Volunteer Corner

By Jess Marlee

From left to right: Remi, Jess, and Kathy.

I appreciate the consistent training Courageous Connections provides. It showed up when I helped to bring Ari in from the pasture to her stall. I slowly, but intentionally walked toward Ari as she was contentedly munching away at the grass, lead in hand, and asked if she's ready to come back inside as it was starting to rain. She showed me with her body language that her answer was, in fact, "no", by turning away and trotting a bit to put distance between us. I accepted this no, and held my spot. When she started to put her head down to continue to eat, I sternly said, "head up!" And her ears pointed towards me and her head came back up, full attention towards me. After a second, she tried to lower her head back to the grass again and I reinforced, "head up!" She kept her attention on me this time. I asked, "are you ready now?" Since she kept her attention on me I steadily approached, the lead clearly visible so she knew my intention. She stayed still for me and relaxed once I clipped the lead into place on her halter. She then very easily walked with me to her stall.

"Easy" interactions like this are only possible through the hard work and consistency everyone at Courageous Connections provides for the workers, volunteers, participants, and the horses. It shows how much we communicate with each other that when we say "head up" it means no grass right now for the horses. There is work to do, even when the work is as simple as moving to a different area. 

Thank you to everyone at Courageous Connections for making this clear and "easy" communication with Ari possible.