Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views

A Link To Reality

2012-01-28T05:10:00.005-05:00

There is so much misinformation out there about mustang conformation that those new to the horses could easily come to accept personal whims and fads as being accurate. The best way to avoid such a trap is to start all research through the Horse of the Americas Registry. I have set out below a link to Vickie Ives great work on the function of the Spanish horse's hip.

http://www.karmafarms.com/SpanishHip.html

The Best Starting Point

2012-01-27T06:33:00.003-05:00

The internet is the greatest source of information, and misinformation, that the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, someone new to horses is likely to end up being fouled with misinformation simply because there is more of it out there. For anyone who wants to learn accurate information about Colonial Spanish horses the best place to start out is the web site of the Horse of the Americas Registry. It is more than a web site. It is a library.

The best starting point for one who wishes to become part of the Corolla offsite breeding program is shown above a few hours after he was born. The Black Drink was born in late May and is now weaned. He is the most attractive Corolla colt that I have seen. He is available for placement in a home that agrees to maintain him as a stallion and to participate in the offsite breeding program.

Don't wait for a better colt to come along.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I Ride a Radiator

2012-01-26T07:25:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I Ride a Radiator: I often assume too much. My life revolves around mustangs and natural horsemanship and I often forget that my riders do not come to the past...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I Feel Good--Like I knew That I Would Now

2012-01-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I Feel Good--Like I knew That I Would Now: Edwards Teach is healing well. In the bottom shot he was about to be unloaded at our place after having spent two weeks at Dominion Equi...

A Peculiar Post--Perhaps Helpful

2012-01-22T06:50:00.004-05:00

(What is set out below is not a normal blog post. It is from a note that I sent out to the parents of my riders last week. In the note I sought to explain why we push ourselves as hard as we do. One of the parents suggested that I post it directly on the blog. After bouncing it around in my head I have come to agree with her. Though this message was directed to the parents of my riders, it raises points that parents of any kids that wish to learn to ride in whatever discipline that they choose should keep in mind.)

(The picture set out above has utterly nothing to do with the post, but she sure does look festive for the parade, doesn't she?)
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The schedule is a bit more complicated now that we have several new riders. I want to group riders using several criteria:

1. Level of skill and confidence regardless of age
2. Matching of horses with each riders level of skill and confidence
3. Working toward gaining the basic skills necessary to be able to comfortably trot on the trails.

Riders that reach the level of trotting comfortably on trails can easily transition into being competent trail riders and can join the groups that go on longer trail rides. Parents should encourage their kids to work very hard at following my instructions concerning how to sit, handle the reins, and how to control their horse. Please stress to your kids that it is dangerous to substitute their judgement for mine. If I say to remove a hand from the saddle I do so because it is safer to learn to ride without hands on the saddle.

Parents should also encourage their kids to move out of their comfort zone with individual horses. Kids that ride the same horse at all times do not learn to ride as well or as quickly as those that switch around. Little girls like to reach consensus on horses and decide who is cool and who is not just as they do with other kids on the play ground. Please make sure that the kids understand that if I give them a horse to ride on a given day they should not be afraid to do so because some other little rider has said that he is not nice.

Learning to ride a given horse is not the same thing as learning to ride horses. Jessica's skill and confidence has grown in leaps and bounds since she began to enthusiastically push herself to work with horses instead of just getting on the same old horse time after time.

I do not think that enough kids understand the import of my instructions regarding how to ride. For example, if I say to put hands closer together the proper response is never that you like it better with your hands far apart. When I say "hands down" the proper response is never , "They just keep coming up on their own." We do not accept any of the silly rules of what has come to be considered proper riding. Everything that we do is done that way because it is the safest, least difficult technique for horse and rider. Our safety record is phenomenal when one considers the miles ridden, the number and age of riders, the use of wild horses, colts and stallions. In fact, most establishments would say that what we do is impossible.

Lastly, please do not think that I am callous about a kid's fears or even actual pain. I understand fear and I understand pain. Most importantly, I understand the utterly devastating impact that not dealing with fear and surrendering to minor aches and pain has on kids as they grow up. A kid that stops riding because he is afraid of the feeling of not being able to control the horse, especially a kid that really wanted to become a rider but has a bad day and gives in to it is much more likely to develop anxiety disorder, full blown depression, substance abuse, and even worse problems than is one that learns to work through the fear.

What is in the paragraph above is very important to understand. Every Monday I read presentence reports and psychological reports on troubled teens. The prevalence of anxiety disorder and depression among kids that become addicted to serious drugs is mind boggling. Anxiety disorder is nearly epidemic among kids today. Riding a slightly rough horse is not a miracle cure but it is a an important peg in developing self esteem.

I have read thousands of sentencing reports and have never read a report of a teen that rides horses that is addicted to drugs. I am not being callous when I tell kids that if you ride horses you will end up in a hospital at some point and that it is no big deal. I say that because I know that those that to give into their fears without working through them often ends up with something much worse than a broken arm.

If alcoholism, depression, or drug abuse run a rider's family it is that much more important that we take the hard steps to teach kids to deal with fear. I have never laid this out so bluntly before but I want to make sure that everyone understands how important this is to me. I want my little riders to push themselves physically and mentally, not because I want to make them into Navy seals but because I want to make them into happy adults. Quite frankly, that is more important to me than saving the Corollas.

The other side of it is that I know what kids are capable of. Understand this point--Lydia, Emily, Abby, Amanda,Rebecca, Jacob, Jordan and many other great older riders are not what I measure your kid by. They are all athletes with everything going for them. I measure your kid by Lido. He had cerebral palsy, a very weak right leg and a nearly useless right arm. He got on very rough horses. They did not coddle him because he had a disability. They threw him higher and he landed harder than you can imagine. He got back on.

He was a severely disabled child who was taunted and harassed at school yet he understood that none of the kids that called him names had the guts to do what he did. He had a lot of problems but anxiety was not one of them. He became bold and fearless. He became super strong in his left arm. He even was a very fast runner by the time that he died.

And it is just like the sign on Lido's bridge says, "If I can do it why can't you?"

So if it appears to you that I am challenging your kids and pushing them to do things that other kids can't, like ride 40 miles in the cold. You are correct. I am not doing that because I am callous. I am doing it because it is the best thing that I can give these kids.

Encourage your kids to trust me and do what I say exactly as I say it and I will help them do things that everyone would think impossible. When they are grown and face crushing crisis their first reaction will be "I can't take it." Then they will remember what they did with horses when they were little that they never thought possible and it will help give them the courage to push on through the crisis.

A Fusion On Any Other Terms Would be As Foolish And As Unprincipled

2012-01-21T17:30:00.003-05:00

In 1859 Lincoln was encouraged to to seek the votes of the growing anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic movements in the nation by seeking to "fuse" with such nativist hate groups. His response was quite clear. He believed that such groups had no understanding of the purpose of this nation and no understanding of the central theme of the Declaration of Independence.

He said that he would only agree to seek the support of such groups, (particularly the Know-Nothing Party)under one condition. Any "fusion" of the groups with his still young Republican Party would have to occur under "Republican principles." In short, as long as they espoused positions that were morally abhorrent to Lincoln, he had no interest in their support. If, however, the leopard somehow changed his spots he could accept its support.

The same question is facing mustang preservationists today. Our periodic cycle of hand wringing over what we can do to impress the established horse world is surfacing once again. If only we dressed our horses up like theirs, if only we took pictures of our horses to make them look like theirs, if only we dressed ourselves up like they do, if only we bred our horses to be as big as theirs, if only we entered into their horse shows and their events, then ....maybe Ole Massah and Ole Missus will decide that it is all right for us to have mustangs.

Such efforts will not work. They have failed for years. They will continue to fail. Thank God. If such efforts succeed in gaining the support of the established horse world within a generation our horses would be living the same unhealthy, miserable lives of obesity, lameness, and neurosis that characterizes the life of a horse trapped by the established horse world.

I do not want the approval of such people. The only hope to preserve the mustang as he is today and was yesterday is to draw new people into riding and to help them find natural horsemanship, natural horse care, and natural hoof care. They are the best students because they do not have to unlearn anything. Their head is not filled with sludge from the established horse world that must first be drained before that head can be filled with actual knowledge.

The established horse world has been calling the shots for fifty years and as such they are responsible for every crisis that horses face today, from the explosion in the number of cases of founder to the effort to bring horse slaughter back to America. I have no interest in fusing with such people.

However, there are many good people, through no fault of their own, who have been around horses for decades but understand nothing about them. The only "information" available to them came those who value a horse according to the color of fabric it is given at the conclusion of a horse show class.

There are many such people that are looking for ways to build a solid relationship with their horse and to learn to allow their horses to live as horses. With such people I will happily fuse. As Lincoln put it, "A fusion on any other terms would be as foolish......"

The bottom line remains the same. If one wants to help preserve mustangs the best way to do so is to teach a kid to ride. The second best way to do so is to teach his parents to ride with him.

This Picture Is Not Blurred

2012-01-17T04:29:00.002-05:00

This is what things actually look like at dawn when it is 22 degrees and you are about to begin a forty mile ride. Only one of these little riders had ever done a forty mile ride. My newest little rider, Emily H. has been with us only a short while and she completed 20 miles. The remainder of the little ones did forty miles. The youngest in kindergarten and the oldest is fourteen.

The horses were a great collection of Corollas, Shacklefords, Chincoteagues, BLM, Chincteague/BLM crosses and Ta Sunka Witco, an SMR. Every horse,but Ta Sunka, in the ride was either born in the wild or had at least one parent born in the wild.

Frail, Delicate Little Things

2012-01-15T04:52:00.003-05:00

Trained horses all day yesterday. Worked a young stallion that got aggressive with me in front of the kids. Saddled him up after we worked through that and the little riders started mounting up and riding him as I lead him around the round pen. All little girls, oldest about 12 years old, youngest about 8. These challenges and successes are the kind of things that give kids meaningful self esteem. A lot more important than telling a little girl that she has a nice haircut. In a few hours most of that same group will be doing their first performing some of the old songs that we have worked up for a church breakfast and tomorrow several of those same little girls will join me for a forty mile ride on horses that were all trained by me and other kids here at our horse lot. They will grow up to be kind, compassionate and tough, secure in the knowledge that if it ever really came down to it they could whip everybody in the room. To matter in this world one must be kind, compassionate... and tough.

