Day 1: Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Our first day of Nature Club! It was amazing! At least, I enjoyed it and the kids seemed to enjoy it.
We had 3 kids sign up to join us - Skyler, Charlotte & Lily. Also, our neighbor Madison joined us for about 30 minutes. I didn’t advertise the nature club at all, and I don’t intend to advertise it anytime soon. Smaller groups are much more fun. The 4 Cheyne teens and pre-teens participated (mostly). Anna & Graci cleaned the bunny zen room in addition to their regular barn chores and Evan & Sophia helped with the nature club kids.
Since Charlotte is new to our barn, and since the most important topic is safety, we spent a lot of time reviewing basic safety. It is a fun challenge to balance the super eagerness of learners with the necessary safety knowledge. I don’t want to scare them, or stress them out, but it is so important everyone around a horse understands the safety aspects. All 3 kids were rear’in to go!
Some safety we reviewed includes:
Calm presence around horses
Only open gates or stall doors without permission
Only feed treats to horses (and all animals) with permission
How to safely approach a horse either in the stall (with permission) or in the aisle way
Calm presence around horses, this means self-control and focus on being in the moment with a clear head
Activities:
Groomed Pearl, Princess and Lucy
Observed Evan clean feet of Pearl & Lucy
Assisted with scooping poop out of new stall that will be for Scarlett! (arriving tomorrow!)
Fed grain & hay to bunnies in bunny zen room - established this will be a regular responsibility for Skyler & Charlotte
Skyler rinsed out beet pulp buckets
All practiced leading a horse with a halter and lead rope by walking a horse to the front fence line and back to the barn: Walk on the correct side, carry lead rope properly, lead the horse so they don’t eat grass
Fed the chickens & checked for eggs
Ate lunch at picnic table, played on playground (mostly trampoline)
Rode in the mule while Sophia drove in order to spread the manure & shavings
Rode in the mule for fun! (Lily sat in front with a seatbelt)
Learning:
Grooming brushes: curry comb, hard brush, soft brush, mane & tail brush, hoof pick
Leading / walking a horse to the front yard fence and back
Discussed coloring of “Grey” horse (black body + white coat)
All 5 of our horses names! and breed types > more info here
Photos:
I only captured 4 photos of our first day! I plan to do better next week.
Photos below or also at this link: click here
