Revamping and Restoring

This is the time of the year to look back over a program and assess ways to improve. Some of the strengths of my program have been slowly eroded over the years. This year we will renew our emphasis on several points. That does not mean that all of the children will enjoy this renewal. Improvements are not always fun. Hard work does not have to be fun; it merely has to be done. I've come to realize that the educational component of our program has slid over the past year. I am afraid that too much emphasis has been placed on riding and too little emphasis placed on learning. Of course, I want my riders to be able to ride long, hard, comfortably, and safely. I also want them to understand horses inside and out.

 That means understanding how to properly trim hooves. That means knowing which trees are potentially lethal to horses. That means knowing how to identify the smell of mold in hay when no mold is apparent to the eye. That means knowing how many gallons of water horse’s need to drink a day when the temperature is above 90°. That means knowing the average gestation length of a mare. That means understanding why a modern Andalusian horse is not the same thing as the horses from Andalusia up that made up some of the earliest colonial Spanish breeding stock.. That means understanding why ships from England would often bring Spanish livestock to Virginia and the rest of the Southeast. That means understanding what genetic drift is. That means understanding how shampooing horses is a potential threat to their skin’s immune system. That means understanding the tremendous health risks that obesity places on horse.

 That means understanding that the quickness of the release is more important than the intensity of the press pressure. That means understanding what happened near the Greasy Grass in June of 1876. That means understanding which trees and reeds are best used for arrow shafts. That means understanding why modern hogs have such a different appearance from colonial era hogs. That means understanding why we use a different wormer for tapeworms then we use for other parasites.

That means understanding why the calcium to phosphorus ratio in a mineral supplement must be two – one. That means understanding why a horse should have a broad, firm frog. That means understanding why we do not use curb bits. That means understanding the difference between natural horsemanship and hype. That means understanding how composting works and how it is an important part of parasite management. That means understanding what happened when John Smith visited the land just behind that horse pastures in 1608. That means understanding what the LP complex is.

 That means understanding who Rowdy Yates is and who Choctaws Sundance was. That means understanding why Betsey Dowdy rode over 50 miles in the middle of the night. That means understanding why Secotan, a pure Corolla mare, has a head shape exactly like many of the mares found on the Cayuse Ranch. That means understanding the horse’s natural body temperature. That means understanding why the fact that a horse is unable to vomit poses such a grave threat to its health during times of digestive distress. That means knowing when bows and arrows came into use along the East Coast. That means understanding how deerskin is turned into soft buckskin. That means understanding where Benedict Arnold was going when he rode out past our horse lots. That means understanding what a Baylis goat is and why it is so important to preserve them. That means understanding why breeding a Corolla horse to a Shackleford horse is not crossbreeding. That means understanding why we ride with the heels lower than toes, toes in front of these, sitting on our pockets, with their hands in front of their bellybuttons. That means knowing who Janus was. That means understanding the roles of the Corolla horses in developing what became known as the Virginia quarter-mile horse. That means knowing who Quannah Parker was. That means understanding why we now have coyotes along the East Coast. That means knowing the difference between a buck scrape and a buck rub. That means knowing what causes round ponds. That means understanding why a mixed forest is a better eco-system than a pure pine plantation.

 Most of all, that means understanding why learning matters.