An Error In Posting

2012-01-11T17:56:00.002-05:00

Periodically old posts are pulled up as links so that newer readers will have an opportunity to see some posts that are significant for one reason or another. This morning I reposted a page by accident. The post involved the death of my brother.This event occurred a bit over three years ago. A person that did not know otherwise could read that post and take it as a post about a current tragedy. It is not. I removed the post that was accidentally put up this morning.

The Strength To Ride

2012-01-10T05:59:00.003-05:00

The best exercise to prepare one for hard riding is to ride hard. However, every form of aerobic conditioning pays off directly when one spends long miles in the saddle. One part of riding that is often ignored is the importance of strong riding muscles.

What are now commonly called "core muscles" are the key to staying in the saddle in a bad situation. Strong quadriceps often are the difference between staying in the saddle and laying on the ground.

This is especially important for older riders. When we it the ground we are likely to break something and even if not, we are likely to be laid up from riding for a while. It is worth the effort to develop muscles that prevent hospitalizations.

Weight training that focuses on the major riding muscles and Tabata Protocol to provide aerobic fitness an be completed in 2.5 hours a week and is time very well spent.

Clay Pigeons

2012-01-07T06:20:00.003-05:00

I like the collection of words that Blaze Foley put together when he wrote Clay Pigeons better than anything else he did. I am in that song right now. Back in the saddle again and getting on with it all

This has been a brutal year in many respects. One of the worst is that in late summer my 51 year old body picked up a nagging injury that got worse every time I got in the saddle. The catch was that I needed to be in the saddle. Tradewind and I had work to do. We kept riding hard until that work was finished. Tradewind, a formerly wild Corolla stallion who was captured because he was utterly crippled with founder carried me for so many hours on the trails that he was the Horse of the Americas Registry's National Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year for 2011. He was not only an ambassador for his nearly extinct strain of Colonial Spanish mustang, but for all stallions, all little horses, all horses that had been foundered, and for everybody else in this entire universe that someone had given up on.

In late August we finished that job. It has been about four months since riding was fun. I am now comfortable in a saddle. I am now riding hard again and enjoying riding hard. It is a terrible thing when one's best thing becomes a bad thing. But it is so good when good becomes good again.

And this year I will complete 100 miles of riding in 24 hours. I have failed in efforts to do so for the past two years, but now I realize what my problem was--I was not old enough for the challenge. Now I am 52 and have the requite experience to get the job done.

(This is Lydia giving a little BLM mare her first ride. She will be accompanying me when I do 100 miles in a day. Don't worry, I'll look out for the poor little girl.)

Objectively Speaking--The American Indian Horse Hall of Fame Award

2012-01-07T05:32:00.005-05:00

What we do is unconventional. Put simply, we teach little children to tame, train and ride wild horses and colts and then we ride them very far. Nine year old girls riding 50 miles in a day--five year old boys riding in the woods on a formerly wild Corolla stallion--220 pound man riding thirteen hand formerly wild Shackleford 50 miles in 10 hours and 21 minutes--98 miles in the saddle in two days for a man over fifty years old. My point being that because we do so many things that the established horse world says cannot be done it is important that we have some objective criteria upon which to hang our hat.

I also like for my little riders to have something to say when are they confronted by a future member of the established horse world who rides a lame 22 year old quarter horse in circles in a sandy ring once a week for 50 minutes who belittles the program that my little riders have helped create. When a little third grade future fool says, "You just ride little ponies, do not even compete in horse shows, and you do not even have a real barn." my little riders are best suited to respond with examples of concrete recognitions instead of heart felt feelings.

In short they need a "resume" to legitimize what they do every weekend. The resume got a big boost yesterday that pleases me very much.

Mill Swamp Indian Horses was recognized by the American Indian Horse Registry with their Ranch and Farm Hall of Fame Award. It took a lot of hard riding and hard work by a lot of riders and their families over the years to earn this recognition. This great award adds to past accomplishments such as Jacobs'horse, Harley winning the HOA National Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year, Tradewind accomplishing the same feat, receipt of the Keeper of the Flame Award From the AIHR, The Carol Stone Ambassador Award From the Horse of the Americas Registry and the Buck Award from Currituck County for work to preserve the wild horses of Corolla.

These recognitions are wonderful in that they provide tangible things to help the little riders understand why the program matters. As much as I like such recognition, they will never top my favorite response from one of my little riders when a classmate who rode purebred horses belittled "those mustangs."

Q. "What can you do on those little ponies anyway?"
A. "Uh 46 miles last Saturday, but we are going to do more next time."

The Best Thing That I Ever Saw On Face Book

2012-01-05T15:45:00.003-05:00

I have never met Brooke Sims, the young lady who stars in this video with her mustang stallion that she trained. I expect that she and I would get along very well.

I do not know what more can be said that this video does not say. It really drives home a point that we all too often forget. Starting horses is child's play, or at least it has been in nearly every great horse culture the world has known. Modern Americans have decided that it is too dangerous and as a result children are deprived of one of the most rewarding experiences that they could ever have.

And did you catch in the video that she got second place "In the Lido." That is not a peculiar coincidence of language. That class is named for Lido. All the way down in Texas.

He would like that. If I ever go to Texas I am going to go riding with Brooke Sims. I might learn something.

Corollas Facing New Threat of Extinction

2012-01-05T04:17:00.003-05:00

The wild herd at Corolla face serious threats to their survival on a daily basis. The offsite breeding program's purpose is to provide a safety net to stave off extinction in the event of a catastrophic loss of the wild herd. The program got off to a solid start but has been slowed down greatly by the nation's economic downturn. That will change. Economies go up and down. However, the program is running into a more insidious threat.

In order to maintain a genetically viable strain of domesticated Corollas we must maintain a solid pool of stallions. It never occurred to me that that would be a problem. The established horse world's promotion of the fear of stallions makes it very difficult to get satellite breeding stations off of the ground. I never realized how deep this phobia had become ingrained in the horse owning culture.

When I was growing up both Momma and Daddy rode stallions. We have trail rides with mixed groups of stallions, mares and geldings every weekend. A trained stallion requires additional firmness in handling when he is around mares in heat and he requires stronger fencing than do geldings. An untrained, undisciplined stallion is dangerous. So is an untrained, undisciplined gelding. The three most violent horses that I have ever known are all geldings.

The most horrific irony that results from this mindless prejudice is the position that the Corolla Wild Horse Fund finds itself in. The wild horse fund is unable to place stallions in solid homes. As a result they are forced to vandalize the bodies of one of America's oldest and rarest distinct genetic grouping of horses. With no placement options available they have no choice but to geld stallions that have to be removed from the wild for one reason or another.

At the moment I have two beautiful stallions available for placement in my pastures, The Black Drink, a weanling produced from the offsite breeding program and the son of Tradewind, and Edward Teach, a wild stallion that was captured because of a severe neck wound. They have not been placed because they are stallions and everyone knows that stallions are dangerous.

I will not geld either. If I cannot place them in solid breeding homes I will continue their training so they can become horses that I use for children and complete novices that want to learn to ride.

Last week my six year old grandson accompanied me on a ride. He was on Croatoan, a wild Corolla stallion. I was on Tradewind, a wild Corolla stallion. We all made it back to safety without a single casualty. I guess that we are just lucky.

All Right I'M Back

2012-01-03T12:01:00.002-05:00

Werowance is the son of Croatoan and is a very impressive young horse.

I had no intention of resurrecting this blog but I have been asked to in the strongest of terms. Future posts will be longer than this one.

As Porky The Pig So Often Said

2011-12-27T06:57:00.002-05:00

..that's all folks. Over the last month this blog had over 2,800 page views. I started writing this because I had things to say. I have said them. This is the final post for this blog.

A writer once told me that she was told that her writing needed to be "edgy" if she was to write for today's kids. She was not edgy and would not pretend to be. Perhaps my views have come to contain too little zip-a-de-do-da.

Facebook makes blogs like this one obsolete. If I have anything worth announcing I can put it on Facebook. I appreciate all of the nice comments expressed over the life of this blog. Such things are very meaningful.

As it was so well put in that timeless work of literature, 'The Big Red Dog', "Good-bye!"

By Now You Ought To Know Better

2011-12-26T06:27:00.003-05:00

The essence of wisdom is to replace optimism with realism. The key to happiness is to replace pessimism with optimism. The key to survival is to simply persevere.

This week I got infused with a optimism and hopes for a better year coming. By now I ought to know better, but it was so good that I just could not help it.

Katie came out and rode with me. Katie as one of my first riders. She was the first kid to really throw her heart into what we were building. Once when we were riding around the Green Path she looked over to the mud and crooked fences and said, "One day this place is going to be famous."

At the time we had few horses. Her horse, Wounded Knee, is the Paint horse pictured above. Katie has succumbed to the greatest flaw that little girls have. She has grown up. Except for that she is as wonderful as ever.

Without a doubt no year of our program has brought me less pleasure than 2011. In fact, only one or two years of my life have been as sorry and empty as has this year.

But I have come to believe, perhaps foolishly, that this next year could be better. Before long Liam will be riding with me. The baby will start serious riding this summer. I expect that Beth will return to the saddle. Maybe this spring I will finally succeed in riding 100 miles in 24 hours.

Regardless, we will persevere. We have mastered perseverance.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Crying Oh The Dreadful Wind and Rain

2011-12-26T06:12:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Crying Oh The Dreadful Wind and Rain: I think that I am living through the wettest season in my adult life and it is beginning to tell and others around me. I hate muck and deep ...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Collateral Benefits II

2011-12-26T06:10:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Collateral Benefits II: Here are three key facts to understand: 1. By most measures I am 50-70 pounds over weight. My diet is composed largely of cheese, pork cho...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Only The Rocks Live Forever

2011-12-26T06:09:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Only The Rocks Live Forever: Or at least so goes the old war cry and death song of the Plains. A meaningful life. A meaningless death. But through it all--perseverance...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Marital History?

