Natural Horsemanship ((Group B))

[Anastasie Chevalier]

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

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Anastasie Chevalier led Grimm into the field that she called a classroom, the transmitter for the microphone unit clipped onto her belt. "There's a good boy." She whispered to the Hanoverian as she removed the lead rope from the rope halter he was wearing.

She fixed the tiny microphone to the front of her spaghetti strap top she was wearing, but didn't bother to test it as she knew that it would work. And if it didn't when she wanted it to, she would work that out.

She hoped that she wouldn't come off as lecturing today since she was just going to repeat what she had spoken to her other group just a couple of days before. Due to the popularity of her class, she had had to split it into two groups - and was wondering if she should have made it three groups.

She turned her attention to the Hanoverian gelding who had ambled away and was sniffing at one of the large speakers that was just on the other side of the fence, and the woman was very glad that she had left the transmitter off as the last thing she wanted to do was spook the inquisitive yearling. "Come here, nosey." She laughed and laughed again as the gelding put his head into the air and curled his top lip.

[Jordan Hill]

Jordan had her bag over her shoulder, now heading out of her other regular class course, and down the the Red Williow Barn to get her horse ready for Natural Horsemanship. She had been told that there were to be two groups, and she was group B, so she was fine with that.

Coming into view of Red Williow Barn, Jordan walked into the barn smellling the hay that must of just been placed into the stalls, or new arrival of hay. Continuing on down the aisle, Jordan decided to take Trigger today, just because he needed some exercise, and she hadn't taken him out yet. "Hey boy, how are ya?'' Jordan asked him as the Arabian nickered softly.

Laughing a bit, Jordan then grabbed her lead rope and unlatched his stall door, walking in and clipping the lead onto his halter. Leading him out of the stall, Jordan heard Tripover whinny...loud. Chuckling a bit at the "loss" of his other friend, Jordan led Trigger out of the barn and down to the Natural Horsemanship arena, outdoors.

Once they neared the gate, Jordan then saw the boy, named Luke, that was in almost all her classes. Unlatching the gate, Jordan then walked in shutting it behind her. Walking up to the instructor, she said, "Hello, I'm Jordan Hill, a new transferr." Jordan told the instructor, as Trigger reached his head out to her, wanting attention. Jordan gave a little movement on the rope, which made Trigger stop in an instant. "Sorry he's very playful."

[Luka Ingersleben]

Luka walked out of the door to his dorm room and headed down to the Red Willow barn. Both of his horses were stabled in the second barn, because of their show names, he had been told. He walked to where he saw Neb's buckskin head poking over the door and smiled before offering up the carrot he had brought for the gelding. The older horse was the nicer of his two. Because Luka didn't know quite what to expect from the lesson that he would be attending, he had chosen to take the thirteen-year-old. He walked towards the tack room and picked up the gelding's halter before heading back and buckling it over the finely shaped head. He led the gelding out and glanced over his hide, "Na ja, wird schon gehn." He smiled and rubbed the gelding's neck, then glanced around. He saw a girl walking an arabian without a saddle out and guessed that she was going to the same class as he was. Walking slowly, he followed her, until a field with speakers came into view.

He followed the girl into the field and glanced around. He smiled shyly at the teacher, not wanting to speak, before finding a space to stand. He let out some slack on Neb's lead and the gelding shook his head before stepping away a tiny bit and starting to graze.

Ah well, it'll work.

[Rose Hoff]

Rose found Vintage in one of the box stalls in the first barn. She had already visited her mare a few times, but the barn was so enormous that she was still having a bit of a hard time finding her mare quickly. She was sure she would get used to the workings around Blue Ridge soon enough: she had only just gotten here a couple days ago. As Vintage poked her velvet nose through the bars of the box stall, Rose tapped the pink spot on her muzzle and the mare pulled back, a bit puzzled. Rose laughed lightly, pulling the door open and letting herself into Vintage's stall. She kept her hands out, as the mare had a habit of crowding, which was one of the reasons Rose had decided to take Natural Horsemanship. It wasn't that she particularly minded Vintage's affection; it was just that having a horse constantly on your heels could get a bit dangerous at times, especially if that horse had a habit of spooking at sudden movements. She grabbed a soft brush and began to dust the smattering of shavings off of Vintage's white coat. Other than that, the Warmblood mare looked very neat, so Rose slipped a leather halter over her ears and clipped a light pink lead on, murmuring "Ready Lovely?" It was her first class with Vintage, and she couldn't help but be a little nervous.

