3/13/01
I had a couple of new experiences
today. Our first rider, Jesse, was very apprehensive about riding today
and Nichole had to have a little talk with him. She asked him why he
didn’t want to ride, even though she knew from Nora, to get him to share his
fears. He said that he didn’t want to ride because he was afraid the horse
would “spook” again. It turns out that, during his last lesson, his horse
got stuck momentarily in the wet dirt and was “spooked” a bit. Jesse said
that he didn’t want to ride that horse (Cinnamon) again and, in fact, he didn’t
want to ride at all. This was a real setback because Jesse has an anxiety
disorder and he was just starting to get used to the horse before this
happened. Nichole asked Jesse if he would feel comfortable on another
horse, and he replied that Chiquita would be good. When asked if he would
like to ride Chiquita today, Jesse declined. He said that he was still
afraid. This is when Nichole made a deal with him. If he only
groomed today (which he likes to do), then he must ride next week. Jesse
agreed and was much more at ease. He groomed Teddy happily and left.
We’ll see what happens next week; hopefully, he’ll ride with no
problems.
I learned a lot by the way Nichole handled this
situation. By letting Jesse know that she understood the way he felt, she
validated his feelings. She never made him feel bad about being afraid and
she figured out a way to make him happy and, also, to get him “back on the
horse” (pardon the pun). I think Jesse appreciated that she did not force
him to get on the horse right away, and, therefore, she gained his trust.
This is very important in a teaching situation because if there is no trust, the
student is not going to respond well to the lessons (especially on a horse).
The next new experience was being a part of an evaluation as a
side-walker. The rider, Kim, is an adult who is a post-brain surgery
patient. Most of her weakness is on her right side. The evaluation
tests cognitive and physical abilities, but Nora ignored the cognitive questions
after assessing that Kim had no cognitive problems. I think in about eight
weeks, Kim will be evaluated again and both evaluations will be graphed.
This will allow Nora and the rider to observe the progress and to aid in
deciding which problems need to be worked on more. Kim has a great spirit
and I’m sure she is up for the challenge.
3/16/01 Dina was having
a bit of trouble today.
She
gets very panicky when the horse is not responding to
her
and then she forgets what needs to be done. The
horse
she rides, Palmer, needs a lot of convincing to trot
and
Dina was getting very frustrated when he refused
her
command. She was also frightened when the
horse
reached down to eat grass because he would pull the
reins
out of her hands. This made her feel very out-of-control and very
uncomfortable. Nora had to remind her quite a few times that she needed to
show the horse who had control and that she was in no danger when the horse was
eating. Dina also likes to tell the side-walkers to control her horse when
he gets out of line. Once again, Nora has to tell her that she needs to
tell him that. Overall, it was not a very good day for Dina and I could
see the frustration on her face. I suppose it takes some bad days to
learn. It’s a part of the learning process. The problem is that Dina
has been repeating her mistakes many times. Until she realizes this, she
is bound to continue making them.
3/19/01 Today, I helped with Kristen and Dina. This is the first time I have worked with Kristen. She is an advanced rider and it is hard to tell what her disability is. She has a slight attention problem, but it is not very obvious. Kristen is a very good rider compared to the others I have seen. She is working on her posting and keeping the horse on the rail. Kristen was having a little bit of trouble with cutting corners today, which makes it harder to ride. The more corners the rider cuts, the smaller the riding circumference is, thereby making it increasingly difficult to control the horse. The horse was also making it harder on her by refusing to trot when she asked. Palmer tends to be very lazy at times and a crop is often needed to get him moving. The lesson ended when Kristen successfully made it around the arena without cutting corners. She did a great job.
Dina had a fairly good day, but she had a couple problems. She still gets anxious when the horse reaches down to eat grass and she is constantly asking the side-walkers to help her when this happens. She is also having trouble using her bottom to turn, instead of her hands. I think Dina tends to want to use her hands and upper body more because they are not as affected by her CP as her lower body is. Nora and Nichole are trying to make her aware that she needs to be keeping her back straight and she needs to shift her weight while turning the horse. She turned well a couple times, but had problems with the majority of them. Dina did extremely well at recognizing what she was doing wrong, but she had trouble correcting those mistakes. I suppose practice makes perfect!
