Natural Horsemanship ((Group A))

[Anastasie Chevalier]

OOC: To start off with, Natural Horsemanship is written just like that, there is no space between horse and manship. I am using two books for this lesson (thread); 101 Horsemanship Exercises, by Rio Barret and 100 Ways to a Perfect Equine Partnership, by Susan McBane

Anastasie Chevalier led her chestnut Gypsy Cob toward her classroom - ok, so it was a large field that she had claimed for use during her practical classes - and rubbed the young gelding's nose as she asked him to come to a stand-still in the middle of the field. When the students had arrived, she would take him further back, so that everyone could see her.

Leaving the gelding to graze contentedly, she placed the bag that was over her shoulder on the ground and carefully removed the wireless hands-free microphone from it's little pouch and clipped the transmitter onto her belt and then pinned the microphone into place before her switched the transmitter on. "Testing." She said and smiled as her voice bounced back at her. However, she bit her lip as she saw Goldie shy at the noise, his head high as he looked around with wide eyes. She tweaked the volume control. "Better?" She asked and nodded when the youngster went back to grazing.

For her previous lessons she had just used her own voice to project the instructions, and this way she wouldn't have to shout. She turned the transmitter off for now, as she wouldn't need it as she greeted the students as they arrived.

[Jackson Reinken]

Jackson had been woken up by his raging alarm clock, that you could probaly hear across the country. Groaning, he slapped it off, and then sat up in bed. Rubbing his eyes, he thought, off to Natural Horsemanship, and then got up, and started walking around a bit. Walking to his closet, Jackson decided on a pair of jeans, tee, and boots. He didn't know what the teacher would perfer them to wear, so this would have to do for now. Walking into the bathroom, Jackson did his usual routine, before jumping out of the shower, getting dressed. Once he was finished, Jackson grabbed his key and then started out of the dorm, down to the outdoor arena.

Once Jackson was across the campus and could see the arena come into view, he was excited about learning something here. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, as he thought it would of been. Hearing a microphone, Jackson realized he was a bit early. Hopefully the teacher didn't mind, she seemed nice, over the microphone. Walking up to the arena's fence, Jackson saw her and her horse, or a horse at least. Being quiet, but loud enough for her to hear him Jackson said, "Is it ok if I come in? Or would your horse to perfer me staying out?" he asked, knowing that all horses were diffrent.

[Sara Jane Lyena]

Sara grinned as she headed through the barn, grabbing Balian's halter and walking back to the gelding's stall. Her backpack sat on the ground next to where Cinder was laying, just for a moment. Sara led Balian out of his stall, then slung the bag over her shoulder and looked at Cinder, "Calx." She headed out towards the field and then stopped at the tree just outside of the fence. She dropped Balian's lead for a moment, trusting the gelding to stand still, and rummaged through her backpack until she had found a ten foot leash. She tied it around the tree, then clipped the end to Cinder's collar, "Lapsus, mora." She watched the dog lay down, then picked up Balian's lead again and walked into the field, passing by the boy who was standing at the gate. She grinned at Ms. Chevalier, "How was your summer break?" She glanced over to the tree to make sure the red and white malamute was staying put, then moved to the general area where she and Balian always worked. She let the gelding graze at the end of his lead rope as she waited for the class to start.

[Olivia Cheyenne Kwinn]

Olivia slipped into Blue's stall and rubbed the mare's nose, "Well, you get to come to class with me today!" She was excited about bringing the mare along to Natural Horsemanship, especially since she hadn't been able to ride the German Riding Pony in her Western classes... The mare didn't know what to do, and the last thing Olivia wanted was to hurt the mare that was one of her two favorite animals on the planet.

She buckled on Blue's halter and led the mare out of her stall, then headed in the direction of the large field that she had been told that the class would be held at. She could see three horses already there, two people in the field, and one at the gate. She paused for a moment, glancing at the woman who seemed to be the teacher, the girl that was already in the field, and the boy that was at the gate, "May we come in?" She wasn't sure what the proper etiquette was... Well, it was a field. Blue snorted at the other horses, then tried sniffing at the boy's bay gelding. Olivia tugged on her lead rope and stepped away, smiling at the guy, "Sorry about that."

