The esense of learning to ride

As someone who has given clinics, I understand how the individual attention is limited and if that is a priority for a rider, then auditing is the best most cost efficient way to attend. I am doing a clinic next weekend and only two riders have signed up so far but there are many auditors. I think that is great. Not sure the barn owner agrees, but over the years as I kept lowering the number of riders in a clinic I would do (and lost barns sponsoring my clinics by insisting on this) I thought my clinics became more useful. I agree that watching other riders struggle with specific issues is a great way to learn. Also, I found that with a small number of riders in a clinic I was able to take the time to ride every horse if only for a few minutes. This seems to be very educational too for auditors. They see a rider struggling with their horse and then the see me struggling, maybe, but in different ways until the struggle ends.