SAIIER 2021:Ashwagandha Horses

“The Miracle Forest”		Awareness Through the Body (ATB)
Entity::Ashwagandha Horses bringing Natural Horsemanship to the AV youth by Daniela and Maya

The purpose of the Ashwagandha Horses project was to provide a safe and progressive environment for children of Auroville to learn the theory and practice of Natural Horsemanship. Weekly classes were conducted by the four project holders (Daniela, Divya, Inge, Maya) over the period from June 2020 – March 2021, in which children could develop the key skills to interact and play with horses ‘naturally’ both on the ground and learn the basics of riding. Natural Horsemanship focuses on love, language and leadership vs. normal horsemanship that uses intimidation, force and fear. The skills and knowledge gained during the classes provided an expanding knowledge on horse psychology and how to communicate with their horses using a Natural, positive and progressive attitude without fear and intimidation. These skills extend beyond the children’s interaction with horses, enhancing their confidence, communication, leadership and physical motor skills, all of which are applicable to their daily life.

Description of project:

The goal of Ashwagandha Horses is to create a safe environment where equine activities can take place for the betterment of humans and horses. Our years of experience working with horses has taught us to be responsible from a young age, connect to our inner being and be receptive and open to change. Natural Horsemanship has provided us with the valuable skills of communication, trust and respect. Our aim is to share our passion and knowledge with the younger generation of Auroville, so that ultimately this space can be an inter-generational unending learning experience platform and physical space for personal growth. We see that the physical living space of the horses also becomes a safe, vital and living social place where valuable life lessons occur, and where children and young adults can explore different aspects of their being in a flexible and supportive environment.

The 4 (now 5) project holders conducted weekly classes of Natural Horsemanship and horse interaction activities for children of Auroville from June 2020 – March 2021 (classes are still ongoing post project). Our classes are based on the Parelli Natural Horsemanship method – a globally widespread school of Natural Horsemanship.

8 children of Auroville aged 8-12 participated in the weekly class. These classes included basic theory and regular practice of Natural Horsemanship techniques with the horses of Ashwagandha. With the help of SAIIER support we were able to provide these classes at a subsidised half cost.

Our classes focused on providing the children with an understanding of the six keys of Parelli Natural Horsemanship and giving them simple tools to communicate with horses, namely the 7 games. The 7 games form the basis of a non-verbal communication that builds up the partnership between horse and human. In our classes the students learned a basic level of theory (simplified for this target age group) of the 7 games and practiced the games with the horses on the ground.

The classes are organised according to the levels system in the Parelli Natural Horsemanship. Theory and practice build from learning basic ground skills (developing the start of communication with horses and establishing safety) in Level 1 to more advanced skills in ground training and riding in Level 4. This past year focused on establishing the basic ground skills in the first level.

In addition to the Natural Horsemanship classes which was only for children aged 8 and up, we provided an opportunity for the younger children aged 3-7 to establish contact with horses. As this age group would be too young to fully understand the theory concepts as well as handle big horses, we still wanted to provide them with the opportunity to gain a basic connection and learning with horses. We organised weekly interactions for children to be able to go on forest walks led by the project team members and groom and feed the horses. This allowed younger children to already form a bond with the horses and gain confidence from a young age. Approximately 30 children joined these activities on a flexible basis.

Outcomes:

Weekly Natural Horsemanship classes were provided for 8 children of Auroville aged 8-12. In these classes the children gained:

• An understanding of the 6 keys of Natural Horsemanship
• Knowledge and practice on how to use the tools of Natural Horsemanship (ropes of different lengths, carrot sticks and other props)
• Knowledge on the theory and practice of the 7 games with the horses
• Knowledge on horse care (grooming and feeding)

We have seen a large progress in the children who took part in the classes both in their physical and mental abilities. Not only did the children become more confident in their physical capacities of handling ropes, carrot sticks and the horses themselves, but we saw a growth in the children’s development in terms of their communication skills, patience, determination, knowledge and confidence in working with the horses and also in themselves. This progress and growth in the children over the past year has been beautiful to see and really showed us how interacting with horses stimulates a really important part of education that translates into their daily life.

For the younger children participating in weekly horse interaction, we have observed that children who are often shy, or others who have a lot of energy become fully focused on the horses when they are on their ride or feeding or brushing. Horses have been used worldwide in therapy and are known to bring a sense of quiet, focus, and self-reflection. We saw that children gained increasing knowledge and skills such as improved communication, leadership, confidence, physical motor skills, and improved memory.

