PASADENA — Buck Brannaman conducted a four-day event clinic with the Rose Bowl Riders Feb. 17-20, and more than 500 spectators joined the 50 riders who learned from the man whose reach continues to grow since the 2011 release of the film, “Buck.”

The riders were split into separate classes each day — “Foundational Horsemanship” and “Horsemanship 1,” and the they represented many disciplines and riding levels. Western pleasure, trail rider, hunter jumpers — including Olympian Will Simpson — participated. While some students took lessons with RBR-borrowed lesson horses, other riders trailered in local barns as well as from Orange County and the Inland Empire.

Foundation Horsemanship is a new class is for green riders or for green horses who may feel the need for additional groundwork prior to riding. During each of the four-day sessions, half of the class worked from the ground in preparation for riding, the other half on horseback.

Horsemanship 1 involved green riders and horses comfortable in the snaffle bit, as well as aged horses needing continued work. This is the first stage of progressing into the bridle with all basic movements introduced.

Spectators arrived from a wide-ranging area, too, including Ojai, Twenty-nine Palms and Marina del Rey. They included wide-ranging stories, too, such as a woman from NASA who works at the nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a minister who wanted to learn how to work with abused children. THere also was a foster dad who had been given a horse and wanted to learn how to train it, as well as several celebritiesincluding “The Dog Whisperer,” Cesar Milan.

The clinic, which benefitted the host facility and will help fund capital improvements at RBR, was a team effort that included Tom Sawyer Camps, which offered space to stable the riders’ horses; City of Pasadena, provider of parking for trailers and cars in areas of the park not usually available for parking; and members of Rose Bowl Riders took off from work to volunteer all four days to ensure a successful clinic.