Evergreen Horses: the Natural Horsemanship School

In a quiet and shaded enclosure in the Evergreen Forest, a small herd of horses flick their tails while sipping cool water in an effort to beat the ever-increasing summer heat. Sitting close by around a table are their companions Sara, Matthia, Maya and Divya, the four young people who dedicate the best part of their days to running Auroville’s Natural Horsemanship School. As with many activities in Auroville, Evergreen Horses is an initiative that started off as a small-scale activity, fuelled by the passion of a few individuals, and subsequently grew into a full-blown project. The school is the first of its kind in India and hosts more than 25 regular students. Since 2014, it has offered an in-depth study programme aimed at supporting young people in their partnership with a four-legged friend.

Evergreen Horses teaches that the horse becomes the mirror that tells you the truth about yourself in aspects such as communication, personal development, leadership, truthfulness and taking responsibility. In the footsteps of Pat Parelli, the American cowboy behind the Parelli method, Evergreen Horses seeks to make the world a better place both for horses and humans. The focus of Evergreen Horses is on horsemanship in its entirety, not just riding, and on promoting a philosophy that helps you become the person you always wanted to be with your horse. In the quietness of the Auroville forests, encountering a rider bareback on his horse without a bridle is not uncommon. In fact, it is just one of the many amazing things that happen on a daily basis at Evergreen Horses.

“We want to be that voice in India that says ‘something different exists.’ Natural Horsemanship is about seeing the world from the horse’s perspective. At Evergreen Horses we are taking something from the outside world, adapting it to the conditions we have here, and then offering it to children, as we believe they are the future of horsemanship,” says Matthia. The team’s real aim is to give a different kind of education that can empower children and provide them with a skill-set that can enable them to develop as consciously as possible.

A little bit of history

Since she was 16, Sara’s life has been all about horses. In her early days in Auroville, horses and ponies were loyal companions as well as a mode of transportation to go to school or to the Solar Kitchen. Back in the early 90’s, when she had to choose between going to school or spending time with her pony, ‘Magic’, Sara didn’t hesitate. And she hasn’t looked back since. She recalls that, back then, it was the pony that taught her most of what she knew.

In 1998, together with Bettina, Sara’s love for horses resulted in the beginning of one of Auroville’s first riding schools in Evergreen. At that time, it was home to three horses and a bull. “I didn’t really know what I was doing, and we struggled quite a bit. After two years, I shifted to the Pony Farm to help out Nicolette, and I stayed there for the next eight years. Then, in 2009, I returned to Evergreen to start the project that we have in place today,” Sara says.

In between, Sara met Matthia. A computer geek, working at AuroFuture and later part of the team of the early graphic section, he was as far from being a horse person as one could be. Having experienced a traumatic fall from a horse in his childhood in Italy, Matthia was more into music and sound systems. He even had his own recording studio. Sara exclaims, “He was so afraid of horses that he could not even walk a short distance through the corall!

To combat his fears and as part of an inner exploration, Matthia began to search for answers. By chance, or perhaps fate, he discovered a handful of Parelli DVDs that someone brought to the Pony Farm. Immediately, he felt that he could learn something from the methods that this man practiced. He says, “The videos spoke to me, and I asked myself why no one in Auroville was using this knowledge and putting it into practice.” During his next trip to Switzerland, Matthia bought the first level of the Parelli programme, in Italian. “I thought that this programme would be good not just for my own development, but for others as well. I really liked it and it brought me a connection to something I had lost many years ago. So, I watched all the video cassettes in Sara’s hut, surrounded by the horses I feared, and then continued to learn more on the first Parelli Savvy club on a slow broadband connection,” he laughs.

The moment Matthia began to show interest in Natural Horsemanship, his life underwent some drastic changes. He decided to start a journey of discovery with a horse that he got from Red Earth Riding School. “So there I was, with some sort of a manual, expecting things to go smoothly. The reality couldn’t have been more different. It was an extremely difficult start! Not only did I have to handle my own fears, but everything was new. I got stuck for a year on something that usually takes two weeks. But I persevered, despite having no one to turn to for answers.” Slowly, with each step forward he saw results, and he fell in love with the majestic animals.

Matthia’s initial year exploring Natural Horsemanship also triggered a change in Sara’s life. “I was using a too assertive method in which I would tell the horse what to do and when to do it. Those phases were part of my learning curve. It was difficult. Matthia hadn’t known anything and he had been afraid of horses! Just one year later to ask his advice was a big blow to my ego.”

When Matthia’s horse passed away some time later, his newly-found joy in learning also took a fall. For Sara, on the other hand, her enthusiasm at the discovery of Natural Horsemanship made her want to share her newly acquired knowledge with others. So she returned to Evergreen and, together with Maya, started to set up a project that would be drastically different from anything else they had ever done. “Being pregnant at the time, I focused on groundwork and on understanding a little bit more what Natural Horsemanship was all about. I started getting results with my horse, and things started moving really fast, something that I had not experienced before. We made some changes to the school and then decided to focus solely on Natural Horsemanship, inspired by the Parelli method,” she says.

