Leslie Desmond
 

Anyone ever seen her stuff? I just got back from auditing and my frickin' head hurts from an overload of knowledge. I'm inspired though. Elegant and thoughtful are words for how she works with the horses. It was a very small group attending. Probably for reasons relating to her taking a lot of even my foundational assumptions about horses and turning them upside down. She really makes me wish I could have seen Bill Dorrance when he was still alive.

There is a lady a few hours away from us who has ridden with her. I have always wanted to audit one of her clinics.

Never heard of her, but care to share what she shared?

Where did you see her? I would LOVE to see her! I have seen her on video, but she doesn't do a lot of them.

An example.

Or you could post a video.... that's cool too...

Certainly interesting, may have to investigate her further.

I've never seen her, but she's my trainer's trainer! He goes to her instructor clinics.

In Half Moon Bay, CA. About 8 miles from my camp, so it was pretty convenient. :-P

I've been on such a high for the past week I couldn't really think of what to say concerning what I learned and gained from watching Leslie work. Her knowledge clearly runs deep and covers a broad range of horse-related subjects from traveling, studying and riding all over the world. Her individual expression of the art is inspiring to watch. The horses she worked with quickly became at ease in her presence as she consistently radiated a peace and clarity which was reflected in them. Their expressions were what made the biggest impression on me. She pointed out subtle signals in the horses' expressions that I've seen other trainers omit or gloss over as they're usually related to man-made stress, the same things which I've seen in my own horses.

At this point I feel that the biggest benefit I gained from being around her was that it sharpened me up. I had begun to think that I had gotten fairly good and then I saw how much farther it's possible to go. That's what I'm into though. The pursuit of horsemanship as a way of life. Overall I would say that her deal is well-suited for me. It was a pretty small group, kind of like the groups at Brannaman's clinics when he isn't so famous as he is right now.

Been filming every day for the past week trying out some new stuff.

Ian, I am sorry but it's really hard to hear what you are saying, and see the details with the camera so far from the action. I would love to see you get some help filming and get some more quality there, because I think you have something to offer.