Chaia King
Starting out Right!
Marc De Champlain (left) Al-Marah Director of Horsemanship, a 3x World Reining Champion and holder of scores of awards, gave students an overview on how horses think and feel before instructing them on the art of lunging on their first day of class at Al-Marah Equine School LLC and Florida International College in Clermont, Florida on January 9, 2017.
Here, De Champlain shows a Veteran in the first class, how to position the hands for her first attempt at lunging. The horse is 2-year-old gelding Al-Marah Cowboy Lee (aka Cowboy Lee), that De Champlain has been schooling
“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.”
—U.S. General George S. Patton
In 1945, with the surrender of Germany in World War II, General Patton and his 2nd Cavalry Group became integral to rescuing Vienna’s Spanish Riding School and the irreplaceable bloodlines of its Lipizzaner stallions. Ever the pragmatic soldier, Patton had observed in his diary how, amid a world at war, “some twenty young and middle-aged men in great physical condition had spent their entire time teaching a group of horses to wiggle their butts and raise their feet in consonance with certain signals from the heels and reins.”
“On the other hand,” he continued, “it is probably wrong to permit any highly developed art, no matter how fatuous, to perish from the earth—and which arts are fatuous depends on the point of view. To me, the high-schooling of horses is certainly more interesting than painting or music.”
The importance of schooling—of engaging the mind and body of a horse or soldier—was not lost on General Patton or on Mark Miller, owner of Al-Marah Arabians in Clermont, Florida. In January 2017, Al-Marah Equine School LLC and Florida International College launched an educational program that targets US military veterans—and accepts non-military students—and leads in just one year to an Associate of Science Degree in Equine Management.
The program’s greatest teachers are also the oldest continuously bred and privately owned band of Arabian horses in the world: an unbroken lineage of desert warriors as proud as the veterans learning to work with them.
“We are going to graduate students more prepared for the real world,” Miller said. “Theoretically, an Associate Degree takes two years. We’re doing this in twelve months. There’s no summer break.” Which expedites the path from education to employment without a lapse in benefits.
Veterans advocate and vice president of the Fighting For Our Heroes Foundation, Alan Alford, helps those applying to identify their eligibility for Veterans Affairs (VA) Education Benefits (see sidebar): “Because of the accelerated degree, a veteran’s BAH is not interrupted.” Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits include monthly Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) for eligible (enrolled full-time) veterans and service members. A yearly books and supplies stipend is paid proportionally based on enrollment.
Chaia King
Progress!
As the saying goes, 'a picture says a thousand words” about the confidence and skills this Veteran has learned in less than two months. This is the same 2-year-old gelding, Cowboy Lee.
“Since we have the facilities, staff, great horses and trainers in place, let’s make it so veterans can train into these fields and make a living,” Miller said. “Each veteran can learn multiple disciplines of equine management while being in an environment conducive to working with, rather than against, their post-military struggles.”
The Equine Management Degree’s general studies include cross-cultural communication, while the equine core’s classroom, practicum, and lab work looks at reproduction and genetics, nutrition, anatomy and physiology, disease and lameness, and horsemanship and equitation, plus sales, marketing, and business management. An Equine Capstone practicum provides a deeper study in reproduction, business management, training and/or riding instruction. Students work one-on-one with an instructor, or in small groups, building expertise in their chosen interest through projects such as running a show or sale, competing, earning riding instructor certification, designing a facility, or gaining more training, breeding, and foaling experience.
A whole approach to horses, says Carol Alm, Program Director for the Florida International College Equine Management program, includes demonstrations in acupuncture, chiropractic, and massage therapy.
“Al-Marah horses seem to tune in to each person. They don’t see a difference between civilian and veteran,” Alm said. “From yearlings to horses like Star of the Sea (a student favorite), each responds to each student in a way that seems based on the needs of that person.” Star of the Sea is a high-powered, responsive reining horse with that seemingly innate Al-Marah Arabian ability to ‘shift gears’ in response to her rider. With students, Alm says the mare attunes to her kind and gentle side: “She comes right up when you want to catch her in the pasture.”
That hands-on horsemanship, from greeting mares like Star of the Sea in her pasture to lunging youngsters, begins under the tutelage, Marc De Champlain. With more than 50 years of title-winning experience in reined cow horse, western riding, and reining, the Al-Marah Equine School director of horsemanship and Florida International College Equine Management Program instructor of horsemanship helps veterans and horses make first—and lasting—connections.
“I start off making sure they put their hands on the horse. Hands wide open and fingers relaxed, not in a claw, and simply feel what the horse is feeling. That horse, in turn, gives his feelings to back.
“That’s what a lot of people don’t understand when I put my hand on a horse, I give the only thing I have to give: my heart.” The three-time World Reining Champion added, “What you want is compassion, love, and care from the one who will carry you. How you communicate with that horse is how he will carry you, how he is going to feel about wanting to carry you. It all starts when you touch him and let him know who you are.”
The first ‘hands-on’ lesson is: “Give before you take. That’s how you learn ‘feel.’ There’s no difference in handling horses or humans. If you explain what you want correctly and follow through, they will understand.”
A hands-on philosophy that not only engages the body but encourages the mind—and heart—to follow.
Next sessions open June 5 and September 5 of 2017. Deadline for registration is two weeks prior to the session start date. Class size is limited. Learn more at www.AMEquineSchool.com.
Understanding Military/Veteran Financial Aid
For complete details see www.benefits.va.gov.
- Post 9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) for those who served at least 30 consecutive days on active duty after September 10, 2001
- Post 9/11 GI Bill Yellow-Ribbon Program for qualified Post 9/11 applicants
- Montgomery GI Bill Active Duty (Chapter 30) for those who enlisted after July 1, 1985
- Montgomery GI Bill Selective Reserve (Chapter 1606)
- Montgomery GI Bill Reservist Educational Assistance Program (Chapter 1607)
- Survivors and Dependents Educational Assistance Program (Chapter 35) for spouse and children of deceased or disabled veterans
- Vocational Rehabilitation Program (Chapter 31) for disabled veterans approved by Veterans Affairs for study at Florida International College
About LA Pomeroy Sokolowski
Equinista (fashionista + equestrienne) L.A. Pomeroy is a 2016 winner of AHP Equine Media and Syracuse Press Club awards for excellence in horse sports journalism. The seven-time (2008-2017) American Horse Publications Equine Media Awards winner and finalist, and two-time consecutive winner of its Freelance Equestrian Journalism award, led Equestrian Press support for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and offers media consultation for an elite stable of clients while maintaining her unique byline among today's equestrian lifestyle and sports media outlets.