Day by Day in a Horsemanship Class at HoneyRock

A Vanguard Gap Year Intensive

By HoneyRock Center for Leadership Development

November 17^th, 2021

While Vanguard Gap Year offers an Equestrian Track, we also offer a five day intensive in the fall. This is an opportunity for Vanguards who are not in the track to experience what the barn has to offer. You'll hear Clarissa Meadows give a day-by-day overview of her intensive, as written by Rachael Dickerson, VG '22.

Day 1

On the first day, we met up at the barn around 8:45. Kenyan, a current graduate student at HoneyRock, talked about what the horsemanship intensive was going to look like. She explained how we could use horses as a platform to learn more about God and ourselves. After our lesson, we learned how to do some chores around the barn. Then, we learned about horses' blind spots, different parts of grooming, picking hooves, and the difference between a hard and soft brush. Later in the day, we got to experience leading the horses, which is where we walk next to them and guide them with a lead.

Day by Day in a Horsemanship Class at HoneyRock

Day 2

We started the day off by watching Kenyan do a lesson in the round arena with Pepper, one of the HoneyRock horses. She compared our relationship with God to the way the horses are in a relationship with us. In the lesson, she had Pepper walk in a circle as Kenyan signaled for her to turn. Sometimes Pepper would push the boundaries, but she quickly realized that doing that would only result in Kenyan being firmer with her signals. In the same way, we test our boundaries with God. But just like God, when the horse messes up or pushes boundaries, we give them grace for their mistakes.

Another metaphor with horses is that we have to be constantly watching and pursuing the horse even though sometimes they want nothing to do with us. This is similar to how God is always pursuing us even though we don’t always pursue him back.

After our lesson, we were able to ride the horses and go on a trail ride. We learned how to stop and start the horses, learned how to emergency dismount, hold reigns, indirect and direct reigning, and arena turns. After riding, we headed over to Nature’s Maze, a campsite on HoneyRock’s 1,000+ acres, for a 4-hour solo. We were each able to spend some time alone to reflect on our experiences in the intensive.

Day 3

Today we started the day with barn chores. Once we were done, we headed over to our lesson about our posture in the riding seat. Later in the day, we got our horses into the arena for the first time. We practiced walking, switching directions, and our turns. After lunch, we got a lecture in the tack house and then got to practice trotting. After this, we went on a trail ride.

Day 4

We practiced more trotting and learned more about the technical side of how to trot. We also learned how to canter, which is having the horse go at a fast speed.

Day 5

On our last day, we started with chores and then took a written test about everything that we have learned so far in the intensive. Later, we took a riding test in which we had to demonstrate how we used our natural aids, our steering, trotting, halting, and a 20-meter circle.

Over the five-day course, my favorite parts were working on the trots at a 2 point, posting, and using my natural aids. I also loved working with the horses in action and using that work to better understand my relationship with God. As I worked with various horses that each have specific needs, I’ve found myself growing in patience and understanding.