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Wednesday, December 5, 2018

The Last Ride--Today This Blog Ends



Fifty seven years ago I began riding. Forty eight years ago I began playing music. Forty four years ago I began helping little ones perform on stage. Twenty years ago I began taming wild horses. About 15 years ago I began teaching riding and natural horsemanship. About twelve years ago we began our efforts to conserve and preserve the Corolla Spanish mustangs. A little over ten years ago I began writing this blog.

The blog has served its purpose and there are now over a decade of posts on a wide range of subjects that will remain around for anyone to search who might have an interest in doing so. The blog is ending because I have taken on a new, more important writing task-- I am a book with my youngest daughter Ashley Edwards that will focus on child abuse and sexual assault. (If you don't know about my daughter, please go to our website www.millswampindianhorses.com and look under the "news" tab for some great tv news stories and newspaper articles about her).

I am surprised at how little my basic views on preservation of the colonial spanish horse, the importance of using natural horsemanship to produce better people, the need for horses to be raised with natural horse care, the importance of understanding prey animals if one is to deal with severe trauma, that the highest and best use of a horse is to prevent suicide, that the future of our horses depends on our ability to attract novices to them and that efforts to impress the established horse world with the quality of our horses are doomed to fail, that perfectionism, ignorance, and anxiety are the three factors that hold people back from developing a close relationship with horses, that teaching kids to ride is of much less importance than inspiring kids to ride, that in every form of equine competition the real loser is the horse, that conserving soil and water is a sacred act, that being a riding instructor should be a calling , not a job and that, most importantly, whether dealing with people or horses the very first step in seeking to live an ethical life is to utterly ignore self interest.

The extraordinary consistency of those beliefs makes the continued wring of this blog a bit less important.  One can look to posts a decade ago and see how I feel now--and how I will feel ten years from now.

Bye.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Steve, we will miss your blog, and Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to the horses, especially the Spanish horses. I wish you and your daughter much success and happiness in the future. Kathy Peacock

Sharon Baran said...

Thank you for all!

Kate Dunn said...

Steve, Such a brilliant last blog, and I'm still reeling from the penultimate paragraph.

Is it possible to somehow automatically run the blog from start to finish, maybe one a day? I have directed so many people to it.

I will miss seeing new blog posts but will look forward to the book with great anticipation.

Thank you for all your good work.

Laura Glover said...

These have been incredible to read and an amazing teaching platform and I know the books past and future will do the same! Thank you for your wisdom, heart and dedication to doing all the good you can for as long as you can!

Karma Farms said...

Going to miss these, pard. Your blog has been an inspiration to us all and the greatest tool ever to promote the Banker CS Horses. Wish you the best in all you do. Thanks for some thought provoking and inspiring reads. Good luck in all you do, Steve.

Anonymous said...

Please dont think that this blog and all you have accomplished has not accomplished far more than you think. Things HAVE changed - not everywhere, of course. There are far more people aware of the treatment of horses - far more rescues that truly attempt to put horses into families who will love them. My daughter & granddaughter did visit your farm several years ago - sadly between financial issues and the distance from their home in VA - they were unable to take advantage of what you teach - but were so impressed with what you were doing.
I can understand the pressures of writing the blog - doing your job AND taking care of the farm. I do look forward to Ashley's book.
Good luck & good thoughts to any of your future endeavors.
Maggie