[Koye Bennett]

Koye entered Red Willow, he was happy to be going to class with Red today. He won't get to much this year, with his schedule and all. His horse was sticking his head out of the stall, as he always did, when Koye came near. "Sup boy?" The gelding was dirty again. "Do you purposely get dirty before I come to get you?" He could tell that the gelding had just laid down. Koye ran off to the tack room to go get a halter and grooming kit. The halter slid over the nose and head of Red, then Koye buckled the throat latch of the halter. He lead Red out to an open set of cross ties and groomed the strawberry roan. Red was groomed and ready for class, so again Koye retreated to the tack room again, leaving the gelding to stand. This time Koye was empty handed. He unclipped the gelding.

Koye neared the field, seeing two people already in the field and two by the gate. He figured he would be fine if he just let the gelding graze inside of the gate, but not to far past the gate. The two near the gate where close to him so he introduced himself. "Hey, I'm Koye." While introducing himself he wasn't paying attention to Red, and got to feel all twelve hundred pounds of Red on his foot. It didn't hurt much because he was used to it, and he just laughed. So smooth ex-lax." He smiled at the two as he pushed Red off of him.

[anthonyblake]

"Now, boy, please be good? You're meeting Ms. Chevalier today - remember, I said I'd spoken to her? - but there's also going to be lots of other horses and people around, so it would nice if you weren't insane today. Mmkay?"

Twitch snorted.

Tony frowned. "I don't really feel like you're taking me seriously, here..."

He had no further time for either admonishments or pleas, however, as Twitch had managed to make himself particularly grubby overnight and had therefore taken longer to groom than Tony had expected; if he didn't want to be late, he'd have to get a move on. Slipping Twitch's halter on and buckling it firmly, carefully checking the fit as a matter of habit, he led the gelding out of the stall, hoping that today was going to be a day when Twitch was not going to be too spooky, or too obnoxious, as either option invariably resulting in Tony getting dragged around. That was not something he wished to happen in their first Natural Horsemanship class, though he supposed there was at least the slight advantage that Ms. Chevalier already knew that Twitch was liable to be a potential problem.

Luckily, their journey down to the Natural Horsemanship field was one not fraught with problems, Twitch only having a little spook at a bird flying out of a bush - a spook that was a fairly restrained little jump sideways - and Tony was beginning to feel more confident about the whole thing as they approached the paddock. There was already a small cluster of horses and people gathered near the gate, and Tony and Twitch came to a halt a measured distance behind them, still close enough to talk but not close enough to cause a problem if any of the horses decided to take offense at something. Twitch whuffled what Tony was going to assume was a greeting at the other horses, the large chestnut's ears pricked forwards with interest as he clearly wondered what was going on. This wasn't what he was used to at all!

"Good morning," he said, generally, glad that Twitch was interested enough in the proceedings to not be leaping around anywhere. Maybe they'd actually manage to make a good first impression upon someone this time! Though torn between apprehension that things were all going to go horribly wrong, excitement at learning some Natural Horsemanship, which he'd been looking forward to ever since he'd heard it was on the curriculum and hope that he would be able to build a better relationship with Twitch and help him come to terms more with life, the positive emotions were definitely, as was Tony'd wont, winning out, and so he had an excited smile on his face as he offered everyone present a little wave, glad to see some familiar faces in Sara and Olivia, and wondering if anyone else he knew would be turning up for the class.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda sighed as she walked down the aisle of the equine clinic, headed towards the first session of Natural Horsemanship. She smiled at the little black filly that whinnied at her as she passed, "See you later, Tanya." As much as she wanted to spend time with the filly, the reason she had signed up for this class was Cray, and so she would be taking Cray with her.