2011-12-26T06:07:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Marital History?: It gets a bit frustrating when some of my riders tune out as I work to pump a little knowledge of history into their heads. I am amazed t...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Perhaps I Have Been Too Subtle

2011-12-25T11:32:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Perhaps I Have Been Too Subtle: This picture was from a ride yesterday. The rider is seven years old. Manteo, the wild Corollla stallion that she is riding, is much younger...

He Played to Rave Reviews

2011-12-24T17:16:00.004-05:00

War Admiral followed up on the smashing success of his Christmas Parade appearance with a thoroughly convincing appearance today in the role of "goat" at the Trinity Methodist Church's Christmas Eve service. Things got off to a rocky start. When it was time to head out he slipped into his, at times infuriating, star/diva gone Hollywood mode and insisted on riding in the front seat of the truck. I had planned for him to ride in the back, but it seems that I did not hear him yell "shot gun" as we got to the truck.

He did not like being handed off to one of his co stars, a shepherd, and insisted on me staying within arms reach while waiting for his stage call. Of course, all of the tension resulted in a few "accidents". But far from being embarrassing, each turned out to be powerful ad libs that gave a certain gritty realism to his character.

When he was lead down the aisle of the church he was not prepared to be confronted by all of the flashing phone/cameras that went off like fire works. Unfortunately, I forgot to warn him about the paparazzi. Next time he will be prepared.

I do not understand why some churches spend fortunes on consultants to develop plans to increase attendance. Here is the formula for success and, in the spirit of the season, I will give it out at no charge.

To draw in kids have at least one goat attend each church service. For adults, start serving cracklin biscuits at church breakfasts.

Without a doubt you will put Satan on the run in your community.

Ever Expanding Horizons

2011-12-24T05:29:00.003-05:00

Today is a big day for my Baylis Colonial Spanish goat, War Admiral. He is making his theatrical debut at Trinity Methodist Church for the Christmas Eve service. He will be playing the role of "goat." Last night we went over his lines and he did great.

This is a very big step for him. I can tell that he is nervous. He has never been inside a Methodist Church before.

He was raised Baptist.

The Intangible Recognition of That Which Is

2011-12-23T07:04:00.003-05:00

"No need for apologizin'
Just time for recognizin
that that what is ain' how its got to be."

Suppose,in addition to teaching children not lie, we also taught them to neither believe, nor tolerate lies. Suppose instead of teaching that there are two sides to every story, we taught kids that the only side that matters is the side that is true.

Perhaps it started with the old patent medicine shows--a lie to sell a product was not a lie, it was simply "marketing." Then mass communication moved lying from shooting a flint lock rifle to shooting an AK-47. Politics in the world of mass communication began to raise lying to an art form. Computers brought that art down to being within the reach of the masses.

Consider the possibilities. I can hit "send" and lie to more people before breakfast than my grand parents could have lied to in a week of steady, dedicated, industrious lying.

All of that marketing, mass communications, politics and technology has reached a zenith in the effort to restore horse slaughter to America. It is not that individuals that support horse slaughter are necessarily evil. The bigger problem is that so many are so gullible. They drink the line of those who would cover the concrete floors with horse blood with the zeal of a cocaine addict taking in his line of truth.

Ignorance plus misinformation does not equal knowledge. Many that oppose horse slaughter get sucked into believing that they carry the burden to explain why horses should be privileged among other livestock.

No such burden exists. It does not matter if one cannot articulate a distinction that is acceptable to those that would drip blood. We are human and all that which makes us human demands that we recognize the rightness of that which is right. We need not always understand righteousness. We need not explain righteousness. We certainly do not have to apologize for believing in righteousness. We need only to recognize righteousness and act righteously. Nothing more can be demanded of us and nothing less can be expected of us.

We live in a filthy, wicked, lying age. That does not mean that we have to like it. It most certainly does not mean that we have to pretend that it is otherwise.

I do not believe that I need to go out and live a pure life in a cave somewhere. I just believe that it is wrong for me to smile weakly and say, "Well I guess you have a point."

Say What?

2011-12-22T06:11:00.004-05:00

As a lawyer I talk for a living. That means that to do my job well I also listen for a living. That is causing me to have to make some big adjustments and to change my expectations of how well I can communicate.

There are not (I hope) a lot of people that realize how poor my hearing has become. Without my hearing aid, if everything breaks just right, I can clearly make out about a third of the words that I hear. With my hearing aid I can hear that third louder. The rest rumbles and with the hearing aid the other two thirds of what I hear rumbles louder.

I think that I do a very good job of figuring out what people must be saying to me. It is exhausting having to concentrate, theorize, speculate and interpret conversations. The other thing that I am learning about the workings of the brain is that in order to remember a given thing one must hear it pretty clearly. Things that are half heard are completely forgotten.

Last weekend someone brought me a ham to the tack shed while I was in the woods. The person that was there did not know the name of the person that brought it to me. He did not get the name because the person told him that he had told me that he would be bringing one by for me. I cannot figure out who that person was. I have no recollection of such a conversation with anyone.

I have made plea agreements that I would have never made if I had correctly understood what was being proposed. The worst part of it all is the telephone. I never liked talking on a phone away. I really find it very difficult to do now. There are very, very few people that I am comfortable speaking with on the phone. There is a small handful of people that know me well enough so that they can tell from my response if I did not understand the question. Speaking with everyone else is bad, very hard to do.

Sounds that come from multiple directions are the most difficult. Last week I attended a meeting of our local bar association. I think that it will be my last. I can only figure out what one person at a time is saying to me.

Oddest of ironies is that while every other aspect of my hearing is declining, there has never been a time when I had better pitch. There has never been a time when I could figure out songs better. Perhaps the skills acquired from having to concentrate so hard to understand people have lead to a better ability to concentrate on pitch and tone.

The bottom line is simply this--Send an email. Especially if whatever you are asking me is important.

When Life Ain't Zip-a-de-do-da

2011-12-19T06:49:00.007-05:00

Life is Best Lived When One Is In The Key of "D"

Bad to be lonely when you lost no one
Even worse to be guilty of things you ain' done
A worn out drunk that don' even drink
A burned out genius that just can' think

Well educated in things that ain' true
A red stripped tie and oxford shoes
Keep your self back, don' come too close
Like the sand in the desert from the sand on the coast

Well the good life's become having comfortable shoes
Eating supper on the sofa and watching the news
Tomorrow might not be as bad as today
That's what fools think but it ain' never that way

Need a microphone 'bout five foot tall
And a podium as thick as a castle wall
Well a good round pen will do in a pinch
Words hit so hard they could make a stone flinch

Truth don' shave, it don' hardly take a shower
Lies wear perfumes that smell like power
Pack up a few horses, a guitar and move
But Lawd, you hate travlin' that just won't do

Peculiar, or strange, or just eccentricity?
Hostile, cold, and mean or insecurity?
If the sun don' shine through the clouds so good
It takes a fool to think the moon would

But some things will keep you smiling when you got a dead life
A first rate pony and a damn good wife
Little bitty fingers on an old banjo
When we sing "Will You Miss Me" how do my part go?

Girl go get your banjo and we'll try it once more
Do it with Grandaddy, One-Two-Three-Four
When I raise my eyes you sing real loud
Close to the mike, Make Grandaddy proud.

Life ain' worth the trouble I have no doubt
But life sure is worth singin' about
Get the auto harp, press down on "D"
Come make life worth living for Granddaddy

Ain' never seen a banjo molest a child
Ain' never seen a guitar start a deadly fire
So I'm on keep on living until I die
Cause I never heard a mandolin tell no lie

American Azteca and Foundation Stock Society

2011-12-19T04:38:00.003-05:00

Two HOA stallions, Manteo, a Corolla, and Wanchese, a Shackleford have been accepted as Foundation stock in the American Azteca and Foundation Stock Society. Azteca's are rooted in Spanish stock and Quarter Horse breeding. The American Azteca and Foundation Stock Society also allows Paint horses in as foundation stock. The Spanish stock is generally modern Spanish blood, but the AAFSS has the wisdom to make use of the nearly extinct lines of ancient Spanish horses still remaining in North America.

To a great extent it can be said the the AAFSS is producing something much akin to the early stock horses of the Southwest and it can even be further argued that these horses are essentially Quarter horses returned to their roots. The western cow pony was originally the pure Spanish horse of the Conquistador. When large numbers of Americans emigrated to Texas in the early 1800's they brought with them their own horses, many of whom were of Virginia Quarter Mile Race Horse stock. The Quarter Mile Racer could often trace his lineage back to the Spanish horses of the southeast and an English race horse, Janus. The cross of these lines became a major component of today's Quarter Horse.

It has been quite a while since Colonial Spanish blood of the Atlantic coast has been bred back into these horses and the result is likely to be spectacular. Imagine a Quarter horse yet smaller, more refined, with good bone and strong hooves, who is a better keeper and lacks the excessive muscle of the modern Quarter horse and you will be able to see what an American Azteca can become.

I have never bred a Corolla stallion to a Quarter horse. However, Lido snuck an old Appaloosa mare back to my horse lot one night and bred her to Tradewind, one of my Corolla stallions. That foal, Legacy, was born about after Lido died. The two shots above are of Legacy when he was close to a year old. Like so many modern Appaloosas, his Appaloosa mother was loaded with Quarter horse blood. He is not an Azteca but he is a great example of their appearance.

I hope that all owners of Horse of the Americas Registry stallions will register some of their stock with the AAFSS. By helping return the Quarter horse to its roots the AAFSS will be creating some great horses and will provide one more avenue to get our stallions out before the public.

Spinoff

2011-12-18T09:18:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we had a lot of guests at the horse lot. Ate lunch at the Little House, pulled out the guitar and called a pair of the little ones over to my chair. No hemming and hawing--I said sing--they did, beautifully--and confidently. Not the way most second graders would do.

