It only takes a moment of meeting Merrilyn Ratliff and listening to her sing the praises of her OTTB, Koda Bear, to realize how strong their partnership is. We had the great fortune of watching Merrilyn and Koda Bear while auditing the Lucinda Green clinic at Loch Moy Farm, home of the Maryland Horse Trials on April 29-30, 2024. In this episode, which is Part 1 of 2 of our clinic coverage, we’ll recap Merrilyn’s past and present experiences riding with the six-time Badminton winner, 1982 World Champion, and Olympic medallist.

For those unfamiliar, Lucinda has a unique teaching style - the fences never get very big, but she has a keen eye for teaching horses and riders how to prepare for cross country courses and to develop that “fifth leg” that a good cross country horse has.

In this clinic, she put a big emphasis on terrain and how s ...