of riding at the clinics and Saturday was one of those wonderful days where things drop into place, make sense, and just flow. I was so proud of my horse Dawn, she is becoming so soft and responsive, a real pleasure to ride and be with. It was great to ride in Perth and meet so many ‘like minded’ people, who are so keen to learn.
Phil is hopefully planning to come back sometime in April.
If you are interested in putting your name on the ‘keep me in the loop’ list please contact Lisa Draper in Perth on 9573 1006 or myself, Janella Patience in Geraldton on 9938 1026.
Cheers
Janella Patience
www.jphorse.com
Natural Horse Enthusiast
Geraldton