Matthia says, “I saw that Maya and Sara had a lot of obstacles. On the one hand they were doing what they loved, but on the other hand they were compromising in order to manage financially. That made me uneasy and I began to imagine how to create a programme that would focus on horsemanship in a structured manner, particularly focused on the children that attended classes all year long. Also, I wanted to start this journey of exploration as a team, together with Sara and Maya. Taking the decision to establish a school based on concepts of Natural Horsemanship in Evergreen was the spark that got me back into horsemanship. When Sara and Maya gifted me a horse, ‘Kal-El’, it all came back to me, and I felt excited to restart the journey. In between, the Parelli programme also evolved a lot and offered us more support. Things were starting to look up.”

What is Parelli Natural Horsemanship?

This method came into existence in the 80s. It synthesises all the knowledge Pat Parelli received from his contacts in the horse world into a people-training programme that focusses on the study of horse behaviour and horsemanship skills. Using this knowledge, he developed, along with his wife Linda, a programme that spans four ‘Savvys’, or areas of development, through four distinct levels of skill improvement. The cornerstones of the programme are a dedication to never-ending self-improvement and an acknowledgment that the improvement of horsemanship is a lifelong pursuit for those passionate about horses.

The programme encourages students to develop creative problem-solving skills and think in a lateral manner, while taking the non-verbal feedback and expression of the horse into consideration. He saw that when riders encountered a problem, they would take their horse to a trainer to ‘fix the horse’s problem’. Parelli introduced the idea that most of the problems actually stem from how the riders deal with their horses.

His fundamental philosophy is to learn what a horse values and see the world from its perspective. With this, he was able to develop a programme that develops the human as much as the horse. “A horse that doesn’t feel safe will not eat or drink and won’t be in a frame of mind to learn. Human emotions like anger and frustration are perceived as predatorial from the horse’s point of view and will result in its feeling of safety being compromised. So you need to become the leader for that horse and provide it with a feeling of safety; you need to be assertive without being aggressive. This is challenging for most people, but it can bring a new perspective to our daily lives. You understand how to communicate at a different level by starting from oneself. When you make that change, communicating with horses is much easier.

Evergreen Natural Horsemanship School

Sara explains that during their programme at Evergreen they encourage the students to ask questions. “We want to provide a platform for them to focus on their own development. On the practical level, the most tangible thing is that our horses are safe to be around because the environment is not ‘predatorial’. We create a space where the kids can go and brush and play with them. In practice, that means that things such as hoof trimmings, injections, and getting on and off become pleasant and effortless.

The most rewarding example is when a horse truly begins to relax. Sara and Matthia explain that when the horse feels safe and comfortable it starts to be curious and starts to ask you questions. Then, communication becomes extremely effective. For example, when a rider focuses on going in one direction, and moves his or her shoulders in that direction, the horse perceives that and responds accordingly. “This takes a ton of focus. With a bit, short reins, a whip and spurs you can make and force a lot to happen, but it will not serve any purpose. We want to allow rather than force,” says Matthia.

The team at Evergreen Horses takes the students through the different aspects of Natural Horsemanship. This starts with basics on the ground and later in riding. The classes are set up in such a way that the students are able to troubleshoot their own problems. Since all the horses are different, the students have to adapt to the different ‘horsanalities’ and to what the horse needs at the moment. Matthia explains: “I wanted both the practical and theoretical aspect of Natural Horsemanship to be transmitted, and especially a lot about horse psychology and behaviour. I am more of a facilitator since I am a student myself.” Sara continues: “What I enjoy most is starting to teach the younger students between seven and twelve as they have a lot of imagination and are eager to learn. It is much easier if they can start on the natural path right away instead of having to unlearn a lot of bad habits, which is what I had to do.”

There are three ingredients to the Parelli programme: Love, Language and Leadership. Each of these aspects is then applied by the children in their daily lives. For the language aspect, Matthia explains that the point is to make sure that both the horse and human understand the same idea, and if you need to be assertive there should be no negative feeling attached to that communication. Since the horse is the mirror, if the rider gives a suggestion and the horse doesn’t respond, the students ask themselves if they were consistent or clear enough in their intentions, energy or body language. He says: “Giving the students the chance to be a leader in a safe environment gives them the opportunity to express themselves without being afraid of whether it’s right or wrong, or being judged by the result. In the teenage years, this is especially important. I also love to talk with the older students about how to set goals for themselves and how to achieve them. These aspects are important not only for horsemanship but also for human development.”

In the Parelli perspective

Matthia and Sara are learning a lot from their mentor and friend Carmen Zulauf, a five star Parelli master instructor whom they try to meet regularly in Switzerland during the summer holidays. She provides tremendous amounts of support to the Evergreen Horses school.

Sara and Matthia have seen countless times how, when using Natural Horsemanship methods, a horse’s behaviour towards learning can change within even just one hour. By empowering riders to improve their relationship with their horse, the horse becomes a willing participant and the quality of the movements and engagement is higher. In fact, many high level equestrians have discovered that Natural Horsemanship is a tool to advance their careers.