Natural Horsemanship - Group A

[Anastasie Chevalier]

The students in this class:
@running1,
@harley
Monique Chambers,
@daretodream,
@olivia,
@savannah

Anastasie Chevalier stood in the middle of the field that she called a classroom for her horsemanship classes - she used one of the actual classrooms for her natural remedies class. She ran her hand down the nose of the gelding who stood in front of her.

Taking a deep breath, the French-woman rose her life-force and gave the smallest movement with the wrist of the hand that was holding the lead and she smiled as the gelding's head shot up, his ears pricked forward and he backed away. She relaxed her stance again once he had taken three steps. And then gave a sweeping bow when the young gelding stopped moving

The woman glanced toward the gate to see if any students were arriving with their horses. She blew out a breath as she thought about that day's lesson. Today she was going to teach the students to teach their horses not to panic if their legs got caught in anything. Many would roll their eyes at her class, but this was one lesson that all equines should be taught, as it was a valuable thing if the animal got caught up in a fence or got their reins tangled around a leg after losing a rider out on the trails or cross country course.

On the fence post beside the gate, a number of coloured coiled ropes were waiting for the students. Ana liked using coloured ropes as she found that they were less likely to spook animals then the natural coloured ropes did - as they looked like snakes.

She pushed the cowboy hat she was wearing back so that her forehead was uncovered, it was pretty early in the afternoon, but the weather was seeming to be warming up nicely. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground of her classroom, but the air didn't hold that chill that it had a month ago.

[Monique Chambers]

Rory ran a brush over her dappled gelding's coat, she chewed her lower lip as she continued grooming him. The thought of finding another horse had been floating over her mind more and more during the past week. And the more she thought about it, the guiltier she felt for Globe and she felt that she was betraying her horse.

Once she had the gelding looking as handsome as ever, she threw an exercise sheet over his back, removed the cross-ties and swapped the light blue nylon halter for the grey's rope halter and then swapped the lead rope from one halter to the other and clicking her tongue, she led him out to the field where the mounted games classes were held.

Their last class has been all about personal space, and she had been working on getting the gelding to not only respect her personal space but to also remember about her being beside him when the went through narrow spaces - though he didn't always remember since it was something he had been getting away with for so long. She rubbed the gelding's nose as they approached the field.

Reaching the gate, she noticed the ropes and guessing that she was supposed to pick one up, she grabbed a light blue rope - almost the same colour as the gelding's gear. If she wasn't supposed to take the rope, she would return it but at least for the moment, it would help the gelding remember about her as they walked through the gate.

Pushing the gate open, she made sure that Globe was in the centre of the gateway and then clicked her tongue to lead him forward. "No!" She said firmly as the gelding took a step over and when he went to take another step, she whacked him on the side with the coiled up rope. Once he had straightened, she clicked her tongue and walked him forward. Once inside the field, after she had closed the gate, she couldn't help but do a victory dance and then threw her arms around the gelding's neck. "Clever, clever boy!" Once her elation was over she turned and gave the instructor a bright smile and then led her gelding over to a space in the field.

[Deleted]

Olivia hurried to take off Blue's bridle from the Hunter Jumper lesson they had just completed. As they had been riding bareback, there was no saddle to put away, which sped up her process of getting to class this time around. As she gave the mare a quick once-over, making sure she was still presentable, Blue seemed to doze off, and Olivia frowned. The mare had been her main mount, and suddenly, Olivia felt bad for her. As she had taken the time to cool the mare off after their jumping class, Olivia led the mare into her stall, making sure that she had enough water, and left her with a promise of a good bath after class.

