A conference room filled with fourteen adult educators, new participants in the Gerstacker Fellowship program. They curiously look through the large windows into the indoor arena, where Stacie and I are releasing our herd. First Tigger, our beautiful flea-flicked, 18-hand draft mare. Next, Diva, a stunning black former show quarter horse. They trot around appreciating the freshly dragged arena footing. Athletic “D” adding a few bucks for good measure. Next, we bring out our miniature hinney (donkey mom and horse dad) named C-Red, who joins Diva in the dirt kicking with excitement. The next four-legged facilitators we drop into the mix are the two newest members of the herd, Poncho and Cisco. These two miniature horses have shared large open pastures with our other horses, though not in this closed in of a space. The newbies decide it’s best to be at one end of the arena, while the other three clump at the opposite end. By using a portion of roundpen, we’ve created a space that separates the horses from the full arena (66 x 144 arena), allowing participants the option of participating without having physical contact with the horses. Last in are our two miniature horses, Mickey and Minnie. Mick & Minn are part of the original herd with Tiggs, D, and C. Red. They’ve been together in this space countless times helping humans. With the addition of Mickey and Minnie, a new sorting starts taking place and turns ugly. The horses’ excitement turns to something darker as the herd begins biting, intentional kicking, and their frenzied running stirs up not only dirt.
A quick glance by Stacie and I to the conference room windows finds our educators wide-eyed and with mouths gaping. This is their first introduction to equine-assisted learning. You can feel their fear of being invited into this dangerous and chaotic space. Stace and I watch intently for several minutes and realize something has to change. My first thought, and I find out later it was the same of all the educators, is to remove Mickey and Minnie. Things didn’t get crazy until we added them. They are the ones being the most aggressive, especially towards C. Red. Stacie in her role as Equine Specialist recognizes that would be the wrong choice, the right decision is to remove Poncho and Cisco because we know the other five have an established order. We carefully go into the space and catch and halter our newest herd members and almost immediately everyone settles down. You can almost hear a collective sigh of relief from the conference room and five horses are now just standing there patiently waiting to meet their human companions. As we do with whatever shows up that has meaning, we debrief what just happened. EAL Magic, that’s what. Our educators were delighted with the lesson, as they face similar challenges in their classrooms daily.
Partner with people who know their stuff. And Trust them. Oh, and know your stuff too!