If you learn to handle horses when you are very small you develop a satisfying sense of confidence in every endeavor.

Where This Old Dirty Road Has Taken Me

2011-12-18T04:56:00.006-05:00

City people do not know what a bad dirt road is like. They think that the path to the tack shed is bad. A bad path is one in which you have to get another tractor to pull out the first tractor that got stuck while trying to pull out your four wheel drive truck, which was buried up to the axles.

Nearly a decade ago I had a few horses, did not teach riding or natural horsemanship, did not do training clinics, had never written a book or done a training video, had never turned on a computer, and had no clue what a website or a blog was. On a cold morning I looked behind me and saw a van and a truck edging up that path towards the spot where I now have a tack shed. The van opened its doors and kids began roll out like circus clowns. I was impressed that the van had made it up the path so easily. But it had an Alaska license plate. I suspect that this was not the first imperfect path that it had ever taken.

I do not stand in my pasture and play with one horse without knowing that others will be jealous and that some kicking and biting is about to begin. I have to be very careful about singling out any of my riders for any positive comments. The others become jealous and serious kicking and biting begins. I am going to take that risk because I think that each of them can appreciate that everything that goes on in our horse lot began when Emily and Abby and a slew of their siblings rolled out of that van.

Abby was a gangling little girl whose face consisted of roughly 62% teeth. Emily was quiet, very modest, and was obviously the oldest daughter. She kept her eye on the younger brood the same way an old hen does when the chicks venture into strange territory.

I could have never guessed what they would grow into. Abby is the best rider that I have ever seen. I do not know anyone with her ability to stay on a bad horse that is determined to rearrange its current configuration. Red Feather gave her his best bucking and simply gave up after a while. I think that she embarrassed him when she began laughing while he was bucking.

Emily is as good as I am at relaxing a scared horse and might be better than I am at relaxing a scared kid. She is a nurse. (She would not like for me to tell you how she did on her national board exam. Reluctantly, I will not not say how she did. Instead, I will only congratulate the 2% of those across the country that scored higher than she did.) During nursing school she was given a personalty profiling test. She found the results curious and suggested that I take the same test.(It was online). She and I ended up with precisely the same score and personality type among the 16 various personality types that the test classified.

When they moved back to Alaska they stayed in touch with me. When they moved to Colorado they stayed in touch with me. And when they were grown (or at least thought they were) they ended up back in the area. Abby is program manager for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. Both intensely strong in their Christian faith, both athletes, both great singers, and both grew up to be right pretty. People often assume that they are my daughters, especially when we play music somewhere. In fact, it was even commented that they both "look just like you." (Abby took that news harder than Emily).

They smile, often for no reason at all. It is hard to frown, on the outside or on the inside, when Abby is around you smiling. It delights me to see them laughing and riding, especially with Lydia or Ruthann. If either of them stubs their toe, it makes my entire leg hurt, a lot.

Several years ago I mentioned to Emily that I was never afraid of a horse in a round pen because I would much rather be killed by a horse than to be in a nursing home.

Without hesitation she clucked and scoffed, "You won't need to go to a nursing home. I'll take care of you when you get old."

Every thing that is good that happens at the end of our old dirt path can be traced back to those two little girls coming to look at an old pony for Abby on a cold windy day nearly a decade ago.

Townes Van Zandt was right. One never knows where this old dirty road's taking me.

As It Is So Often Said, "Some Things Are Best Kept Between A Man And His Hog."

2011-12-17T19:34:00.006-05:00

Amos, my halter trained boar hog, went out to survey his domain today. We might not pay as well as the big factory farms, but it is a whole lot more fun to be a hog in my horse lot than in any of those big name establishments.

High On the Hog--Putting 'Cuz To Work

2011-12-16T08:33:00.005-05:00

I love Marsh Tackys. They are now the state horse of South Carolina, as they should be. Their history is intricately bound with the history of working people from the Low Country to the Mountains. Small, gaited, remarkably calm, trainable and tough--endless endurance (sound familiar?) I have no doubt that these horses share not only some common roots with the Bankers but I suspect also the Choctaw and Cherokee lines of Colonial Spanish horses.

Like the Bankers, they were the horses of poor, hard working folks. Indeed, the breed name "Tacky" is rooted in its Colonial meaning, not as being of poor quality but of being common and widespread. Today they are neither common nor widespread. Like the Corollas, their future is very tenuous. David Grant has spearheaded the recent efforts to preserve and breed these horses. He has worked closely with the American Livestock Breed Conservancy and the Tackys now have a good foothold.

In recent years they have been used by hunters for jump shooting deer in cut overs and other places that the tree line was more shrub like than tree like. Though not widely known, until the mid fifties the white tail deer was gone from much of the south. Efforts to restore them were so successful that we are over run with deer. On into the early sixties deer were still quite rare in our area. Back then hunting usually meant small game, squirrel, rabbits, coons, and quail, in particular. When deer came along small game hunting fell by the wayside for nearly everyone.

Much of the south is becoming over run with wild hogs. The hogs are destructive beyond imagination. Within twenty years I expect hog hunting to cause deer hunting to go the way that small game hunting has. To "go hunting" will mean to go hog hunting in a large chunk of this nation. David Grant is getting out in front of that curve. He provides guided hog hunts on Marsh Tackys at Carolina Marsh Tacky Outdoors (Marshtacky.com)

There is no horse better suited for hunting hogs in rough terrain than the Tackys or their Spanish colonial cousins from the southeast. In a few more weeks I hope to take a Corolla and a Shackleford down to South Carolina to join in on a hunt. (It has been many years since I killed anything and I plan to leave the killing to Abby.)

Saving these horses requires getting them in public view and showing what they can do. David Grant has come upon a great way to do that.

Fat Kills

2011-12-15T03:56:00.004-05:00

And it does not just kill insulin resistant horses like Tradewind. Obesity is the leading contributor to the shortening of the lives of modern horses. The established horse world with its emphasis on conformation and "halter" classes are greatly to blame for this epidemic.

Over feeding is a much more common form of neglect than lack of feeding, yet I have never heard of a case of an owner being charged with abuse and neglect for maintaining a horse in a chronically obese fashion. Ironic--it does not seem to matter if you abuse your horse. The question is how you abuse your horse. Too thin--criminal charges--too fat--blue ribbon in the halter class.

I am not suggesting that owners of fat horses be carted off and sent to jail any more than I would suggest that parents of overweight kids be criminally charged. The solution for both situations is the same--education.

Some horses, like some people are genetically prone to obesity. They require special care because their lives depend on it. Some horses, like some people are genetically prone to maintain very little body fat. They require no special care. They are blessed, not abused.

The more one looks at problems that horses have the more one realizes that the solutions tend to come back to three things--natural horsemanship, natural horse care, and natural hoof care.

This Is How You End Horse Slaughter

2011-12-12T05:00:00.002-05:00

A few weekends ago Mikhail had his first lengthy canter (that was on purpose, there was an involuntary lengthy canter a few months ago but that does not count). Saturday he was in his first parade. He is young, 6 or 7, I think, athletic and loves fun.

He also represents a very important part of the answer to the problem of "unwanted horses." Of course, we do not have a surplus of horses in America. We have an extreme shortage of riders. The only hope for the horses is to attract more riders. That means reaching out to novices and teaching them to ride. The best way to do that is for them to learn much more than to simply be relatively safe passengers in the saddle. The more that they understand about natural horsemanship the more likely it is that horse ownership will be part of their future.

One of the major reasons that horses go to slaughter houses is because boys are afraid to ride them. Even worse, they are part of a society that encourages and supports that fear. After all, why should a boy risk injury, pain, or even a saddle sore, when he can quietly entertain himself with a violent video game?

I do not have a lot of helpful suggestions in this regard. I have lost my ability to inspire boys. I hate to admit the fact, but denying it would not change the situation. Little girls are easy to inspire. Even with all the advances of the past fifty years we still live in a world in which little girls are constantly taught that they are fragile, incompetent, and not capable of demonstrating real courage. From the moment of our first conversation I make it clear to little girls that if they break, they will mend and that if a thing is worth doing they can do it. I give them tasks that I doubt that their parents think that they are capable of and they do it. As they get older I delegate a great deal of authority to those that earn it. Again, often to the surprise of their parents. (Lydia's mother looked a bit surprised when I told her that the reason that we chose a particular BLM mare was because Lydia had looked them over quite closely and felt that she was a good choice.)

Little girls respond to encouragement, trust, and high expectations. Too many little boys do not. Given the opportunity little girls exceed the incredibly low expectations that society has for them. Were I trapped in a burning building Emily Wilda would find enough strength in her seventy some pound body to drag me out while the firemen were still putting on their gear.

Mikhail will be different but not because of anything that I instill in him. In a few years I will be able to tell him to get in a round pen with a bad horse and gentle the meanness out of her. He will be another Jacob. He will be able to ride as hard as Christian. I will be able to depend on him and so will his horse.

In short, he will be just as good as the girls.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Treatable, Perhaps Curable

2011-12-12T02:54:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Treatable, Perhaps Curable: I hope that I am not being overly optimistic in my belief in rehabilitative education for true horse professionals. Until proven otherwis...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Bankers in the Spanish Mustang Registry

2011-12-11T07:20:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Bankers in the Spanish Mustang Registry: Dale Burrus was a resident of the Outer Banks, an inspector for the Spanish Mustang Registry, and a tireless advocate of the Bankers. He w...

Teaching the Unteachable

2011-12-11T05:16:00.002-05:00

A man is allotted only a certain number of breaths in this lifetime and it is a shame to waste any of them. As soon as one recognizes that one is casting pearls before swine, pick up your pearls and relocate rapidly.

This is Tradewind, HOA National Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year for 2011. This wild Corolla stallion was captured because he was utterly crippled with founder. He has completed a fifty mile in a day ride and carried me 206 hours in the woods last year, the vast majority of that time being at a trot or canter.

He is 12.2 hands and, when in top shape weighs 626 pounds. I have no idea what I would weigh in top shape because I have not been in top shape for decades. In any event, I weigh less than 626 pounds.