She glanced into the mare's stall and sighed, "I'll have to brush you." She grabbed the mare's grooming kit and came back, then hurried to brush the mare in the stall. Once that was finally done, Miranda buckled on the mare's halter and lead and then walked her out of her stall. She wasn't sure what to expect from the natural horsemanship class, but she hoped it would help her and Cray just a little bit more.

As she approached the field, she saw that she wasn't the first student to arrive. She stopped a few paces back from the other horses, because she didn't know how Cray would act towards them. She could see a girl and the teacher inside the field already, and the rest outside of the gate.

[Tyson Grant Wilcox]

Tyson strutted into Whit Oak barn where his beloved mare was kept. He hadn't gotten around to it, but he would ask the teacher if he could bring a different horse to class next time, that was a school horse. He felt like Tommy Boy, the bay Holsteiner he rode, needed these lessons more than his mare did. But, he could always learn them on Fli, and teach to the gelding, as well as Chaz on the outside when he took them for rides.

The eighteen year old didn't know what to bring for the class, so he grabbed a lunge line and his dressage whip from the tack room. He knew there would be some riding, but he was sure he would have known if he were going to need to tack up his horse today. "Hey Sister," he grinned, as the Percheron stuck her large head from the stall. She let out a soft nicker, and started to chew as the boy turned his body away from her to get the halter. He witched the lead for the line, and left it hanging on the hook. He then entered the stall and slipped the halter over her nose and tied it behind her ears on the side of her face. It was a rope halter, as, he either worked with that, or an actual bridle for ground work. He would especially use the bridle for teaching more advanced cues, but these should be rather basic.

After a quick brushing, and painted hooves, the eighteen year old led his horse out of the barn. The boy spotted a mounting block nearby and led his grey draft over there. Tyson quickly hopped on her back, in his polo shirt, jeans, and lace-up work boots. His legs squeezed her sides and the mare horse walked forward in the halter. The brunet was feeling lazy, and he didn't want to walk all the way to the horsemanship field. He bumped Fli up to a trot, and she still rounded nicely without help from the bit. The boy lightly bounced along, the field and other students coming into view. He slowed his mare to a walk, her ears twitching from him, to the figures up ahead. Tyson steered Fli near the gate, his hazel eyes drifting from the group outside, recognizing... oh, that guy was here. The one with the attitude? The one that threatened to punch him at the wash racks? Tyson swallowed grimly at him, before scanning the other students. He subtly shrugged and slid off of his mare's high back, landing with a light thud. His eyes turned to the attractive teacher, waiting for further instructions.

Horse: Here

[Nina Joel Dobrev]

Nina headed to the White Oaks barn and decided to take Hope to natural horsemanship today, since she thinks Hope needs to learn to get along with Nina. She patted the mare's neck as she clipped on her lead. She unlatched the stall door and lead her out of her stall, before they headed out of the barn she checked if Hope might need a good brushing down. Hope didn't look dirty at all, besides her tangled mane. She carefully untangled them with her fingers and then walked her out of the barn towards the field where natural horsemanship always was.

As she walked towards the gate and lead Hope into the field. She spotted two people that she knew, Sara and Tyson. She then lead Hope over to Tyson and Fli and smiled at him. "Hey Tyson." She said to him in kind of a soft voice in case Ms. Chevalier were to speak. She looked back over to where Ms. Chevalier was standing with the microphone as she waited for her instructions and for the class to start.

[Monique//Aurora Chambers]

Aurora bounced into the barn and down to her gelding's stall. She got the Carthusian out of his stall and led him to a set of cross-ties. It didn't take her long to get him groomed and looking pretty.

Unclipping the ties, she led him out of the barn and down to the field that Ms Chevalier used for her classroom. As she got there, she led the gelding through the gate and cried out as he crushed her into the gateway. She had tears in her eyes as she led the dappled horse into the field and found their own space. "That wasn't nice, Globe." She told the gelding, and struggled to hold on to him as he pranced on the spot, his tail held high as he looked wide-eyed at the other horses and ponies in the field. She was suddenly regretting taking this class.

