Method Ambassador Barclay De Wet grew up training and showing horses on her family’s 80-year-old Saddlebred farm. “I’ve been riding since my mom was pregnant with me, and started taking lessons when I was 4,” she says.
By the time she was 9, she was in the show ring, and has amassed an impressive list of accolades throughout her career including 7 world championship titles and 10 reserve world championship titles riding her family’s horses.
Along with her show horses, Barclay has always kept a horse at her barn to go trail riding with. “When I’d take my horse out on the trails, more often than not, I’d wonder how other people had taught their horses to stand tied quietly at the trailer or walk confidently through water,” Barclay says. “The ‘I wonder how they got their horse to do that’ was a running theme for most of my horsemanship journey.”
The answers to those questions were answered when she attended Road to the Horse in 2015. “I Googled everyone who had competed in the event and Clinton’s name kept coming up. My husband, who is more of a western rider, had seen Clinton on TV and encouraged me to check him out,” Barclay says.
When she learned that Clinton would be teaching a Fundamentals Clinic in Frankfort, Kentucky in the fall of 2015, Barclay made plans to attend. “I had one horse that I was going to train using the Method and gave myself three months to prepare for the clinic,” she says.
The first morning of the clinic, Clinton introduced himself and then explained the philosophy behind his approach to training horses. “I was riveted. I remember looking down at my watch and realizing three hours had gone by and I couldn’t believe it,” she says.
After her experience at the clinic, Barclay was committed to learning as much as she could about the Method. Her quest led her to participate in the 2016 Colt Starting Clinic and Intermediate Clinic. “Those clinics only made me want to learn more, and that’s when I made the decision to attend the Academy,” she says.
As a Method Ambassador, Barclay is passionate about sharing the Method to help horsemen build safe partnerships with their horses. “I believe everyone needs to know about the Method because of how effective it is,” she says. “I enjoy sharing my knowledge and helping people learn how to have fun and be confident with their horses.”
Barclay is based in Paris, Kentucky, where she trains horses for the public and teaches private lessons and clinics that focus on the Fundamentals level of the Method. Learn all about Barclay on her website or contact her directly at 859-340-2285 or [email protected].