Walking over to Barčinka's stall, Olivia picked up the nylon halter that she had been using for the mare. She buckled it on easily, then led the mare into the cross-ties to groom. She hurried slightly with the grooming, not wanting to be late, and finished quickly, although she didn't do a thorough job on the mare's legs, since Barčinka wasn't happy with having them touched at all. Releasing the mare form the cross-ties, Olivia clipped on her lead rope and led her towards the Natural Horsemanship field. She led the mare into the field, ignoring the colorful ropes for the moment, and found a space where they would be able to have enough room. She kept a tight hold on the lead, although she allowed Barčinka enough slack that the mare could put her head down to sniff at the grasses.

[Deleted]

Henri was feeling rather lethargic, the number one culprit being her lack of sleep last night. This certainly however was completely her fault and the main reason why she’d refused to give up watching a movie she’d gotten from the library. It had been so good, but depressing at the same time and even the bay could feel her sadness radiating off. She chuckled slightly as the animal nosed her in the face, but shoved him away. He was far too mouthy or so she felt; perhaps it was a good thing she had natural horsemanship today.

Grabbing the gelding’s halter, she slipped it on and led him out to the crossties. While they really weren’t doing much, she didn’t like to lead him anywhere or do anything with him without grooming him. Hutch adored being groomed and it just didn’t look right in her eyes to go to class without him sparkling in his usual state. It didn’t take much as he’d been wearing a blanket, and she finished in flourish with her soft brush. Henri grinned lovingly at her horse before leading him away from the cross ties and marching down to the natural horsemanship fields.

There, a collective group of students was already waiting. She sighed slightly, not exactly enjoying being one of the last to arrive. Lately, Henri felt as if she’d hadn’t been much on top of her game. Clucking softly, the brunette led her horse through the gate. Hutch paused for a moment however and she nearly felt her arm going out of her socket as the mouthy horse curiously grabbed at the rope on the ground. Henri frowned sternly “No. Leave it alone.” Her voice was not angry, but purposeful and Hutch followed her to their own spot with enough space to do the day’s activities.

[Anastasie Chevalier]

Ana smiled as her students entered the field. She was impressed with the way that Rory handled her gelding who tried to walk her into the post but she remained silent as they took time to find their own space and settle their friends in preparation for the lesson to begin. She arched her eyebrows as Henri entered with her horse. "Henri, you can't growl at your horse for being nosey. Yes, you didn't raise your voice, but you still growled."

After waiting for a few more minutes, in the hope that more students would arrive, before she turned toward the two students she did have with a warm smile, keeping a loose hold on the young horse she had at the end of her rope as she looked at the class as a whole. "Those of you who didn't pick up a rope on your way in, can you please go an choose one and return to your horse." She knew that it was a lot to ask for the students to leave their equine friend alone in the field, but it was up to them if they towed the horse to the gate or trusted their friend not to move.

Once all of the students had a rope, she began. "Today, we are going to work on teaching our friends that they don't need to panic if they get their legs caught." She bent down and picked up the coiled rope that was by her feet and he didn't even flinch when it wiggled in front of him. "Clever little man." She whispered as she rubbed his forehead. "You will see that you have a knot tied at the end of the rope, if you slid this along toward the coil, you will create a loop." She demonstrated as she spoke. "This loop I want you to slip it over your companion's head and unclip their lead rope." She slipped the loop over Gold's neck and pulled it so that it gently hugged the gelding's neck. "Now, you are to carefully walk around your horse's body so that he is wrapped up in the rope." She was once again standing at the colt's head, but this time on the right-hand side. "And then give the rope the slightest of tugs." She applied a little pressure on the rope and Gold flickered his ears before, like a dream, he turned away from his handler and unwound himself.

[Monique Chambers]

While they were sanding in the field waiting for the rest of the students to arrive, Rory spent the time working Globe through the personal space work that they had done in their last lesson. As she called the grey gelding toward her and welcomed him into her personal space, she wrapped her arms around his neck. The feeling to get another horse was still on her mind, but she no longer felt so guilty about it. However, she also knew that there would be no "getting another horse". If she got another horse, it would mean selling Globe, and she didn't know if she could do that. Maybe she should talk to Ms Carr about riding one of the Academy horses.