The pre-teen struggled to keep a hold on the gelding as he started to dance around, bumping into her every now and then. She wished that she had worn her gloves, but this was a Globe that she had never seen before, but there again she was normally riding him when around others and he was a perfect gentleman under the saddle, or in the arena if she was standing at his head waiting for instructions.

[Lucy Davis]

Lucy entered into the Red Williow Barn, to see it busier than usual. Walking in, she saw her splashed paint swing his head over the stall door, ready to go to Natural Horsemanship.

"Hey boy, you ready to go?" Lucy asked his stroking his nose, and then unlocking her tack trunk. Reaching down into it, she grabbed her grooming box. Seeing that there were not anymore cross ties left, Lucy unlatched his stall door and walked in. Seeing that all his white was covered in grass stains, Lucy sighed. "Really Ticker, you had to roll? Your lucky I have this remover." Lucy said to him setting the grooming box down. Starting with the rubber curry, Lucy moved it along in circular motions all down his body. Once done with both sides, she moved onto the soft body brush and brushed Ticker down. His mane and tail were not tangled or matted, so she moved on right away with his hooves. Only needing to brush them a bit, Lucy then grabbed a wash cloth out of the box, and applied some remover for grass stains. Rubbing it all over Ticker's body, he was all white again, just like Lucy liked it. Smiling she grabbed her lead rope off the hook, after she had locked up her tack trunk, and then clipped it onto Ticker's halter. Leading him out of Red Williow, Lucy saw many owners and there horses in the Natural Horsemanship Field already.

Wallking Ticker down, Lucy halted him where everyone had met at the gate apprently.

[Anastasie Chevalier]

Lucy, please change your speech colour, as Ana claimed orange as her speech in the very first post.

Ana looked up as she heard a question asked from the gate and refrained from rolling her eyes. "Come on in and find yourself a spot." She said with a welcoming smile.

She watched as Sara entered the field after asking her canine to remain on the outside of the fence. She respected the girl for the fact that she didn't have to remind her that the large dog needed to remain outside. "You have a new companion." She noted as the girl approached her. "My break was good thank you. My horses enjoyed having my undivided attention."

She smiled and greeted each student as they entered. It was the arrival of a student with a lunge line and whip, the woman halted him before he could enter the field. "Both of those need to remain on that side of the gate please." She said. "You will not need anything other than your beautiful horse and the lead you are holding." Ana looked at Goldie as he bunted her in the shoulder, which was his way of saying that he was getting bored and she wasn't paying enough attention to him. "Soon, little one." She said as she rubbed his face.

After another five minutes, and the field was now full of horses and teenagers, she decided that it was time to get started. With a flick of her finger, she turned the transmitter on. "Good afternoon and welcome to my classroom." She said as she looked around at each of the students with a smile. "We are here to learn how to become better partners with our equine friends, and in the long run, to get them to see us as someone they can rely on when the times get tough." She rubbed Goldie's forehead again. "For those of you who don't know me, I am Miss Chevalier and this handsome boy here, is Goldie."

She made a kissing noise and pointed toward the fence at the back of the field and nodded her head as the gelding dropped his and walked backward. Clicking her fingers, she asked him to stop walking and she turned to face the students once again. "Okay, today you may not be doing a lot of work with your horses, so feel free to just let them loose if you are sure they aren't going to attack anyone else." She waited to let the students remove lead ropes if they felt inclined to do so. "Okay, let's talk about the truth behind training. What is a horseman? To me, a horseman is someone who understands the innate characteristics and behaviour of the horse and can work with a horse to cause him to think and act in certain ways. This is a person who can bring out the potential of a horse without taking away his dignity through force or mechanical means." She fell silent and allowed her words to sink in. "In training, there are essentially two objectives we need to achieve with our horses - desensitise them to the things they find scary and sensitise them to respond to our command/stimuli.

"Horses are quick to form associations (good or bad) to actions and events, so how we time our communication through the application of pressure or release is critical for developing the response we desire.