She lead Vintage out of White Oak barn and headed down to the field where she saw a few other students leading horses gathered. She made her may over to them and smiled, looking around, waiting for the class to begin. She stroked her mare's forelock nervously, but stopped when she reached down to graze.

[Anastasie Chevalier]

Ana smiled and greeted each student as they entered. She made mental notes about the different horses as they entered and came up with their handlers to greet her. She placed a hand on Grimm's nose as the gelding tried to walk forward, halting him instantly. "Soon, little one." She said as she rubbed his face.

After another five minutes, 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 Grimm's forehead again. "For those of you who don't know me, I am Miss Chevalier and this handsome boy here, is Grimm."

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 students. "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."

I'm normally really strict on posting order, but with so many people away I'm going to say flag it.

[Henrietta Charleston]

Henri walked briskly to the barn, she was having natural horsemanship today and she was quite late. She had already been excused however due to some question and extra test she had taken with another teacher. All she minded about was the fact that she would be quite noticeable coming late like that. The girl hurried to the gelding’s stall, a carrot already tucked into her hand. Immediately, the Trakehner’s nose stuck out gobbling up the treat and nudging her for more. Henri chuckled and grabbed the horse’s halter. She slid open the stall door all the way before slipping the halter on and leading the gelding out. “Good boy… Today, we go to basics bud.”

She gave the gelding a quick brush and pick before leading him out to the field where the class was held. To her dismay the teacher was already talking. She had managed to make in time to hear most of it however and she waited till the teacher was done to hand her the excused note. “I am sorry I’m late…. It won’t happen again.” she explained softly before proceeding to do as the teacher had asked. Hutch, being the extremely calm teddy bear wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Henri smiled and unclipped him, though the gelding stayed put and nudged her shoulder playfully. There were definitely benefits to taking a class with a horse. It made all the early nerves and jitters go away, just because you knew them as your friends. Henri looked around at her classmates. There were two girls and two boys, all with lovely horses and the sixteen year old couldn’t help but feel that she was with her type of people. Henri nodded at the teacher’s question. It was not boring to her, the words appeared exciting in her mind due to the fact she could build a stronger partnership with Hutch while taking this class.

OOC: Sorry she's sorta cutting in....

[Luka Ingersleben]

Luka listened to the teacher as she spoke, glancing at Neb as he tried to rate how the gelding would behave around all of these other horses, off lead. Finally deciding he wouldn't hurt anyone, Luka unclipped the gelding's lead, murmuring, "Jetzt benimm dich aber trotzdem, verstehste?" He draped the lead rope onto the gelding's withers, and then stood to listen to what the teacher. He saw a girl arriving late, leading a handsome bay, and smiled quietly at her, although he continued listening to what Ms. Chevalier was saying. Although he didn't quite understand what the woman was saying, just due to a few words lacking in his vocabulary, and his need to translate everything to German, he thought he caught enough to understand what she was getting at. At least, he hoped so, because he didn't want to have to ask about it, and bring to light that he had only really studied English in a classroom setting before coming to this school. Instead, he sorted the phrases he did get into his mind, and started piecing together the only way they could actually be understandable.

Now behave yourself anyway, do you understand? (Yes, verstehste is cool like that. :- ) Well, let's hear it for slang German)

[daine2]

(notes: sorry for coming in so late )

She'd had to ask around, but finally Bronwyn had figured out where the Natural horsemanship classes were to take place. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized tht she wasn't going to be extremely late if she popped by the barn and grabbed her horse first. The girl had decided to use her gelding Phantom in the class, as she and her mare had that almost telepathic bond... Phantom, however, needed a little bit more work, even though he was a sweet and giving horse.

Popping into the barn, she gave the American Warmblood gelding a very quick grooming, making sure to get the spots that were dirty, and when he was sleek and shiny, she clipped a lead onto his leather halter and led him towards the arena.

Upon entering, she sent a small, apologetic smile towards the instructor and, looking around, realized that they weren't working with the horses at that moment and most of the animals were loose in the arena. Bronwyn debated on it for a moment, then decided against letting Phantom go. Instead, she chose to 'take' a spot near the back of the 'class' and listened as the instructor spoke, keeping a loose grip on the lead as her horse looked around.

[Becca Walsh]

Becca stood, listening to the instructor. She frowned slightly when she instructed them to let their horses loose if it was safe. She held onto Frye's lead nervously. There was no way that she was letting him loose. Hopefully by the end of the class she'd be able to do so, but nothing good would come of letting him loose today. Frye had a nasty habit of snapping and lashing out at other horses, and Becca was nervous with other other horses just being loose around him.

