I teach Biology and Physics. Never having ridden before teaching at Thacher, I became hooked as part of a new faculty riding group during my “freshman” teaching year and I’ve been a part of the Horse Department ever since. I advise junior girls in Middle School. After hearing my father’s stories about Thacher and witnessed the “Thacher Effect” on my nieces and nephew, I am so glad to be in the midst of the Thacher community. My wife, Donna, and I live on campus and have two daughters. Katherine CdeP 2008 is a senior at Tufts University in Boston and Kristin CdeP 2010 is a sophomore at Colorado College in Colorado Springs.
A short time ago I was asked to recount a recent experience that might have impacted my work at Thacher. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written here:
On the third night of my fall Extra-Day Trip, I invited the students on my trip to take a short hike/climb after dinner to a rock outcropping above our campsite. While I knew that it was going to take time and effort, and the students would have been satisfied simply hanging out around camp, I made the effort to try and get the students to come with me on this short (less than one hour) hike. I convinced two juniors–Ana and Rachel (both my advisees)–to join me. Even though I had camped in this campsite before, I had never climbed up above it to take in the view. The hike up took us about twenty minutes, and when we reached the top, we had fabulous views of the surrounding area. We could see the trail we had traveled on and the lakes we had passed getting to our campsite, and, to the south, we could see all the way to Yosemite National Park. Not only was it a wonderful view, but there was a sense of accomplishment by both Ana and Rachel of having made the “climb.” They were so appreciative of what we had done, and I think it marked a true highlight of the trip for them.
What this experience taught me, and I have thought about often throughout the year, both in my roles as a teacher and an advisor, is that if I put out a little bit of extra effort on behalf of the students, it will be noticed and appreciated, and it will make the Thacher experience better for everyone!
The other day, as I was getting ready to ride with my new student riding group, I went up to “Gelding Turnout” to catch my horse, Little Man. As it was a Thursday, all of the students had turned out their horses earlier in the day, so there were probably forty horses in the turn-out pen. As I was trying to help one of the freshman find his horse, I noticed Little Man amongst a group hanging out in the middle of the pen. He was turning and kicking out toward one of the horses near him. I instinctively yelled at him to “cut it out” and turned around to continue to help the freshman find his horse. The next thing I knew, Little Man was standing right next to me, basically asking me to halter him and take him for a ride. If I hadn’t know better, I would have said that Little Man and I are cultivating the type of relationship where he wants to be with me and he trusts me to be kind to him. Upon further consideration, knowing that Little Man often gets picked on when there are new horses in the pen, I was simply the “better alternative,” and I offered him a quick escape from his current situation. Regardless of the reason, it brought great joy to me to know that, for whatever reason, my horse and I are getting along well and learning more and more from each other every day.
