Confidence in Small spaces

[Anastasie Chevalier]

Ana pulled her blue jacket tighter around her, zipping it up to the neck, and pulled her matching blue beanie down over her ears. The weather was still pretty cold, but the sun was out and she couldn't see any reason not to have the lesson outside.

Entering the first field, that led through to her outdoor classroom, she began to set up for the class. The two barrels she had asked for were already in place down one of the long sides of the field and she placed a pole holder on top of each and balanced a pole on them. She then walked through to her field and stood in the middle. She didn't have a horse with her that day, as she felt that this lesson would be easier to explain, rather than demonstrate.

She greeted each student as they arrived and asked them to begin the normal way, with the friendly game. Once the alarm on her phone buzzed in her pocket, she knew it was time to start class. "As you will see, I have today's class set up in our adjoining field" She said as she gestured toward the barrels and pole. "Today is going to be all about getting your horse comfortable with walking through small spaces; as they would when walking through a doorway, entering a float... you get the idea.

"Think of it as a lunging exercise, though for half of your circle, there will be a pole between you and your friend. One at a time, you will take your friend over to the corridor. I want you to stand at the middle of the pole, with it between you and the fence, the idea is not to move your feet from that spot. The pole is there to protect you as your horse goes through the gap, and to stop him from crowding you.

"Send your horse away to the first barrel at the entrance to the corridor and ask him to stand there parallel to the fence, facing the narrow gap.

"Don't let him rush into the corridor - wait until he is settled and calmly standing facing the entrance. Then using feel on the halter and line, ask him to go through the narrow space.

"Don't stress if he rushes it the first time, you want him to feel he can get out of the 'trap'. Just make sure he doesn't push the pole.

"When he has gone around the end of the pole, ask him to disengage his hindquarters and turn to face you. Give him comfort for doing this by leaving him alone or rubbing him with your stick, but try to keep him at arm's length outside of your personal space as this exercise can cause some horse to become agitated and don't like anything too close.

"Repeat the exercise a few times on both reins." She smiled, knowing that it was a lot to remember, but that's why she was here without a horse. "Everyone else can just work on the seven games, focusing on your communication, meaning that who ever goes first, has the disadvantage."

Students:
@neigh
@running9
@colemcgregor
Elizabeth Toman
Fionn Paquet
Rose Hoff
Tyler Reynolds

A pretty diagram of those of you slightly confussled:

[Elizabeth Toman]

Libby rubbed her hip as she led Storm out to the field that they called a classroom for natural horsemanship. Her bond with the gelding had grown in leaps and bounds since she had picked him up, and they were slowly beginning to understand each other, though there were still the odd days when the gelding forgot that thing called respect and nipped at her when picking out his feet, and today happened to be one of those days. She had the short lead rope clipped to his azure rope halter, the twelve foot lead coiled and held in her hand with the blue carrot stick.

She held the gelding as his head flew up at the barrels and pole outside the class-field and with a gentle click of her tongue, she circled him and walked toward the gate. "Hey Ms C." She called as she entered with the gelding, tapping his hip gently with the carrot stick to stop him from overcrowding her.

Once they had a space in the field, she swapped the short lead - which she tied around her slim waist - for the longer one and began to work through the friendly game. Once class started, while she continued to work her hands over the gelding's body, she listened attentively to what the woman was saying.

"I'll go first." She said boldly as she led the gelding to the gate and walked toward the corridor, as Ms Chevalier had called it. She stopped at the centre of the pole. "Away." She said in a soft, yet firm, voice and nodded when the gelding stepped away from her. She had used lunging to build a bond between the two of them and he had picked up the away cue quite quickly. "Stand." Her command was quick and sharp this time, halting the gelding before he could either balk at or rush through the corridor. She released a breath when she realised that she was holding it.

When she felt that the gelding was as calm as could be, she opened her mouth to cue him to walk, but snapped it closed again as she remembered that they had been instructed to cue the horse to move with the halter. Combing the lead through her hand, she smiled when Storm stepped forward, though she wasn't surprised when he rushed through the corridor.

After two more times through that way and twice the other, she was pleased to note that he was no longer rushing through as though there was a fire behind him, and, as a reward, she led him back to the field with the other horses, and began to run her hands along his body.

