MA.R.E. - Week 16

For the past four and a half months, I've spent all but two Wednesdays volunteering at MARE as a horse handler, side walker, and Jill-of-all-trades. While I really enjoy doing the barn chores, the past couple of weeks have been all about lessons. Surprisingly, I've been having a lot of fun doing those, and I actually feel a great deal of satisfaction serving in that capacity. Serving those in need has been very gratifying. It also keeps me on my feet, both metaphorically and literally.

MARE's barn aisle

When I look at my data from my smart watch, Wednesdays are always the days with the most steps. Over the past several weeks, that data has risen as all I've done is serve as horse handler or side walker. Lessons are around 30 minutes, sometimes longer, but when you do lessons back to back to back, it's easy to put some miles on your boots. I don't mind though as it's good exercise, and it is time very well spent.

Steps from Last Wednesday.

Last week, I participated in three lessons. The first was with a new student as his side walker. Trainer 2 asked me to secure him in the saddle while also moving his arms up or down or to the side. From what I observed in the lesson, his ability to communicate is very poorly developed, so the trainer focused on getting him to name plastic fruit pieces that we found in the arena. When he was able to identify the fruit, the color, or the letter, we cheered and gave him as much positive feedback as possible. That lesson in particular showed how valuable volunteers are to a program like MARE.

MARE's new covered arena is keeping things much cooler.

The second lesson was with two young girls who have been coming to MARE much longer than I have. As always, one still will only 'lead" her horse, but my young charge enthusiastically plops down on Cricket's broad back. I am itching to do the same frankly. Cricket is a Halflinger who is worth her (substantial) weight in gold. While Cricket is the kindest soul, she also has a personality that you can't help but respect. She's definitely the queen of the place.

Despite being busy, I took a minute to reorganize the reins so that the colored reins were grouped together while the laced reins hung on their own hook.

The last lesson of the day was with the 5th grader that I have worked with the past two weeks. This is one cool kid, but of course I may be biased as I teach 5th grade and think that age group is pretty much the bomb. Since Haven was a bit colicky, we used Smoothie, the gelding who had injured himself on the fence several months before. It was my first time handling Smoothie in a lesson, but despite being off for months, he worked like a champ.

For Wednesday's lesson, our 5th grader was learning to whoa with the reins as well as turn right or left. He's the first student that I've worked with who has used the reins at all. Being the horse handler meant that I had to be in control while still letting him ask Smoothie to whoa and turn. I gave him as much lead rope as I could safely give so that he could actually be in charge of the stopping and turning, but I also had to stay out of the way so that I didn't get run over when he turned left.

Educational material for volunteers

This afternoon is my penultimate day volunteering. I am sure that it will be the same as last week - horse handling and side walking. Volunteers have been a bit thin on Wednesdays though so I might still get to do some extra barn chores.

Volunteering is definitely better than going to the gym.