I do not blame anyone for not knowing that a Spanish mustang had such a weight bearing capacity. Several years ago I did not know it. However, I will not waste a second of my time arguing with those who still want to tell me that the Corollas are just too small for a "grown up." (Look at the evidence. I am grown. In fact, my height has not increased for the last 37 years. I have come to terms with the fact that my dreams of an NBA career will likely not be realized.)

If I encounter a disheveled person sitting alone on a park bench loudly carrying on a conversation with both Groucho and Karl Marx, I do not stop to join the conversation. When a member of the established horse world sniffs disapprovingly that "no adult should be riding a pony" I have three stock responses, depending on the specifics of the situation. All three serve me equally well.

1. "Sure been dry lately." (Then walk away)
2. "Sure been wet lately." (Then Walk away)
3. "Sure been raining just the right amount lately. (Then walk away).

In fairness to them, perhaps I should not compare apples to oranges. The distance that Tradewind carried me in the woods pales in comparison to the number of miles that their horse paced back and forth in its stable last year. And yes, you are probably correct that I give my horse's "stupid" names. I apologize.

In fact, please instruct your horse's stable manager to have the groom pet your horse, "Gucchi's Wrinkled Skin Old Prune" once just for me. Don't forget to pickup some WD40 the next time that you buy your horse's supplements. With enough WD40, I am sure that you will be able to find a way to get that stable door open.

Christmas Parade

2011-12-10T18:46:00.005-05:00

Rare, historical Colonial Spanish goat. Rare, historical, Colonial Spanish horses. Unique, hysterical, granddaughter (she is still only green broke)

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: An Honest Slogan

2011-12-09T05:23:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: An Honest Slogan: Slogan--the very word hints of dishonesty, puffery, and exaggeration. The catch about creating an honest business slogan is that it must ...

Whoever Said it Had a Good Point

2011-12-08T05:40:00.006-05:00

My memory has dulled a bit. I cannot remember if it was Lincoln or Fredrick Douglas that said, "I hear many that speak of the virtues of slavery, but I find none who would volunteer to be a slave."

Horse slaughter advocates that claim that we need to kill horses to keep something bad from happening to them seem to me to make the same moral equivocations.

If a humane horse owner supports horse slaughter because of all of the neglect claimed to happen without it, would it not be a more humane and virtuous stance to take to offer up all of your horses that, after all have had such good lives, to the slaughter house and replace each of them with horses from rescue operations? That would free up more space in the rescues. Doing so doubles the number of horses that have an opportunity to have years of good lives. Seems like a more humane trade off than simply killing those that you have deemed neglected, which will not increase the number of horses that have had the opportunity to have a good life. This must be so, unless you find slaughter so appealing that you find the value of a good death to equal that of a good life.

The return of horse slaughter will give those of you who cry such crocodile tears over the fate of the neglected horses a chance to really demonstrate how much you care. Put your daughter's show pony on a slaughter bound tuck and replace it with a neglected horse. Now there is a win-win, for everyone! I mean you do really care about all of those neglected horses don't you? I understand that you cannot save them all. I understand that you cannot even afford to take in even one neglected horse. But therein lies the beauty of horse slaughter's return. After you allow each of your horses to make that one last road trip you will have room to give a great life to a neglected horse that you now have room for. And think of all the happy Belgians you will be making by giving them the opportunity to enjoy high quality American horse meat. So if you really love your horse, don't give him treats. Help make him into one!

This is a great solution, unless you are one of those that merely preaches the virtue of slaughter with out being willing to volunteer to offer up your horses to the blood factories. You need to act now. We certainly cannot expect those that run rescue facilities to take up the slack by emptying their pastures of horses. Obviously they do not care as much about neglected horses as do you or they would be on the forefront fighting to bring back the horses best friend, the slaughter house.

Morality only becomes difficult when one seeks to actually apply it.

The Horse That is In Your Head

2011-12-08T04:13:00.004-05:00

Some belief systems reject the belief in a semiconscious. They reject the idea that humans have any form of shared archetypes buried deep within them that help understand certain behaviors. If one adheres to such a belief system there is no point to read further.

Horses are a rich part of the symbolic and fantasy lives of humans, particularly children. It suggests nothing perverse or obscene to point out that many young girls refer to their horses as if they are their boy friends. Such an attraction is to a relationship and is not a sexual attraction. I have been asked by little girls, with the greatest of concern in their voice, if their horse will think that they are "cheating on him" if they ride another horse. I have seen such little girls sneak a ride on another horse , but only in a pasture out of sight of their horse "so he won't get jealous." The flip side of this is the unfortunate reality that if a little girl feels that a horse has betrayed her trust by bucking, biting or kicking she will often try to drop him quickly and get a new horse friend, even if the miscreant is her own horse that she has ridden for a couple of years. ("Yea, but he bit me for no reason and I like Comet now."...I used to really love my colt, but he bucked." etc)

Most interesting to me is the psychological symbolism that a horse takes on for many older teens and young women. The horse comes to represent the freedom and autonomy that they crave for themselves. They flock to videos of horses being ridden without any tack and delude themselves into believing that such an exhibition is proof that the horse is only doing what it wants to do and is not being coerced. They melt over phrases like "I do not catch my horse. I let my horse catch me." They view bareback riding as the ultimate riding experience because it is both free and natural, two things that they long to be themselves. Their attitudes towards bits are the most telling point. They often feel that they are being humane when using a rope halter instead of a bit. A bit is easier to abuse than a rope halter, but both are subject to abuse, and more importantly, neither need be an instrument of abuse when used properly.

The differences between teen age boys view of their horses and that of teenage girls is best illustrated by their very telling terminology in describing training problems. When a horse is not compliant the boys generally say, "He will not do what I tell him to." Girls are much more likely to say,"He is not listening to me." Boys look to obedience. Girls look to communication.

When boys approach a horse in the pasture they generally catch him and immediately make him move. When girls approach a horse in a pasture they are more likely to have the horse stand still and talk to him. Young teen boys too often view a horse as their first car. They have little interest beyond making it go fast and being in complete control of it. As soon as they realize that they are not in complete control they panic and many become too afraid to continue riding. These little boys have been raised with video games in which they press a button and get a result. These games cause 75 pound, ten year old boys to believe that they are physically able to control, or at least blow up, any obstacles. Girls who play no such games have a much more accurate view of the universe. They do not believe that they are all powerful and seek to compromise and compensate. That is why it is so much easier to teach girls to ride than it is to teach today's video game loving boys.

On the other hand, adult women often refer to their horse as their "baby". Many talk to their horses in baby talk. A maddening few of them seem to think that their horses are every bit as fragile as an infant and treat them as such. To this I cringe. It never ceases to cause involuntary convulsions in my internal muscles when a women refers to me as one of my horse's Daddy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no..I do not think of my horses as fragile. I do not think of them as infants (Even when they are infants. I mean, they can canter a few hours after they are born!) It is not a comfort to my psyche to think of a horse as a pre-invalid, made of crystal, likely to break at any moment. Instead, the subconscious symbol that a horse has to me is as the stoic, quiet hero that overcomes all odds and ignores all pain and discomfort to get the job done. That is Tradewind. That is Croatoan. And that is what I should be.

In short, I recognize that the horse symbolizes for me human characteristics that I admire.

All of this would be merely interesting observations were it not for one important part. We must recognize that the horse is not an embodiment of our desires and world views. He is a living creature that has evolved to live as a prey animal in a world in which every movement and every sound could be that of a predator sliping in to terminate their existence. The result is that a horse has a huge range of physical and emotional needs that we do not share with them.

The most important point should be seared into every horse owner's head. The Golden Rule Does Not apply to Horses. You may love the comfort of a warm bedroom, sweet deserts, nice shoes, and a life of rest and leisure. But do not delude yourself into thinking that you are doing anything more than abusing your horse when you seek to give him that which you would like to have. Instead, make the effort to understand what your horse needs and provide it to him.

Or you can try to shrink your horse's existence down to make him fit your image of what would be good. Look at this picture. It does not matter how beautiful a horse is if the existence that you give him is so shrunken that it cannot be recognized as that of how a horse needs to live.

The Serious Threat of Genetically Modified Organisms

2011-12-07T06:32:00.003-05:00

The tragic results of putting genes of a human child into a pumpkin seed. Will the horror ever stop?

Do Some Good With Your Christmas Gift

2011-12-07T04:16:00.003-05:00

The Center for America's First Horse in Johnson, Vermont is a great organization dedicated to preserving Spanish Horses and working with young people. They are seeking funding for upgrades to their power and water system.

I have toted many buckets of water to horses in pastures far from the source on the rare times that things froze up down here in the winter. It is brutal, time consuming work. It takes time away from doing the other work of the organization. I can't imagine having to do so in Vermont.

For those who are hard to find a gift for, or if you already have everything that you need and people keep asking what you want for Christmas, a donation to the Center For Americas First Horse is a great gift.

Go to their website, www.centerforamericasfirsthorse.org to learn more about how to help this great organization.

(This foal is now about 18 months old and is available for purchase from us. She would make a nice Christmas gift too.)

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Old Time Religion

2011-12-05T04:25:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Old Time Religion: This morning, my father, who is about 73, my niece who is about five, and Terry, who is not about to have her age discussed in this forum,...

Teach Your Children Well: Learning Should Be Fun

2011-12-04T07:34:00.004-05:00

Now this was what the Little House was made for! Yesterday it was filled with riders and guests to hear Gene Gwaltney speak on the artifacts that he has collected over his lifetime in the immediate vicinity of the Little House. Many of these artifacts came from an Archaic site in pasture number one.

We have done a lot of things at the Little House but I believe that the kids had more fun and learned more yesterday than they have in any other program that we have done.

This weekend I also found a great source for the kind of authentic appearing lumber that we will use to construct the Gwaltney Frontier Farm in pasture number two. The early colonial reconstruction will serve as a back drop, a picture frame, for our programs to preserve rare colonial livestock of the region. The emphasis, of course, is on the Corollas, but they will be joined by other livestock that would have accompanied my earliest white ancestors when they settled around the Little House in the late 1600's.

