Not Your Basic Boot Camp
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182 – July/August, 2022
By Megan Arszman
In the weeks leading up to the AQHA Youth World Show, preparations are in full force as youth make the trek towards Oklahoma City. But first, most will make a stop at their trainer’s farm for boot camp. It’s not your typical boot camp, though. Outsiders might see it as a day of playing with horses all day.
AQHA Professional Horseman Robin Frid has been hosting youth boot camps since the early 2000s as a way to train his clients to prepare at a higher level. “I would push them to be better,” says Robin. “I would push them to think and to have a better connection with their horse.”
In the past twenty years of working with youth exhibitors, Robin has learned almost as much about working with young riders as his riders have learned in the arena. It’s this experience that has helped him continually morph his program to fit riders of all disciplines and ages.
“Kids have changed a lot,” he says. “For the most part, we don’t have the same competitor (as in the past)—their mindset is different.”
Robin says that in the past the youth fed off one another and were extremely driven to work hard all day, with no limit to how hard he could push the kids. But now, he’s learned there are some limits to some riders. But the main goal is still there: “It’s about team building, but at the end of the day it’s about pushing yourself as an individual,” Robin says.
Trainer Shannon McCulloch agrees with Robin about the importance of the team building, but also focusing on the individuals. “I try to tailor to each rider’s needs,” she says. “We have individual meetings where I set goals with each kid, so the camp is tailored to them. We try to address the elephant in the room so we can tackle it. Some kids are cool competitors, some kids try to manage the pattern… it just depends on that individual.”
“It’s my job to know how hard to push my youth exhibitors,” says Robin. “There may be a kid that I can’t push as hard, but sometimes they don’t understand why I’m not pushing them as hard—it’s because I don’t want to break them.”
“It’s important to know how much you can push your kids,” agrees Trainer Arturo Maestas. “I don’t want to burn them out, but I also want them on their game.”
How Long Do Kids Stay?
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182 – July/August, 2022
