Lachlan Nutting

As I think about my educational path, there is a consistent theme of education being more than academic knowledge. Some of the most impactful periods of my life have been those which spark my love of learning through the mechanism of relevance. Whether it was building on an existing interest or hobby, trying out new skills to be ready for an upcoming adventure, or wanting to ensure I can bring my best for participants, the learning that comes from applying the broad and intangible concepts to what happens in real life can be the most meaningful. 

Growing up in West Virginia, I remember walking up and down in local creeks and looking for the perfect rocks to carefully lift up, hoping to find a crawdad. These moments were some of my first memories of learning to notice what is around me and how I interact with those spaces. I learned to look at a rock under the water and say, “If I were a crawdad, I would be under that one.” Sometimes I would be right, but the rocks I lifted and only found more rocks stoked my curiosity and encouraged me to keep noticing the small wonders of the creekbed. 

I carried this love of noticing and lens of appreciation with me to high school in Ojai, CA where I learned the subtleties of riding and communicating with horses as we travelled through the Sespe Wilderness. Being aware of and noticing the nuances of how horses communicate with us and how we can best engage with horses informed how I approached coaching new riders during my time in the Horse Faculty at The Thacher School, and it continues to be a central part of how I engage with students at Chewonki. I strive to encourage my students to begin from a place of curiosity and wonder, to open themselves to more opportunities to ask, “If I were a crawdad, where would I want to be?”