That was not the only learning that was going on yesterday. We did not saddle up yesterday. Instead several families worked, and worked hard, on fencing, moving lumber, beautification and general clean up. Jacob continued marking the trial that he will be cutting through nearly 20 acres of woods to create additional riding challenges. Two families of guests came out to see our animals and programs. Kay's painting class continued and Jesse showed me a spectacular piece of art work that he is creating to benefit the Corolla Wild Horse Fund.

Tomorrow night is Monday night so beginning at 7:00 pm several of my riders will be working up a collection of ancient songs along with some Townes Van Zandt and Gram Parsons songs.

It is a very real thing that when a kid learns to appreciate history, art, music, the outdoors and the good feeling of being tired from working hard, they become better prepared to live a full, and meaningful, adult life.

Spiritually it does more. Without any hard sell, lectures, threats of damnation or promises of reward, a kid that learns to recognize the beauty of a deer trail through a tangled swamp, the sweet harmony the notes of B and D, the vibrance of color on a canvas, and the life altering power that one can obtain over a wild horse through love and discipline, cannot help but recognize that there is a God who loves them.

And tomorrow I will go into court, as I do on every Monday, to prosecute people that never had a Little House to go to.

A most peculiar existence.

Wild Spanish Mustangs In Corolla

2011-12-03T05:17:00.003-05:00

At times the wild Spanish mustangs of Corolla have to be captured for medical treatment. When it is necessary for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund to do so, the horse may not be returned to the wild. The risk, however slight, that it could bring back a germ that would erase one of only two herds of wild Spanish mustangs east of the Mississippi is too great a risk to take.

We rehabilitate and train these horses and breed them domestically, not as a replacement for the wild herd, but as a safety net in the event that the wild herd is destroyed by bureaucrats, developers, or a natural catastrophe. The off site breeding program is designed to insure that these horses, which are the state horse of North Carolina and are among the rarest and oldest distinct genetic grouping of American horses, will always be with us.

This is Croatoan, an older wild stallion that was removed from the wild because he was swimming out to areas where he could be struck by a car. He is typical of the Corollas in that he is so gentle natured that, although an older stallion when captured, he is ridden by beginners and small children.

He has fathered some beautiful foals, including Mokete, the first pure Corolla produced in the offsite breeding program. (He has also produced some spectacular 1/2 Corolla foals that are great horses but are not part of the off site breeding program because their mothers are modern horses.)

We have horses available for placement to those who wish to participate in the off site breeding program. In addition, we offer the free breeding services of our stallions to outside mares. All Corollas and Shacklefords are eligible to be registered in the Horse of the Americas Registry. Any offspring of my stallions that are not from draft stock mares can be registered with the American Indian Horse Registry.

Exactly what can one expect from a Corolla Colonial Spanish mustang? I can only speak from experience. They are the easiest horses to train with which I have ever worked. They are strong, easy keeping horses with incredible endurance. Many of our horses have completed rides of 50 miles in a day.

Tradewind, the 2011 Horse of the Americas Registry's National Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year, is a 12.2 stallion, weighing 626 pounds in peak condition. In 2011 he carried me 206 hours in the woods, the vast majority of those hours either trotting or cantering. This does not include the many hours that others rode him on the trails.At the time my weight was from 212 to 222 pounds. He did so even though he was captured because he was utterly crippled with founder. He is now wonderfully recovered and has produced two beautiful colts.

Look back over the stats in the paragraph above. Most people who are only familiar with modern horses would think these achievements are impossible. I am afraid that they would be impossible with most modern horses. In reality, he is typical of the horses of Corolla.

If you are thinking about getting a horse don't settle for second, or third or fifth best. Become part of the Corolla offsite breeding program and ride a spectacular, and nearly extinct, horse.

If you would like to come and ride with us and see what these horses are like just send me an email.

Extinction lasts forever and the clock is ticking.

Stomped to Death by Donkeys and Elephants

2011-12-03T04:12:00.005-05:00

I do not care about the politics of an issue but I do still appreciate the value of truth. Many are trying to seek political points by blaming the President for horse slaughter. To do so is inaccurate. The President can accept legislation or veto it in whole. This amendment was part of the bill to fund the government for a short period. A veto would have resulted in a government shutdown. It was the Congress, and sadly leaders of both parties in Congress, that created this situation.

While it is not accurate to blame the President for this disgrace, it is entirely fair to blame him for each and every abuse that the BLM commits. It is accurate to blame the President for the Department of Interior's opposition to legislation to protect wild horses.

There are heroes in the struggle to save the wild horses in both parties, none more dedicated than Jim Moran, and Walter Jones. There are villains in both parties.

Unfortunately, in Washington, as in the rest of the world, there are a few more bad guys than there are good guys.

That is why the good guys have to work harder.

Send Me Dead Flowers

2011-12-02T18:25:00.004-05:00

There are many similarities between playing music and riding. Most of them are physical---hand/eye coordination, focus, and timing to name a few. Some transcend the physical. A strong work ethic to practice and improve is a key to success whether riding or playing music. Playing music improves skills for a host of activities. It makes everything better.

Sitting still and playing, especially alone, creates the opportunity to reflect and to develop insight. I stumbled into a pretty important one a few weeks ago. Standard guitar tuning on an acoustic guitar puts the instrument in a straight jacket. A guitar cannot relax and enjoy itself in standard tuning. But if you tune it down about four frets a guitar will take its shoes off and sit back on the sofa. Tuning it down four frets allows a guitar to take its tie off and quit faking who it really is.

Your horse is not happy when tuned to a standard pitch either. Standard pitch for horses requires them to be clean. Want to see how much your horse hates standard pitch? Turn him loose and watch him wallow. Standard pitch requires horses to be shaved in the winter and blanketed to replace the hair that you just shaved off. Tune your horse down at least four frets. Let him wallow. Don't shave your horse. And if you feel that you must put a blanket on your horse during "turnout" be fair to him and purchase one that has clearly emblazoned on each side, "Don't blame me for this blanket. It's my owner's fault."

Tune your horse down at least four frets. If you are not willing to risk the disapproval of all of your horse owning friends, (who are likely the most standard tuned bunch of people one will ever encounter) by tearing your stable down, at least take the door off of it. Quit feeding him that standard pitch horse feed. Drop him back four frets to a good diet of hay and grass.

Face reality--your standard tuned horse is not going to get you to Carnegie Hall. However, if there ever is another Woodstock your horse will be delighted to take you there as long as you and him have been living at least four frets low.

The Ugly Season

2011-12-01T04:29:00.004-05:00

I hate muck. My love of the green of springtime is dwarfed by my hatred of the gray/smoke/black/blah color of our wet season in eastern Virginia.

But even in this setting, even in this buffet of vile tastes, visitors love what they find at our horse lot. They love riding through slippery cut overs that weeks ago were vibrant and green. They love seeing weanlings slip and slide in a pasture where a few weeks ago they would prance and glide.

It brings home the simplest of truths--that beauty has nothing to do with appearance. Beauty transcends the season, the time, the place and even the age.

Beauty was in the appearance of Sarah Carter, nearly eighty years old, stepping up to the microphone for her last public performance and singing "Happiest Days of All" with Maybelle. Beauty is in the appearance of Huskinaw, a spunky, wide eyed weanling that approaches everyone to silently give the most important news of every day, "I Waked Up Again!"

But most of all, beauty is in the face of a muddy, Red Feather standing there, missing part of his ear, and without a sound saying, "You damn right I made it. I am still here. And you made it too."

There is great beauty in the ugly fact that to persevere is to win.

Yeah, But in the Real World....

2011-11-29T07:55:00.003-05:00

In darkest night our eyes deceive us.
The Things we see might not be there.
At dawn and dusk the shadows fool us.
But in the brightest of the sunshine
The truth we seek will not be spared.

When it comes to supporting horse slaughter it does not matter to the horse whether one has been fooled by chasing to keep up with the established horse world, confused by the crocodile tears of those who want to kill unwanted horses to keep something bad from happening from them, or feel that it shows "tolerance" to accept the "right" of others to stumble around in darkness.

Regardless of the pitiful excuse that one gives for supporting horse slaughter, the blood on the slaughter house floor is just as red. Foolish horses, if only they understood that we are killing them because we love them so much.

Life's Lessons Learned

2011-11-28T05:42:00.004-05:00

Emily, my niece, was about three in this picture of her and Croatoan, a wild Corolla stallion. At that age she could get a rope and go out in the pasture and bring a horse back to the tack shed. People from town would ask things like, "What if a horse steps on her foot?"

Odds are that if that happened it would hurt. If it hurt enough and happened often enough she would learn to be aware of where her feet and the horse's feet were at all times in order to avoid the problem. Eventually she learned how to carry herself in a manner that causes the horses to respect her and avoid uninvited contact with her body.

She is seven now. Yesterday she was riding her young horse, Spotted Fox, a 3/4 blm, 1/4 Chincoteague of great promise. As we rounded a bend in a field another horse bit him and he kicked out and set in for a bucking. She went off high and she landed hard.

She did not turn the reins loose. Laying on her back she maintained control of her horse. To do otherwise would have been irresponsible. Had she not held on he might have spooked other horses. He might even have gone home, leaving her with a four mile hike back to the tack shed.

Instead, she sniffed a bit, got back on and had a good ride for the rest of the ride. Her conduct pleased me, but it also caused me to reflect that what she did only seems outstanding in today's world. Up until about 1970 her behavior was what was exactly expected of a child her age.

Modern parenting seems perfectly designed to create kids that cannot cope with the problems of every day life. Instead we give them the impression that life is simply a series of choices for them to make so that they can have whatever makes them happy at the moment. I wince when I hear kids asked what they would like to eat instead of being told what is for supper.

Adult life does not give us such a series of free choices constrained only by our whims. Adult life does not ask what we would like to eat. It often tells us what we should not eat. But even such simple decisions as facing the choice between what you should eat to extend your life and what you "like" will yield the wrong choice when one has been raised to believe that one can have what one "likes."