[Deleted]

Amber wished that they didn't have to start off every class with the friendly game, and decided to try not to get here a few minutes early next time.  She did it but she did it the same way that she always did.  She avoided the spots where her horse did not like to be touched, which there were few of but enough that the teacher seemed to notice. 

Amber listened closely as the teacher explained today's exercise.  She almost volunteered to go first but Libby, an intimidating girl whom she tried to avoid, beat her too it. 

On their turn, Amber lead Rapunzel to the opening but Rapunzel shied away a bit, so Amber stroked her neck and spoke softly, it's okay girl."  She paused a few seconds, before asking Rapunzel to go threw again, and she walked threw this time but quickly and she pushed against the pole.  Amber tried to act a little more confident as she turned her horse around and the walked straight threw this time, with no rush.  Amber turned Rapunzel to face her and smiled, stroking her face.  "Good job girl" she praised.  Pleased with herself and her horse, Amber lead her back to the field.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn felt a little nervous as he led Spur toward the field they used for natural horsemanship. He still didn't know the gelding well enough to know how he would handle the class, and he had no doubt that the teacher would start the class as she always did, with the friendly game. He knew that it should have been the first thing he did with the horse, but he had been a little hesitant about doing any of the games with the gelding without the supervision of Ms Chevalier.

Arriving at the field, he smiled toward the teacher and the two girls already there as he found a space for himself and Spur. Starting at the gelding's neck, he began the friendly game, running his hands down the horse's body, finding the part he really liked and using the carrot stick on the areas that the gelding moved away from. It seemed that Spur had huge objections to the insides of his back legs being touched, and if it wasn't for the carrot-stick, Finn would have been booted at least once. The boy thought it was a strange place for a horse to be touchy about being handled as surely he would have been rugged in the past, and the rug straps would have been between his legs.

He listened as the day's task was explained and he used the time he had before it was his turn to watch the others do the task, which looked easy enough - there again though, everything looked easy.

Walking the gelding forward, Finn stopped at the spot they were told to stand at and send the gelding around, halting him before he went through the corridor created by the pole. Making himself look as relaxed as possible, he wiggled the rope and sent the gelding forward. Finn wasn't at all surprised when Spur just plodded through, halting when asked as then basked in his praise before being sent through again.

Feeling a little disappointed that the horses didn't give him any issues, Finn headed back to the others and continued with the friendly game, remaining away from Spur's back legs for now and paying extra attention to the spots he liked being touched. Finn knew that it defeated the purpose of the game, but it was Spur's first day in the class and he wanted to make it a positive experience for the gelding.

[Deleted]

Chase moved to the Red Willow barn to collect his Thoroughbred, though considered in the south, Kentucky had gotten cold during the winter months which caused the boy to bundle up for outdoor classes. Entering the barn, Chase gathered the grooming kit and went to work on cleaning Brody. He always managed to get himself dirty, whether that meant caked in mud or dusty. Once Chase completed the task he returned the kit and clipped the long lead rope to Brody’s halter. Leading his horse out to the natural horsemanship field he saw he was most likely not the last one to arrive, which he did not mind one bit.

With the lead rope and carrot stick in hand Chase gave a short nod to Ms. Chevalier and began the friendly game with Brody. The Thoroughbred did not approve of the game in the beginning but the horse known as a pansy around the barn was leaning towards the nickname disappearing. Ms. Chevalier called the class together and explained the exercise for today, though it did not seem too difficult Brody did not usually react well to new situations such as this.

As Libby volunteered to go Chase waited for two other students before stepping up to the pole. Immediately the look of fear moved across Brody’s face and into his eyes. ”It’s alright buddy. I’m right here.” Luckily the pole was there as Chase knew all too well; he would have gotten stepped on. Brody had his own little quirk that when he had scared he tried to calm himself by moving closer to his handler, which almost always happened to be Chase.

The gelding tried to move forward, ”Woah.” Chase commanded firmly. Though the gelding stilled, Chase knew that he was on edge, which was normal for Brody to be, he was not a calm horse to begin with. The boy knew that the horse would need more encouragement to go through the corridor but getting him comfortable going through it would be a different story. Letting Brody move shakily through the corridor the boy moved the horse the horse out and around to face him. Giving him a verbal positive reinforcement, Chase moved the gelding through the corridor twice more before returning to the games, allowing someone else to give it a try.