She stepped away from the gelding as the teacher began to speak and she looked down at the rope she was holding, pleased that she had picked it up after all.

She frowned as she tried to process what Ms Chevalier had said and got to work; she pulled the knot down to make a loop which she slipped over the little gelding's head and pulled it snugly around his neck. She growled softly when the gelding tried to back away from her now that she had the rope in place. She took the rope off and waited until he was standing nicely before putting the rope over his head again, nodding when he stood nicely.

She then moved on with the exercise, wrapping the rope around the horse's body. She let out a slow breath, when she realised that she was holding it, and walked back to his head. She rubbed the gelding's nose, knowing that this could go both ways and knowing her uncoordinated gelding he could end up with the rope tangled around his legs.

She gave her end of the rope a tiny tug and gave a cheer as the gelding didn't even hesitate before he followed the rope around, unwinding himself from his trap.

"Yay, Globe!" She cried as she threw her arms around his neck. "Let's do it again!" Thrilled with how well it had gone, she repeated the process again and again, each time the gelding happily following the rope. She then giggled and decided to stop as the horse must have been getting dizzy.

[Deleted]

Walking down to the White Oak Barn, Annabelle was on her way to her next class Natural Horsemanship. Now that Sun was gone she had no choice but to use Penny as Seren would absolutely be no help in learning. Seeing that the dun mare wasn’t in her stall, Belle threw her head back and blew a sigh upwards. A barn hand must have turned her mare out. Any other day the eighteen year old would have had no problem with that, but now she would have to go get her. Trotting quickly towards the tack room, the girl grabbed the leather halter and chain lead rope as it was the closest.

Walking quickly down to the pastures, Belle saw the mare standing peacefully out in the pasture with her blanket on. Smiling because she was happy that she had actually found the pasture that the mare was in, the eighteen year old entered the gate. Penny raised her head and nickered towards her owner. ”Hi girl. You wanna go to class?” Of course she wouldn’t and that was exactly why the equine decided to trot off in the opposite direction. Groaning Belle walked towards the mare or at the direction she was in. Not having the regular lead rope, Belle didn’t want to throw the lead rope over the mare’s next and risk hurting or spooking her.

”C’mon girl.” Pushing her towards the fence, she eventually cornered the mare and haltered her. Leading her up to the barn, Belle quickly undid her blanket putting it in the tack room and brushing her off, they were ready to go. Looking at her watch, the eighteen year old was almost sure that they were going to be late. Not a good way to start back up from Winter Break. Making her way to the Natural Horsemanship Field, Belle was relieved to see that only three students were there, but it looked as if they were all doing the same thing.
Walking towards Ms. Chevalier Belle didn’t want to just stand at the back of the class and so asked what she should be doing. ”Sorry I’m late, may I ask what we missed?” Waiting for an answer, Belle observed that the other students seemed to be tying their horses up, literally.

[Deleted]

Nina walked down the aisle of stalls in the White Oak barn. She knew today she should take along Hope with her to Natural Horsemanship today. Knowing Hope may be a bit stubborn, the mare would need the information of who is in charge. Though, Nina already knows she may be the handler, but can't get her horse to obey her just by force. So it would be better to learn the ways through this next class. As she continued walking down a few more stalls before aproaching Hope's stall, the girl happened to visit her other mare, Ratio, on the way. The dark brown horse just gave a snort to her appearence. "Alright, Hope. Come on, don't be difficult now." She teased, yet with a stern look on her face. She then gave a soft laugh after her own little act. Apparently, the Quarter horse didn't really care, as the horse just whinnied to her. She shrugged as she opened the stall door and slipped on the ivory halter and clipping the matching lead rope. She opened the door wide enough for both of them to exit the stall and closed it behind them.

