With the start of the new spring
semester here at St. Andrews, we are pleased to see the new students in the
stable management lab here at the barns.
The first class meeting was a nice chilly 30 degree day. The students were assigned their horses for
the semester and participated in a silly ice breaker that involved many laughs
and creative descriptions of common horse items such as a side rein (or dog
lease/belt/miniature pony lead rope/etc) and a grazing muzzle (spaghetti
strainer).
The second class meeting was met
with slightly warmer weather. The
students were able to work with their horses during the class for the first
time! The instructors set up a mini
obstacle course with four obstacles to take their horses through: weaving the
horse through a few cones, walking their horse to a stall and backing them in,
jogging in an arc to a mounting block, and then finally walking to a gate,
opening the gate, walking through, and closing the gate when they were
finished. Many laughs, and sighs of
frustration, were had when some of the horses refused to be backed into the
stalls. The same feelings were felt
again when some of the horses refused to stand at the mounting blocks,
pointedly telling us that they did not want to be ridden at that point in
time. It was a successful exercise and
also told the students how well, or not so well, their horses stood in one spot
waiting for their turn.
The students have also learned a
lot about the feeding that goes on at the barns. They discussed in length the different types
of hay that are fed and why the horses receive what they do. They also learned about the different types
of feed that are available, the nutritional value of some of them, and how
different mashes are mixed for feeding.
They were also taught how to clean the sheath of their gelding, and
spent part of a class period doing that.
They will get to spend many hours working with their horses and caring
for them throughout the semester.
by Shannon Hahn
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