It almost got cancelled. I received a call from my mom the night before, telling me that we were supposed to get the first snow storm of the year that night, and the following day would yield a bitter high of 20 degrees with a wind chill of 15. How could I lead seven young girls up our steep mountain to work with horses on the first freezing day of the year? I called up my life long soul-sister Diana, who was going to be chaperoning the trip and told her we might need to consider rescheduling. “No!” she said, “The girls will be so sad! We can make it work, just remind their parents that they need to dress warm.” I knew that the girls would likely not arrive to our farm as prepared as they needed to be, but I had hope and a bag of hand warmers. Worst case scenario I could bundle them up with blankets. The next day I woke up with a feeling similar to that of Christmas morning accompanied by the first snow of the year. An idea that I had been planning for months was finally about to come to life; my first ever, Horses In The Forest girls group with The Albany Free School’s 4^th- 7^th grade girls.

I jumped out of bed, put on some coffee and bundled up. As I often do, I hiked up our mountain to my favorite spot and prayed. As I walked through the horse yard, reminding two of our mares about the work that I had for them that day, a feeling of warmth over came me. After having a sweet moment with my Halflinger, Annie, I continued up the mountain, watching the sparkly snowflakes float down from the sky. God’s masterful way of transitioning us through the most beautiful scenes in nature is always astounding to me. First, I walked into our large arena, halfway up the mountain and stood in my usual place in the center. I opened up my cowboy Bible to John 1:5: This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hear us- whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of him. I shut my Bible, breathed in the crisp air and thanked my heavenly Father as I started towards the top of the mountain. When I arrived at the top and turned around, I was in complete awe. The stunning mountains that stood before me had a soft blanket of white on them, increasing their majesty. The feeling I kept getting was that of absolute joy and peace. I got down on my knees and began to pray for the day to be blessed, singing songs of thanks giving, and concluding with thanking and praising of Jesus. I looked up at the sky when I said His name and my eyes began to water; a hawk was flying in a small circle directly above me. Signs like this always make my heart leap in my chest a bit. Shortly thereafter, another hawk joined the first and they gave me a little show until it was time for me to head back down; after all, it was almost time for the girls to arrive!

I headed back to the house and changed into my typical horse handling attire; jeans, a sweatshirt and my favorite Carhartt range boots. The dogs started barking as a big white van finally pulled up our steep driveway. I walked outside to greet my excited new friends as the girls hopped out of the van one by one. Almost every girl was clad in color, sparkles, and fur trims, with galaxy, unicorn, and tie dye pink backpacks to boot! One little girl was wearing adorable, yet very impractical, pink “cowgirl” boots. I knew that these treadless kicks were going be tricky on the slippery snow, but exclaimed with glee as she modeled them for me. Everyone huddled in the pavilion next to our house after our greetings and I gave them a rundown on the farm rules: no feeding the animals, no going into the horse yard without my mom or me, and while we are with the horses, no phones! I thought that the last rule would be tricky for a group of tween girls, but was delightfully surprised to note that not one of the girls had their phone out the entire day!

After we were done with our huddle, I quickly introduced everyone to our four horses, four dogs, and two llamas, our 7 cats introduced themselves throughout the day. Ready to hike the girls up to the arena for a team building exercise, I could hardly tear the girls away from my social butterfly of a pup, Talula. After every girl had a chance to hold my 24-pound, little black dog, we started up the mountain. One of the girls in our group had a hard time making it up the mountain, so I held her arm and stayed back with her as we hiked at her pace. To make matters more difficult, the soles of her boots had a strange way of collecting the snow and forming hard, stilt-like blocks. When we finally arrived at the arena to meet Diana and the rest of the squealing girls, I had everyone gather in the center. With Diana’s help, I wrangled everyone into somewhat of a circle and began an exercise that I had thought up while working at the hemp farm. I asked the girls state a quality that they liked about themselves, excluding their physical appearance. I started off the exercise by stating that I liked that I am friendly and outdoorsy. I noticed that many of the girls had a hard time with this request, especially the girl who needed help up the mountain. Some of the girls said things like “I like that I’m artistic!” or “I like that I have multiple personalities.” One of the girls even repeated my statement, which proved to be true! After every girl had said their piece, I asked them to then state something that they liked about the girl to their left, also excluding physical appearance. I started us off by saying how proud I was of Amelia for her will to make it up the mountain. Each girl had something so sweet and genuine to say about their neighbor, something that noticeably warmed mine and Diana’s hearts. We couldn’t help but clasp our hands together and exclaim “awwwwwwww!” in high pitched voices. Once we closed our circle with a spontaneous all hands in the center shouting of “Horses!” we made our way back to the house for lunch.