Feedback from Stephan and Anusha (Ananya’s parents):

We would like to express our appreciation and gratitude for your support of the Horsemanship classes at Ashwagandha!

Our daughter, Ananya, has been attending the classes since July 2020 and not only enjoys her teachers and the horses tremendously, she has been deeply nourished in valuable ways through them.

The most evident shift has been in her confidence around animals. After a traumatic dog bite a year ago, Ananya has been nervous around big dogs. By working with the horses, learning to love and respect them while being assertive with them, her love for and trust in animals has been restored. Instead of feeling threatened by them she is learning to communicate with them from a fearless space. For us this is an extremely precious outcome!

We deeply value how Daniela and Maya work with the students. They combine gentleness and love with commitment and rigour and, as such, are inspiring role models. It’s been a treat to watch Ananya develop not only her love for horses but also these beautiful qualities through her teachers, which will serve her in all areas of her life.

Most importantly, these classes provide Ananya with a model of relating with horses with deep respect, partnership and compassion. She learns to communicate with them with awareness and understanding rather than with saddles and whips. Developing in children a sense of care and responsibility for the planet and deep love for its creatures is, we believe, education in the truest sense of the word. It is the foundation to building a more peaceful and sustainable world.

Feedback from Aneeka (12 years old):

When I go to Ashwagandha to learn natural horsemanship, I am happy to meet the horses. I have learnt to put a harness, brushing and grooming them including tidying their nails, combing their mane, etc. I have also learnt something called the ‘friendly game’. At times, I feed the horses and also take smaller kids for rides. The horses also seem to be comfortable around me. Now that they are used to seeing me around, they respond to me. All of it feels very friendly and warm. I think they like me when they lick my hand. But they seem to like younger kids even more. They are warm, welcoming and have their own horse(pers)onality.

I usually ride Kayla. She is the calmest among all the horses and walks slowly whenever her tummy is full. I help clean Kadin's hooves and brush him but since he is small, he likes licking a lot.

Natural horsemanship has been a good experience and I really like riding horses. To think that initially I was scared of horses and now I feel completely at ease on and around them.

Reflections:

Natural Horsemanship is a continuous process of learning and self-development. It provides a valuable opportunity to reflect on our physical and emotional state, build our confidence and leadership, and enhance our imagination. It has been wonderful to watch the children mature and grow in their confidence around the horses and become calm and focused leaders during the classes. They are progressing largely in overcoming the challenges of shyness, fear, frustration and impatience. These are valuable skills that the children can take with them and use in their life.

We encountered several challenges during the project duration:

• COVID-19 caused classes to be halted numerous times during the project months. Fortunately, we schedule our classes of no more than 2-3 students per teacher and our classes are outdoors following safety protocols, thereby allowing us to recommence earlier than some activities.
• A second challenge has been to cater to every child’s needs. Natural Horsemanship goes hand in hand with our own personal development, making us face our inner emotional challenges and every individual grows and progresses at a different pace. This challenges us team leaders to cater the classes for every child’s need, not to progress too quickly for those who need more time, yet not too slow for those who want to challenge themselves. We constantly adapt our class content and learning according to the needs of the children and for this we also keep our class sizes small so we can really cater for every individual’s needs.
• A third challenge is scheduling the classes for the children. The children have very busy schedules with other extracurricular activities, and thus finding common timings was difficult. We had a change in some of the students during the project period as some had to drop out and new children joined the classes.
• A fourth challenge we faced in Ashwagandha Horses is the horses’ health. As we have a small herd of horses all our horses are involved in the classes. Occasionally horses fell ill during the project phase, which made us have to reschedule, cancel or adapt the classes with fewer horses.
• A fifth ongoing challenge is to generate enough funds to run the project efficiently. Horses have a significant cost in terms of food, stabling, and medical expenses. At the current time the horse project is largely funded by personal funds of the project team members, SAIIER’s grant as well as charging students to attend the horse interaction and classes. Our aim is to keep the costs as minimal as possible so that the classes are accessible. However, this is difficult as we need to balance low cost with at the same needing to generate enough to have the project run for the well-being of the horses and team.

Conclusion:

The project with the funds from SAIIER allowed us to provide a safe and progressive educational space for students to learn and practice Natural Horsemanship over the past months from July 2020 – March 2021. We are currently ongoing with the classes and would like to continue to provide this opportunity for the children of Auroville. The students so far have covered the basics of Natural Horsemanship in ground training skills, and we would like to allow them to progress into more advanced ground training skills as well as introduce the riding component. We would also like to continue to provide the weekly horse interactions for the younger children.

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