"You will sometimes come across scientific terms that make the process seem more complicated then it actually is (and it doesn't help that such terms are quite commonly used inaccurately). However, understanding some of the language used in learning theory is useful because it can help to explain, demystify and simplify training techniques."

She looked around the group of girls. "Are we all taking this in?" She asked. "I know it sounds really, really boring, but it's good to know the whole of things before you start with bits of it."

• Ana
  
• Jackson
  
• Sara
  
• Olivia
  
• Koye
  
• Anthony
  
• Miranda
  
• Nina
  
• Aurora
  
• Scarlett
  
• Lucy
  

[Jackson Reinken]

Jackson smiled back at the instuctor as she told him to come in and find a spot. He should of just came in himself, but he wasn't sure what the teacher wanted to expect. Not having to lead Samurai in, as he knew by himself, Jackson walked along beside him, into the gate. Going into one of the arenas corners, closer to the instructor, Jackson started to let Samurai graze while he waited.

As soon as the arena started to fill up with students and their horses, Samurai perked his ears, looking for the voice that mutely filled the arena. Hearing her tell them good morning, and a little introduction on Natural Horsemanship, Jackson noted her name and her horses.

Jackson watched as Ms.Chevalier, cued her gelding to walk backwards by pointing and making a kissing noise. Watching her gelding move, and listen to her every cue, Jackson was very impressed. Now facing all of them again, Jackson listened as she told them all that they would not be doing a lot with their horses, and to feel free to let them loose. Thinking for a moment, Jackson slowly unclipped the lead, not knowing if it was a wise choice of his.

Now paying his full attention to the teacher, he listened as she explained what she thought a horseman was. Thinking that all the words she had said were totally true, Jackson nodded as she continued on to talk. Jackson had understood Samurai's charateristics and behaviour, but since they had been seperated, it had been hard to gain it all back.

Snapping out of his thinking, he started to listen to her training introduction. Jackson needed to work on the things that Samurai found scary, and his cues and reponses. Both things that she seemed to mention. Listening to how she talked about the scientific terms, and other notations, Jackson nodded as she asked if they had all taken it in.

[Sara Jane Lyena]

Sara nodded, slightly stiffly, "Nunya was drawing close to her retirement age, and it was decided that I should 'bond' with her replacement over the summer." She glanced over to the new malamute, "Cinder's still a pup, but he's learning quickly, more or less, and I know he's got good alerts." That was all that mattered, really, wasn't it? She smiled at the woman's words about her horses, "I'm sure they did."

She stood back as Ms. Chevalier started the class, with an impressive display from Goldie, as the gelding moved back at a small signal. She clucked to Balian as the woman allowed them to release their horses, and as he raised his head, she scratched his cheek, then unclipped the lead rope and hung it around her shoulders. She turned her attention back to Ms. Chevalier then, and watched the woman and her gelding as she spoke about training, and horsemanship.

At the question, she just nodded once, going over the main points she had heard, so that she would be able to remember them. She glanced over at Balian once, making sure that the gelding was staying close, and smiled just slightly as she noticed that he had only taken a step or two away, in an effort of finding better grass.

[Olivia Cheyenne Kwinn]

Olivia followed the boy with the cherry bay gelding in through the gate, slightly miffed that he hadn't even bothered to reply to her apology, but not willing to make a big scene today. Keeping her grip on Blue's lead firm as the mare tried to push into the field in front of her, she glanced around, then chose a spot a bit away from the other two students. She saw Tony come in and smiled at him, noticing the twitchy horse that he had brought with him.

As the teacher started the class, Olivia thought for a moment about whether she should take off Blue's lead or not. Finally deciding that the pony would behave (Or so she hoped), and bent to unclip the mare's lead. Unsure of what to do with the rope, she wound it around her hands, twining the fabric over and under her fingers. She listened to the long lecture, forcing herself to pay attention, although she was strongly tempted to just let her attention wander. She didn't know how Ms. Chevalier ran the class yet, and this speech might prove insight into that... And so it did. A small, private smile played around on the freshman's face as she nodded, positively affirming the question.