The objective reality is that our modern parenting model is producing an epidemic of Type II diabetes and anxiety disorder. We love our kids so much that for the first time in modern history we are teaching them practices that will give them shorter life spans than we have.

We do a fine job of preparing kids for the good things that come our way. Unfortunately, such things require no preparation. To coin a new phrase "Fun Happens!". Sadly, the modern parenting model also does nothing to create a sense of appreciation and thankfulness for those good things.

The simple reality is that life is, at times, good. But life is also cold, nasty and mean. A child that is taught that it is fine to lay on the ground and whine with utterly no expectation that they will responsibly hold onto their horse so that no one is injured is not given any preparation for life as it actually is.

In actual life the reports back from the medical tests are not always fine. In actual life one finds out that family members and others that they love face horrible turns in their lives. In actual life a kid that is taught that life should only deliver him pleasure and comfort and good news will be of no value in helping that family member or loved one.

I did not raise my girls according to the modern parenting model. We had just turned off of the highway when I told Amanda that one of her loved ones had received a discouraging medical report. One tear ran down her left cheek. By the time we reached the first curve on the path she had already begun to develop a plan on what she could do to help out. By the time we reached the tack shed the tear was gone.

I am not a voice crying out in the wilderness on this issue. I know many kids that were not raised with an eye only to keeping them safe, happy, and protected. I know kids that were raised to have faith in God and themselves and to fight back. Rebecca, the Barrs, the Marbles, they were all raised to value other things more than their own temporary comfort.

If today I were to receive terrible medical news (which I will not I am fiercely healthy. This is a hypothetical example)I would go to my wife for comfort, encouragement and a clear assessment of the situation. I have no doubt that I could count on her for anything.

The second person that I might go to could very well be Lydia. She would be a source of strength. She was raised that way.

Lydia is 16 and she has been raised right. She understands that what is best for her is not the deciding factor when choosing a course of action. When Lido died I called Beth and as soon as I got off of the phone with her I called Rebecca, gave her a quick list of instructions and never gave a second thought as to whether I could count on her to get it done. Abby came across the nation to be with us at Momma's funeral. A few year's ago I had a serious health problem with our horses. Emily was in Colorado visiting family for Christmas. She sent a note that she could get a standby flight and be at the tack shed right away if I needed her.

To re-cap, my seven year old niece got bucked off hard and never turned the reins loose. If she had turned loose her spooked horse could have caused problems for other riders.

My sister is raising her right.

Ho, Ho, Ho

2011-11-28T04:18:00.002-05:00

The little riders love parades. I love the end of parades. A sense of relief is one of my favorite emotions.

On December 10 we will ride about five miles, through the woods and down the highway into Smithfield for the annual Christmas parade.

T'is the season to be jolly. Ever seen a jollier looking bunch of little riders than in this picture?

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I Do Not Dance

2011-11-26T18:47:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I Do Not Dance: I find it to be a wholly undignified endeavor. However, if I did dance I most surely would have been dancing all over the woods yesterday...

The Measure of A Man

2011-11-26T17:35:00.004-05:00

I do not mind most of the things about aging that seems to bother other people. I do not care if my hair is brown or gray. It does not bother me that I have only a few more teeth than the average duck. It does not bother me that I cannot run as fast as I once could. Now I simply leave sooner and that works just as well as having run fast to get where ever I am going.

It does bother me that I set goals that I have yet to achieve. I have now, on three occasions set out to ride 100 miles in a day. Each time I got in over 50 miles, but my best day was only 69 miles. About four years ago I was picking up a sick colt (he later recovered fine) when my right bicep tore in two. It was a nasty looking affair but the pain was not that serious. In fact, we went ahead with the ride that was scheduled that afternoon. It never hurt badly but it did not heal correctly and is only about 40% as strong as my other arm. I have even gotten used to that.

But tonight the ravages of time hit hard. I had a sink full of live oysters and an empty house with no distractions. I put three large containers, all filled with oysters, in the oven. I planned to knock off the first 130 some oysters while I was cooking some more. I was looking at a three hundred oyster night.

Before I ate my hundredth roast oyster I began to feel full. My kitchen sink is full of oysters. There is nothing holding me back, but I simply am full. There has not been a time since I was a kid that I could not eat even a hundred roast oysters.

Forget the Mayan calendar and the 2012 apocalypse. This is much bigger. If I cannot easily consume even 100 roast oysters, that must surely be a sign of terrible things to come.

This is a picture of my grandson on Wanchese, a Shackleford stallion. If you ever happen to bump into him, please don't tell him that his Granddaddy could not even throw down 100 roast oysters. He is a sensitive child and might not be able to bear the shame.

Strains, Stains, and Automobiles

2011-11-26T05:24:00.002-05:00

Too much time is spent among Spanish mustang preservationist arguing about...,actually every moment spent arguing is time wasted. And with so many strains teetering on the brink of extinction there is no time to waste. Among the worst wastes of time are the efforts to define a particular type of Colonial Spanish conformation as being the only type of true Spanish conformation, with a suggestion that everything that deviates from this Platonic "form" is the result non-Spanish bloodlines. We can all have our preferences of the variations within strains without trying to claim that our individual preference is the only pure strain.

In the report of the inspection tour of the Corollas and Shacklefords (which can be found on the Horse of the America web site) Vickie Ives does a great job of showing the variations of Spanish types that appear even in a genetic grouping as isolated and defined those of Corolla and Shackleford. I find some of these variations more attractive than others, but to say that any variation is proof of purity and any deviation from that variation is proof of foreign blood would be absurd. The DNA of these horses makes it very clear that they have been isolated from outside influence for a very long time.

Every mustang preservationist should love their particular strain. It is fine to even pretend that that strain is a separate breed. It is very poor strategy to attack those who promote other strains. It is even poorer strategy for those who are attacked to respond. Such exchanges simply provide ammunition for those who wish ill toward all of our strains.

Efforts to preserve these horses are already shackled by the existence of multiple registries for Spanish mustangs. The HOA promotes all of the strains without trying to stain the image of any recognized strain. That is a model that all preservationist should follow.

I recently contacted a breed organization that strongly promotes 1/2 breed crosses of their breed. (I am very impressed with the 1/2 Corolla horses that we have produced by breeding to several modern mares. These 1/2 breeds will not be used in the off site breeding program. The purpose is to produce super horses that will get the Corolla name and bloodlines in front of a broad audience. Werowance is already doing that in South Carolina). I explained a great deal about the Corollas with particular emphasis on their calm natures and freakish endurance. I made it very clear that we are offering the breeding services of each of my Corolla stallions at no charge to mares from this organization. I made it very clear that there were no strings attached. I wrote twice with the offer.

That organization did not deem the correspondence worthy of a response, either time. That is what we are up against, an established horse world that sneers at our horses. Every time we refuse to work together, every time we claim that our strain is the purest, and every time that we try to "breed up" our horses by making them taller we give aid and comfort to that established horse world.

This is a picture of a daughter of Red Feather. She is a pure Corolla and is every thing that I would look for in a Colonial Spanish horse. Many of you have horses of strains that developed hundreds of miles from Corolla. You also have horses that are everything that I would look for in a Colonial Spanish horse.

We sink, or we float, together.

The Marsh Tacky

2011-11-25T07:04:00.002-05:00

This is a shot of my oldest wild stallion, Croatoan, a few months after he was captured. He is a Corolla from the Outer Banks and is a great representation of the state horse of North Carolina, the Banker horse or Colonial Spanish mustang of the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

His long domesticated cousin, the Marsh Tacky,is the state horse of South Carolina. They share many similarities and likely have many common ancestors. Like the Corollas, they are at risk of extinction. They are proving their worth in the woods and swamps of South Carolina not only as first rate trail horses, but also as top hunting horses.

Future posts will cover the efforts to preserve and promote this strain. I hope to have a few pictures of some of them up soon. The more that I learn of the Spanish horses of the east, the Choctaws, the Corollas, the Shacklefords, and the Crackers them more impressed I am with them.

It is possible that for those looking for a trail horse that can do it all, day after day, mile after mile, horse breeding may have reached its zenith in the southern swamps two or three hundred years ago.

It Makes a Great Christmas Gift

2011-11-24T08:11:00.002-05:00

We still have some copies of my book "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them: Learning from Wild Horses and Small Children" available. The book may be ordered by $15.00 check payable to Mill Swamp Indian Horses,LLC and mailed to Steve Edwards, 13644 Bethany Church road, Smithfield, VA 23430. To put matters in proper perspective without sounding too biased--it is, arguably, the best book written in Smithfield in the past decade concerning efforts to teach natural horsemanship to little kids.

We also have some horses in various stages of training available for the most special Christmas gift that a person will ever receive. Among these is Medicine Dog, one of the best trail horses that I have ever trained.

Anyone interested in buying a horse please contact me at msindianhorses@aol.com .

Friday Feast At the Little House

2011-11-24T04:57:00.002-05:00

By noon tomorrow I hope to have the grill full again as we have in the last two years. The day after Thanksgiving the kids come out and we make a wooden cooking grill like those shown in the early settler's drawings of Indian life here on the coast. We cook all day and these town kids taste things that they might not have tasted before--deer, oysters, duck, maybe rabbit and quail.

Learning is done with all of the senses--including the sense of taste. We ride the horses that were ridden here 350 years ago. We dig wells by hand. This winter we will tan some deer skins and raise little pigs. In a few weeks we will have a great archaeological session using artifacts recovered from the horse lot.

Riding is the biggest part of what we do, but no the only part.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: What I Learned In 98 Miles in The Saddle

2011-11-23T08:59:00.002-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: What I Learned In 98 Miles in The Saddle: Holland, the brown Shackleford shown above, took me 48 miles in one day and Ta Sunka Witco, my SMR who is the grandson of Choctaw Sundan...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: What I Learned In 98 Miles in The Saddle

2011-11-23T08:59:00.001-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: What I Learned In 98 Miles in The Saddle

2011-11-23T08:59:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: A Kid's Horse

2011-11-23T04:24:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: A Kid's Horse: When people create arbitrary rules of proper horsemanship it is often the horse that suffers. I came across a great example in an of hand...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: It Was Too Dark For Me to See the Ice Hanging From...