Switching the mare into cross ties, she quickly went to grab the grooming kit and groom the horse down before their class. After she finished running a soft brush through the mare's coat, she checked the time and almost jumped up in shock. They were pretty much late a minute or two to class already. The girl quickly slipped back the grooming kit and untied Hope's cross ties. She hurridly fast walked her horse towards the Natural Horsemanship field. As they arrived, she noticed how already five people have appeared. (Including the instructor of the class.) She opened the gate to the field and started leading herself and her horse in. The Quarter horse whipped her head in the air, randomly and giving a annoyed snort. Nina gave a silent sigh to herself, knowing Hope won't be too helpful with her today. Though she took it calmly, by tugging on the lead to calm the horse down. "No, Hope." She spoke firmly, yet soothingly, which made the mare obey. She gave a reassuring smile towards the horse's behavior as she continued through the gate, closing it softly behind them.

She noticed the colored ropes on the fence post. While she walked over, she slightly heard Ms. Chevalier's voice boomed in the distance. Hearing something about the ropes, and soon it was just hard to hear after that. She glanced around at the class and noticed that the students were tying up their horses, really. She guessed it meant to get a rope. She looked at what ropes were left and grabbed a red colored rope. She walked over to where Belle was meeting with the teacher. She gave a light smile, in greeting towards her friend and then looked back over to Ms. Chevalier. "Hello, Ms. Chevalier. Did Hope and I miss any instructions in what we are learning today?" She asked with a sincere grin in apology towards her few minutes of tardiness.

[Deleted]

The brunette looked up as her teacher said not to growl at her horse. She bit her lip softly, not realizing she’d practically snapped at poor Hutch. Perhaps a natural horsemanship class was exactly what she’d need. It seemed that both her and her horse hadn’t been getting enough ground work time or bonding time other than his daily groom. Henri nodded before looking apologetically at her horse. Perhaps, it was the lack of sleep she’d gotten the last night. Whatever it was, it was no excuse, and Henri knew Hutch didn’t need to be the target of her grumpiness. She gave the gelding a soft pat, earning another nudge before taking her spot.

As Ms. Chevalier asked to go and get a rope, the brunette looked at horse that was looking at the ground in the same fascination. She smiled softly, knowing Hutch wouldn’t really go anywhere at the moment. He seemed rather relaxed and she’d had him for a long enough time to trust the gelding enough to leave him for a few seconds. Letting his lead go, the brunette moved on to grab a blue colored rope before taking it back over to Hutch. She was rather curious as to what they would be doing. She waited eagerly for everyone to grab their ropes and then turned her attention to the teacher.

She raised her brows a bit as the woman demonstrated what they were to do. True, she’d done spook clinics and such with Hutch, though she’d never really worked on him with this kind of stuff. Still, she was willing to see what would happen and hopefully improve. Getting the loop figured out, Henri pulled around the gelding’s neck – which he stood willingly for and then slowly began to walk around. Henri bit her lip softly before Hutch threw his head up in surprise before eyeing the rope and turning around in one of those quick movements horses did. He evaded the rope, but freaked out a bit about it. Henri soothed the gelding with a calm voice getting him back to the position he was in first. She did the exercise again, and this time the horse moved around with annoyed flick of his tail and ears back.

[Anastasie Chevalier]

Ana smiled as she watched her students getting a hang of the exercise, and accomplishing the task. She turned with an expression that was far from impressed when not one but two students entered the field and walked up to her as though them being late wasn't an issue. She nodded toward the corner of the field. "What you can both do, is go and stand over there, with your horses, and observe the lesson. I know that this is an unmounted class, but I expect my students to arrive here prepared and on time." She gave them both a stern look. "If it happens again, you won't be given the privilege of observing as I will send you away."

She quickly turned her attention to Henri and shook her head at the horse's antics. "Make him do it again, Henri." She said in an encouraging tone. "He's bring a brat and knows that he can get away with it because he knows how much you love him." She gave the girl a smile. "Horses are either grumpy old men or bratty toddlers, there never seems to be a fair medium."