As soon as the girls and I were in my kitchen, many requests were made for Talula to be let inside. My little bearded pup received so much attention that day, she didn’t know what hit her! After the girls had made a thorough mess of their lunches and had a full exploration of the house, we bundled up in preparation of the best part of the day; horses! I let Amelia borrow my muck boots which helped her trek up the mountain go much smoother. However, the hike did take her longer than it did the other girls, so I stayed back with her again. To my surprise and delight, one of the other little girls, Sarah, stayed back with us, holding Amelia’s other hand and giving her words of encouragement. When we got to the top, Sarah asked the three girls who were sitting on the mounting block if they would let Amelia sit down on it so she could rest a bit, which they gladly agreed to, no questions asked. Though I could tell that Amelia was a bit of a loner, it was very clear to me that the other girls had her back. My mom drove her truck up the back way to meet us, and I unloaded all of the chairs, blankets, and hand warmers, quickly distributing them to the shivering girls. My mom looked at me as if to say, “it is way too cold for us to be up here right now!” Though I knew she was right, I also knew that this moment was very important, and that it was now or never.

After making sure that the girls were sufficiently warmed up, I headed down to fetch Zoey and Annie, our two sweetest, most well behaved horses. As I was hiking back up the mountain, Annie in toe, I could hear what sounded like screams coming from up above. Luckily this wasn’t my first rodeo with free school kids and I knew that they were just playing. After all, I was once a free school kid myself. When I arrived at the arena with Annie, Sarah asked me if I had heard the bird calls they had been sending me. I sure had! Everyone stopped what they were doing and ran up to Annie. “Can we do Annie first?!” many of the girls asked. Everyone had already decided that they wanted to braid Annie’s luxurious white mane, and were beginning to line up to get their turn. My mom and I walked Annie and Zoey into the arena and ground tied them. Ground tying is a way of “tying” a horse’s lead rope to a corral panel, without actually tying it, and one of the most foundational practices in natural horsemanship. I explained to Sarah how to make sure Zoey stayed put, which she readily caught on to, and the girls all got to work. Each girl grabbed a grooming tool, some of which were bedazzled and rainbow. My mom was in charge of Annie and the four to five girls that were glommed onto her, explaining how to walk behind, and approach a horse. After reinforcing some basic safety precautions, and teaching the girls how to properly interact with the horses, all myself, my mom, and Diana could do was stand back and watch Jesus do his healing work through our wonderful mares.

I noticed that though a few of the girls were timid of our giant animals, they couldn’t help but come right up to them and give them hugs and praises of adoration. My mom told me later that day that she witnessed many of the girls saying “I love you Zoey!” and “I love you Annie!” in their own private interactions with the horses. At one point, Annie had decided that she was done being haltered, so my mom told the girls that she was going to let her go. She said that if Annie willingly stayed still for them, the girls could continue to groom her at liberty. Not surprisingly, our sweet old mare allowed all of the girls to swarm around her again, and recommence their grooming. Unfortunately, Amelia was very cold and spent most of her time on a chair bundled up in a blanket, but she eventually came up to Zoey and gave her some attention. When she told me that her hands were cold, Sarah, who was standing right next to me immediately gave Amelia her only hand warmer, an act that I couldn’t help but commend her on later. After about an hour, when I had decided that we had spent enough time in the cold, not wanting the girls to get sick, I announced that it was time to head back to the house to make bracelets. The girls hugged the horses and reluctantly put their grooming tools away. After packing up the truck, we headed back to the house. Each girl was wrapped in a blanket with a buddy. One of the girls practically carried her friend who was slippiing and sliding in her treadless pink “cowgirl” boots down the mountain. Seeing these girls wrapped in blankets together, helping each other down the mountain was truly heartwarming. One thing that is very true about The Free School, is that it is one big family, and though the girls are wild and playful, they are extremely nurturing to each other.

 As we all piled inside the house, the girls fighting over who could hold Talula first, and figuring out how best to build a fort, Diana looked at me and asked, “Are you starting to feel like you got yourself in too deep? You’re not too overwhelmed?” Not in the least. All I could feel was pure joy. “Diana, this is awesome! Anyways, they’re way better than I expecting they’d be!” This was a true statement; I had been gearing up for much more difficulty than I was experiencing. Yes, the girls were wild Free School kids, and yes, my clean kitchen was beginning to look like a war zone, but nothing was more fulfilling to me, than knowing that these girls were having a complete blast! Though they were running around like crazy and had lots of energy, they were very respectful of our animals, our home, and our farm rules. I didn’t have to reprimand one child the entire day.

