By Susie Morgan
If you are planning a horse vacation to the Santa Fe Area, you might want to time it so that you are able to participate in an Extreme Trail Clinic while you are here. The clinics are held each May at Barbara Windom’s La Estancia Alegre Peruvian horse farm in Alcalde; an hour north of Santa Fe. New Mexico is one of the very few lucky states to have an Extreme Trail Course – one of 9 in the world and only 6 in the USA.
Requiring more than 3 acres, it takes some heavy equipment for earth moving, pumps for stream and pond water level control, and lots of water to create obstacles horses and many people have never seen. Using the natural environment means that each course is unique. The New Mexico course is built right on the banks of the Rio Grande River. The architect of these courses is Mark Bolender, three-time national champion, and creator of exciting new competition events: Mountain Trail, Extreme Mountain Trail and Competitive Trail.
It really doesn’t matter what training a horse has, the Bolender Clinic will challenge their minds and build self-confidence in the horse. Even the most seasoned riders are surprised by the range of obstacles the horse is able to execute. The clinics are three full days running from 9am to 3pm. At the end of three days, every horse will do every obstacle with varying degrees of proficiency. Obstacles include among other things, a suspension bridge, a very high trestle bridge, a wooden bridge that rolls forward when the horse steps up on it, teeter totter, 5’ deep trench, and many water crossings, streams to walk down, and a pond.
The pond has a large boulder where riders must dismount, walk their horse around the boulder and remount. The goal is to make it through the exercise without the rider getting wet. There are low narrow bridges over a stream, and just dirt stream crossings themselves which actually seem to give horses more trouble as some horses decide leaping is the best option. Most riders are very suspicious of the teeter-totter. As it turns out, that is typically one of the easier obstacles for the horse. The horse step up and starts across only to have the teeter-totter drop to earth in front of the horse.
Every horse in any trained discipline will benefit from and enjoy these three days outside their usual routine. The price is $550 which includes box stall or pipe corral and feed for your horse, continental breakfast and full lunch each day provided by Barbara, and 3 clinic days starting at 9am to 3pm.
If you are interested in doing something outside the box, this clinic might be for you. Two clinics are held each May. Each clinic is limited to 12 horses, and these fill up quickly. For more information, or to register for a 2016 clinic, visit La Estancia Alegre