After watching the students for a while longer, making sure they were getting hang of the exercise, as she thought about the next part of the lesson - knowing that this one was going to prove to be a complete game of trust. "Right then." She finally said as she looked around the class. "I would like you to take up your rope again, this time though, I want you to get your loop and put your horse's leg in it." She laid her loop on the ground, which Gold stepped into with his near fore, and she pulled it tight around his fetlock. Once again the gelding had done this before and didn't react to that. However, when she did his back legs he kicked out a little before he calmed down. "The reason for this is to teach your horses that it's ok to have their legs caught in something." She said when she had finished each of his legs. "That it's ok to be caught up and to stay calm." She smiled around at the group of students. "It took me close to six months to get Gold here to step into the loop, so you may need to pick up their foot as though you were going to clean out their hoof."

She removed the loop from the gelding's off fore and coiled the rope up again so that the loop was at the end in the middle of the coil and she had the free end in her hand. "Once your friend is happy with you doing that, I want you to swing the other end of the rope around their legs so that it wraps around the leg and then drops down. This is good for the chance of say, some dry grass being blown around your friend's legs while out on the trail. Again, it teaches them not to panic and that you will be there to get them out of trouble." She rubbed the colt's nose as she demonstrated her last instructions. "Once you've done that and are happy with things, you are free to go. Please take the rope with you so that you can practice in your own time if you feel the need, and you will need it again for the next class when I show you the next trick. And yes, we have been here that long."

[Monique Chambers]

After giving the gelding a couple of minutes break - or at least it felt that long - Rory went back to going through the process of the exercise. "Stop it!" She scolded the horse who began to follow her around without waiting for her to finish circling him. She pressed her lips together as she thought about what to do to get the horse thinking again and then she snapped her fingers as an idea came to her. She got Globe to stand nicely again before she circled him with the rope - going in the other direction this time - and clapped her hands, impressed with herself, as the gelding had to think about where his feet were going this time as he unwound himself from the rope. "Oh did I make you think?" She said, feeling slightly guilty as the dappled horse pushed his nose into the young teen's chest.

She pressed her lips together in a cheeky smile as she turned her attention to Ms Chevalier as the woman addressed the class again. The young girl frowned slightly as she took in what the woman was saying and demonstrating, she tried to work out how Globe would react to having something caught around one of his legs. She looked at his hind legs and wondered if she would get in trouble if she didn't try putting the rope around either of them. It wasn't the fact that she was worried about putting the rope on, it was more that if he completely freaked out, she would then have to try and get the rope off, and she couldn't leave him spooked out of his mind with a rope he couldn't get rid of.

She shook her head as she turned back to Globe, she knew that her thoughts were unfair to the horse. "Let's try this." She said as she took the rope from around his neck and clipped the lead back onto the tie ring. She then made the loop smaller, ran her hand down the shoulder of his near fore and smooched as she got to the gelding's fetlock and slipped the loop around his hoof before she lowered it to the ground and pulled it tight against his fetlock. "Easy." She breathed as the horse shot backward at the sudden pressure on his leg. "Globe, you're alright." She said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice as the gelding's head flew up and his front hooves left the ground for an instant.

She was about to call out for help when she could hear the words that Ms Carr had taught her. She needed to be Globe's courage, she needed to be the rock that he could hid behind when he was scared. She had to laugh and make a joke out of what was happening. "What are you doing, you silly boy?" She said, her laughter sounded forced to her own ears. "Come on." She stepped up to his head and ran her hand down his nose. She took up the end of the rope that was around his leg and gave a little shift of her wrist. "I'm here." She whispered. "You're safe with me." She rubbed his nose and smiled as he finally lowered his head and let out a heavy sigh.

After he was happy with the rope being there, Rory took it off and put it on the other foreleg. The gelding still spooked at first, but his reaction wasn't as extreme as the other leg, and the girl made a huge fuss over the gelding, rubbing his nose, patting his neck and scratching his sweet spot - the bit just behind his poll.