The girls all grabbed some snacks and “settled” in the front room by the wood stove, sprawled out on blankets, one girl holding a bundled up Talula on her lap. I looked at my dog who was half overwhelmed, half loving it. I knew that the girl didn’t plan on letting her go anytime soon! I gathered the beading supplies that I had put together for the girls to make into bracelets, and told the girls that they could think of a prayer and put it into their bracelet as they beaded. Of course, I should have known that they would all want to make chokers instead of bracelets, duh! The next few hours consisted of a bunch of us girls just hanging out. Some of the girls made jewelry, some drew, some continued making forts, and some simply played around the house in proper kid like fashion. Many times, throughout the day, I heard, “This is best girls group IN THE NATION!” and “when are we coming back? I WANT TO LIVE HERE!” I’d say that I was accomplishing my goal for the trip. At one point one of the girls requested I play the song, Crab Rave, as we had been playing music on the loud speakers at that point. As soon as the intro started, all of the girls positioned themselves in some what of a triangle. They all started swaying and pinching their fingers like little crabs. As soon as the song’s beat dropped, they started going crazy and jumping around. Diana and I sat by the fireplace and watched in amusement; this was a well-choreographed show they were putting on!

As our day came to a close, I had Diana help me gather all of the girls in a circle by the fire. I handed each girl a small piece of paper and a colored pen. “I want everyone to write on their piece of paper something that they want to get rid of” I said, “It could be a bad habit, something in your life that you don’t like, or something bad that has happened to you.” The girls looked at me inquisitively. I continued, “If you want to say what you wrote out loud, please do, but if you don’t want to, you can just fold your paper up and place it in the middle of the circle.” Everyone began writing on their papers. I noticed that some of the girls took the exercise very seriously, and privately wrote on their papers, folding them into tiny squares. Once everyone had thrown their paper in the middle, I said, “Ok now normally we would have made a spirit fire outside with bark, twigs, and a flint and spark. Because it’s too cold outside, we’re just going to use the woodstove. Before we throw our paper in, we are first going to say The Lords Prayer. No one has to say the prayer with me if they don’t want to, but you are all welcome to.” Only one little girl began to say the prayer with me, but when she noticed that no one else was praying along with us she fizzled out to silence. No big! I’m used to people thinking I’m silly when I bring up anything having to do with Jesus, that doesn’t keep me from doing it! I finished the prayer and told the girls that if they wanted to, they could offer their own blessing. Two of the girls jokingly said a prayer to “the lasagna gods” which probably had something to do with the lasagna they had for lunch. My mom showed me how to do a spirit fire when I was young, and she taught me the Lord’s prayer when I was even younger. Initially, I had planned being the one to throw the papers in the fire because I didn’t want anyone to get burned, but the girls were adamant on throwing them in themselves.

After everyone threw their papers in the fire, Diana told the girls it was time to pack up and leave. Man had the day flown by! Of course, none of the girls wanted to leave and they all started procrastinating. Luckily Diana, having been their teacher for a handful of years, had much experience organizing the girls and getting them packed up. After the girls had shuffled out of the house, brightly colored back packs and lunch boxes in toe, Diana and I checked the front room to see if any of the girls had forgotten anything. Lo and behold, Sarah’s sister, Kamden, was sprawled out on the floor, straight chillin! None of her items were packed and she had an expression on her face as if to say, who me? I live here! Diana promptly packed Kamden out, giving her a few “stern” words while secretly smiling at me in her big-sisterly fashion.

All of the girls piled into the big white van, singing in harmony as Diana ushered the straggling Kamden back to the group. I gave Diana a big hug, thanking her for chaperoning, and taking part in the first ever Horses in the Forest girls group with me. We’ve really come full circle, I thought to myself, remembering the many girls’ groups Diana and I had experienced together as little girls at The Free School. After we all said our goodbyes, I watched the big white van disappear behind the snow speckled trees. I took a deep breath in, and looked up at the sky, “Thank you, Jesus!” I said quietly.

Our first huddle in the arena!

The girls get to work on Zoey and Annie.

Beautiful rainbow lights shining on our day.

The girls grooming Annie at liberty.

Buddy system works best!

Talula accepts her role for the day.

The girls making their chokers!

Peace out!

This was only the beginning of many more girls groups to come, stay tuned for our next adventure!