Becca had been rather excited to join this class, hoping that it would improve her relationship with Frye, and his attitude problem in general. She was a bit embarrassed to not be comfortable letting him loose, but thought it was better than letting him go and disaster striking. The last thing she wanted to do was put her classmates and their horses in danger. He was already showing signs that he was having a bad day, and doing work on the ground would probably put him in a worse mood. He strained at his lead to look around at the other horses, tensing and pinning back his ears when another horse got too close to him. Becca snapped his lead down, blushing apologetically.

[Anastasie Chevalier]

Ana smiled as she got the affirmative from the others. "As I said, it was boring stuff that you all already know about in one way or another, but still important nonetheless and is important to reaffirm in your minds." She looked around at the animals, her gaze landing on Becca and her gelding. "I'm guessing he likes his space? Then let's talk about Protecting our personal space. Imagine you have a bubble all the way around you at about an arm's length from your body. Learn to think of this space as off-limits to your horse unless he is invited in by you. Once you start taking notice of your bubble, you will be surprised how much your horse comes into your space uninvited.

"Stand with your arms outstretched and turn in a circle until you get the feel of the extent of your bubble. If your horse is already standing in your bubble, get him, or her, to move backwards until they are not standing in your space any more rather than moving your feet.

"Block their entry by defending the wall of your bubble. You may do this with your hand, arm, rope of stick, please note I do not mention using a whip, on the edge of your bubble. If you move your arm like a windscreen wiper at the edge of your bubble and the horse walks into it, they will receive a bump on the nose and think twice about doing it another time. To your horse this is very different from you stepping out of your bubble and hitting him on the nose. The consequences of his actions will be clear to him and because he understands it, this process does not result in him becoming fearful around his head." As she spoke, she demonstrated what she was saying as she asked Grimm to come up to her and with a wiggle of her fingers, she got him to back out of her personal space. "As you can see, Grimm knows well when to back away.

• Do not perform this action with anger, be firm but fair. Keep it Unemotional and the horse will see you in a positive light rather than a negative one.
• Make sure your horse stays outside your bubble once you've moved him. You need to set clear boundaries and be consistent.
• If you move your feet, your horse may thing you are showing submission; if you cause your horse to move his feet, you are showing you are in charge.
• Match your horse's velocity - in other words, if he comes into your space gently, you don't need to respond violently, just firmly enough to keep him out. However, if he is going to trample on you, you should defend your space as strongly as you can as your life may depend on it!
• The more threatening you find your horse's behaviour, the bigger your bubble should become. He is only allowed in when you feel you can trust him to be respectful.
  

Understanding this principle alone could save you from injury around horses every day." She nodded her head toward her brindle gelding once again and he stepped forward, pressing his nose against her and she rubbed his ears. "If you horse still comes into your space - you weren't negative enough, you might need to repeat the exercise several times until they understand where your boundaries are and that they must respect your space. If your horse becomes defensive and looks worried - you probably did too much. Just smile and rub them at arm's length."

[Henrietta Charleston]

Henri listened intently as Ms. Chevalier went on with the lesson. Her ears tuned into the idea of a “bubble” and how she realized that would most definitely help her and Hutch. The gelding was a bit mouthy at times and did love to snuggle, though it did get out of hand sometimes with his constant shoving. While it may have been hard to believe, the horse could shove pretty hard with his head; let alone his whole body. Henri looked at him, as to ask if he was listening to what the teacher was saying and gave him a somewhat childish knowing nod.

Then, she watched as the teacher demonstrated with her own horse. It was no surprise her horse was amazingly good at listening to her commands, and Henri hoped one day Hutch and her would be like that. She gave her horse a happy smile before turning to look at the new student entering. She didn’t let her horse loose and Henri figured she should have brought her newly bought horse instead. If any horse needed to have some sort of connection with Henri, it would be Cisco. Still, she supposed it was smart enough to bring the horse she was more comfortable with to learn everything with.

As the woman finished her explanation of what to do, Henri took a deep breath and gave her horse a ready look. She stepped back immediately causing Hutch to follow her until she lifted her arms and began to form her bubble. She moved her arms like a windshield wiper and turned around in a circle to get the idea of her circle. Hutch looked at her, a surprised look on his face. Henri then thought if the horse could talk, he would probably say his owner had gone mad. She chuckled, but then returned to a neutral emotion before setting her bubble.

The Trakehner immediately came forward, earning a small bump on his muzzle in which he moved back before trying once more. Henri quirked her lips before softly letting him bump his nose again. Hutch snorted before simply watching her at distance in which Henri made a happy grin. Slowly, the girl let her hands down. Hutch immediately came forward and gave her a soft nudge. The brunette sighed before making move to do it once more.