Monday, March 5

Victoria Berger:

Today was our first full day volunteering and the group could not have been more excited. We went to Triple Play Farms in the morning and participated in an intense equine session. We were able to freely enter the arena with beautiful horses named Emma, Monarch, and Moose. Today, we were given the task to “challenge assumptions.” We analyzed our peers’ behaviors with the horses and made educated, factually based assumptions about our peers and the horses based on observations. This activity taught us about the dangers of making blind, random judgments.

My group attempted to make Monarch step over a small hurdle. Unfortunately, my group failed. Due to weak communication efforts, we struggled with our task and could not coerce Monarch into stepping over the hurdle. This activity brought a whole new meaning to the phrase “You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”

We felt dejected, which we later discussed during our nighttime reflection. However, we channeled this disappointment into success at Rocky Creek Ranch. We began making benches, painting wood for horse obstacles, designing memory rocks, and building kaleidoscopes and Braille boards for the Discovery Trail.

After hours of hard work on our service projects, we enjoyed a delicious southern barbecue dinner and sat around the campfire roasting s’mores. We reflected on the day and lit paper lanterns to send off into the night sky. This day was truly one to remember.

Danielle Adiletta:

Anyone that knows me knows that animals and I simply don’t vibe. So our morning of meeting the horses at Triple Play Farm had me feeling slightly anxious at first. We filed out of the vans around 9am and were greeted by the wonderful staff at the farm. We began with a meeting where we discussed assumptions. We talked about assumptions people may have about each other, and also assumptions we had about horses. We were also presented with questions to guide us on how to support our teammates, as well as how to get support for ourselves. Our work began by meeting the horses and also observing the strengths of our teammates. I left the first two tasks frustrated in myself and still anxious about being around the horses. It was not until my team worked with the staff member Morgan and our horse Moose that I realized the true meaning of the mornings activities- through our work trying to get Moose to complete a series of task, my team had to utilize each others strengths and properly support one and other. We learned to celebrate the small victories, and I feel like I learned new things about each one of my teammates. We capped off our time at Triple Play by enjoying a wonderful lunch provided by Subway.

Around 2pm we filed back into the vans for the 45 minuet drive to Rocky Creek Ranch. Some group members were fading, and I had my doubts about how much energy we would have to begin our service projects. Yet, we all surprised ourselves by how much our spirits were lifted when we arrived. We began projects such as creating a Braille board, gem mining boxes, building benches, and constructing a kaleidoscope for stations on the trail. The projects engaged both our creative and logistical sides. There was a lot of measuring, cutting, and painting done today with the hopes of putting the pieces together tomorrow.

With a solid afternoon of work complete, we headed inside for dinner provided by Greg’s family. I had my first experience with North Carolina BBQ and I have zero complaints. Definitely some of the best pulled pork I have ever had followed by delicious banana pudding. After we were all sufficiently stuffed, we had a surprising talk with Dr. Randy who taught us the importance of oral hygiene. As a dentist, he was extremely passionate about the need to floss and demonstrated on some of our group members. We shared a lot of laughs, and I’m sure everyone will be using their new floss brush tonight. The night ended with a camp fire, an insightful reflection, and a memorable lantern lighting send off. Overall, today I learned a lot about my fellow group members as we challenged our selves in ways we never expected. I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Lorenzo Penna:

I learned a lot about myself and about my team members during the activities and interactions with the horses at Triple Play Farms today. We started the day tackling the assumptions that we had within our own group regarding each other and horses, and we made it our goal to challenge and test those assumptions throughout the course of the experience. The first opportunity that came about for us to tackle these assumptions was when we got to meet three beautiful horses for the first time: Monarch, Emma, and Moose. Monarch was the most open to us at first: she allowed anyone and everyone to pet her without flinching or running away. Emma was a little more reserved in the fact that she slowly back away when multiple people approached her at once but was open to more one-on-one interaction. Moose, on the other hand, practically ran away from anyone who tried to come close to her. She stayed along the outside of the dirt area we were enclosed in, and it took a lot of patience to get her to open up. We broke up into small groups to discuss the strengths that we saw out of our teammates interacting with the horses and the defining characteristics of the horses.

One of the most important challenges placed upon us by the instructors was learning what support each member of the team needed in order to be successful and to be the best version of themselves that they could possibly be. This was a way to hold ourselves accountable to be there for our team members in the way that they know is most effective for them and is most needed for them. These support systems came into play when we moved on to a later activity that involved guiding one horse through a series of obstacles like cones, bridges, and jumps. This activity required us to lean on one another, to provide feedback to one another on things that were working and were not working, and trusting one another as not everyone can interact with the horse at once.

For this particular activity, I spent the most time out of anyone in my group working with Emma. Emma is a thoroughbred that was bred to be a racehorse but was abandoned and isolated throughout many different homes, ultimately ending up in an adoption center before Triple Play Farm. This caused her to be very hesitant to opening up and trusting new people. I had to really be persistent with her and never give up, no matter how many times I failed to get her to follow me. The most difficult part of this activity for me was to regulate my emotions. A horse can sense doubt in a person almost instantly, and once they do, they lose trust in that person as a leader. I had to consistently monitor and regulate my emotions to show Emma that I was firm and confident in myself and what I wanted her to do. I worked on getting her feet moving first by asking her to move backward, and once she did I asked her to follow me. If she didn’t listen, I would come right back and do it again. I was successful in getting her to follow me, but sometimes she reared off because we lost the connection that we had or she got distracted by Moose.

It really is like a dance; you have to stay with your partner and trust that she will follow. You have to establish that connection and stick with your partner whether she listens to you or not. You also had to stand your ground and establish that you are going to lead the horse and not the other way around. There were multiple occasions where I jumped in front of Emma and asked her to stop as she was running away. And while all of this was happening, my teammates and Tracey were providing positive reinforcement as well as new perspectives on the actions and commands I was giving. This was a great learning experience for both my team and I, and I cannot wait to see what other ways we can learn more about our mental health and the community we are serving through our interactions with the horses.