2011-11-23T04:22:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: It Was Too Dark For Me to See the Ice Hanging From...: my aged body. In fact it is too cold for me to even write about what the kids and our horses just took me through so I am now turning this...

When Seized By The Power of Music

2011-11-22T08:15:00.002-05:00

Learning powerful, emotional lyrics creates strong feelings in little girls---Shyness, happiness, excitement, intensity, and apparently an uncontrollable need to pick one's nose.

Yes, But Summer White After Labor Day?

2011-11-22T06:17:00.002-05:00

Quien Es? is one of the mares that we produced by crossing, Wind in His Hair, a Chincoteague stallion, with several BLM mares. The result has been a series of horses with shocking endurance and unforgettable beauty. Terry recently began competing Quien Es? in competitive trail rides. Always the smallest horse in the events, she leaves the owners of 16 hand horses wondering why their horses cannot perform as bravely as does the little American Indian horse.

On November 20 she gave birth to Peter Maxwell shown above. Though only 1/4 Chincoteague he took 100% of his color from the island at the Virginia/Maryland border.

His father is Edward Teach, a black Corolla stallion. If past experience bears out, he will have the endurance of a marathon runner and the disposition of Grand Pa Walton.

His ancestry comes from the sands of the Nevada basin and the sands of the Atlantic ocean. His extraordinary toughness will come from the grit in his soul.

The Soul Of A Horse--Joe Camp

2011-11-21T05:57:00.002-05:00

Horses should come with an owner's manual and it should be Joe Camp's great book , "The Soul of a Horse." Joe does not do ground breaking research. He simply puts the ground breaking research that has been done in the last twenty years concerning the importance of natural horse care in a form that can be readily understood.

I am very serious when I write that every horse owner should read this book. Your horse deserves it. Everyone that wants to be a horse owner should read the book several times. Every riding instructor should read it and listen to it on tape. Everyone that boards horses for others should seek to memorize it like scripture.

This spectacular BLM mare is very lucky to be owned by someone that understands every syllable of the book.

Horse Slaughter, A Debate Misdirected

2011-11-18T04:42:00.005-05:00

Legislation has been advanced that will make it more likely that horse slaughter houses will return to our nation. The debate over horse slaughter has, to date, been played on a playing field created by the biggest agribusiness and factory farm interests. It is sad that so many people that would otherwise be expected to stand up for horses have been lured away from taking a strong stand against horse slaughter by a savvy media and public relations strategy. This effort, designed to show that horse slaughter is the best thing that could happen to the equine industry and a practice so kind and humane that those who slit the throat of horses should be lauded as humanitarians who only seek to end the suffering of unwanted and abused horses, has found fertile ground.

We must first look at the actual issue here. The factory farms and agribusiness corporations that are funding the return to horse slaughter do not have a financial stake in the slaughter houses. Only a handful of such facilities will exist either way. They are looking down the road and fear that efforts to end horse slaughter could one day lead to efforts to end the factory farm system. Their ultimate concern is that it could lead to the banning of the slaughter of other livestock. That is what underlies this debate.

There is nothing unusual about such a strategy. It has been employed through out our history by institutions both of the right and left, both good and bad. The ACLU supports the right of Nazis and Klansman to parade, not because of support of either group but for fear of what their suppression could lead to. The ACLU is open about its motivations. Other groups are not always so open. The NRA opposes every effort at firearms regulation because of the fear that the passage of one restriction, however minor, could lead to the passage of more restrictions.

Of course, some of the major horse registries that support slaughter have a direct financial interest in the spilling of horse blood. Few of the other entities that are funding the efforts to make the slaughter of horses seems like the work of angels have such a direct financial interest, yet they are spending a fortune on lobbying and public relations.

Make no mistake about it, the concern that such groups have is not for the good of horses today, but instead is aimed at protecting potential threats to their coffers twenty to fifty years down the road.

They have succeeded in causing too many opponents of horse slaughter to play their game and engage their claims. I decline to do so. Of course, they have completely mislead people into believing that the closing of slaughter houses in America has had any impact on horse prices. The simple reality is that the export for slaughter market coupled with the extreme reduction in of breeding over the past decade has resulted in a horse supply much smaller than it was when we still had slaughter houses in America. The truth is that we had very few death houses and they had a minimal impact on horse prices.

The remainder of their policy arguments are equally vapid and I will not engage them because each ignores the only issue that is relevant to the discussion--"Is horse slaughter immoral?"

If slaughter of horses is immoral than none of the other issues matter. Morality does not adjust itself to suit practicality. If a practice is immoral it does not matter how many advantages its acceptance would bring to society. That is why we do not look at the economic advantages of euthanizing "unwanted senior citizens."

If one accepts that the slaughter of other livestock is not immoral one must either accept that horse slaughter is moral or that their is a fundamental difference between eating a horse and eating a cow. In short, one must assert that the life of a horse is of a different value than the life of a sheep.

I believe that it is. In making such a determination I look to several factors, religion, tradition, reason, and the intangible recognition of what is.

It is easy to look at the views of various religions on the issue. The consumption of horse meat is banned by the Torah, the Koran, and has faced condemnation by the Pope dating back several hundred years. I am not a student of Eastern religions but I am not aware of the promotion of equine consumption by humans in any of the larger Eastern systems of belief.

In looking to tradition, western civilization has never placed the consumption of horse meat on the same level as the consumption of other livestock. The French fondness of horse meat is relatively modern and dates back when horse meat was considered a food of the people and not as "elitist" as the consumption of beef and mutton. Eating horses was a political statement, not one based in hundreds of years of tradition.

The most difficult case to make against horse slaughter is to rely on simple reason. Reason tells us that a horse is not a human and there is no logic in distinguishing between the flesh of horses and that of any other beast. Such an argument is compelling and were the issue only examined on that basis it is impossible to argue against horse slaughter. But reason has its limitations. The use of pure reason can lead, and historically has lead, to justification for the most horrific acts of cruelty perpetuated by man.

The ability to use reason is a great part of what makes us human, but it is the ability to go beyond reason that harnesses the brute that is our nature. It is that view beyond reason, the ability to recognize what simply is, which, when coupled with reason, that brings out what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.

The recognition of what is must lead to the conclusion that the horse is spiritually linked to us as is no other animal. Humanity is not characterized by merely what we build or that which we create. The core of the human experience, that which distinguishes us from the apes, is our system of beliefs, dreams, aspirations, and ideals. The human body rarely lasts over a century but those beliefs, hopes and ideals can continue to last until the last human no longer does.

It is the spread, advancement, refinement, and improvement of those ideals that give us hope for a better future. It is our innate flaws as humans that hamper that spread, that advancement, that refinement and that improvement.

That which is "me" is not only that which I do, but that which I believe. And those ideas, beliefs and ideals were brought to me and to all of us on the backs of horses. Until quite recently in human history the spread of knowledge, culture, and belief could travel no faster than could a horse. For two decades now much of what is known has been communicated via computer. For several millenia much of what was known was communicated via horse back or horse drawn conveyance.

I do not suggest that we should not eat horses because we owe them a debt of gratitude for their service. I believe that it was the horses unique ability to form a bond with humans that made that service possible. It is that bond that distinguishes the horse from the sheep. I do not suggest that there are no other animals to which some people can bond. Nor do I suggest that all people can form such a bond with a horse.

I believe that the slaughter of horses is immoral primarily because of that intangible recognition of what is. The ability to reach into the human spirit and lift it is what makes horses different than other livestock. This is not because of a classification that people make regarding animals. It does not matter if a horse was "raised for slaughter" anymore than it would matter if a child was cloned for spare parts for future organ transplants. We cannot classify. We cannot designate. We can recognize what is. We can deny what is. We cannot designate what is. God has done so already.

The intangible recognition of what is--the recognition of the spiritual connection between humans and horses is what caused Crow chief, Plenty Coups, to express in exasperation, "The white man, who is almost a god, yet still a child, says that the horse has no soul. How can that be? Many times I have looked into my horse's eye and have seen his soul."

Is banning horse slaughter practical? Of course not. However, practicality has no place in considering issues of morality. One must simply do that which is right.

What gives me the right to say that horse slaughter is immoral? I am bound to do so because, like Plenty Coups, I have looked in my horse's eyes.

Unfinished

2011-11-16T17:57:00.005-05:00

I do not know if it is true that what you do not know cannot hurt you but I do know that it is true that what you cannot remember cannot help you. I remember with vivid clarity everything from the moment that the phone rang, but I do not remember the previous week. This is not a new development. I recognized while doing the eulogy that I had no memory of the entire previous week. About a year and a half after the funeral I remembered that the night before he died I saw Lido walking down to the Little House. It was getting dark so I slowed down to see who it was. He looked at me and spoke. I spoke back and drove on.

Such matters take control of the calendar. Thanksgiving is no longer coming up. Christmas is no longer coming up. It is the end of December that is coming up. The end of December seems to start coming up around Labor Day and we rush toward the end of December when the clocks fall back an hour. The end of December announces itself loudly to me every time I look out at one of the wild ones that we have not broken yet and allow the thought to quickly flash through my mind that Lido and I need to hurry up and get that horse in the woods. Just as quickly I remember that will not be happening. I remember about the end of December

The Horse of the Americas Registry has set up a fund in Lido's honor that is used to rescue individual Spanish horses who are at risk. On December 29th, send a contribution to that fund. Actually, you just as well go ahead and do it now. The end of December is just around the corner.

Yeah, What he Said!

2011-11-16T04:47:00.004-05:00

I am being quoted all over the place according to a computer search. At least I think that I am. Several years ago I thought that I came up with one of my best lines ever. Referring to the Spanish mustang I wrote, "America's first horse is still America's best horse." I really thought that it was an original phrase.

Turns out that I was wrong. Part of the phrase I had inadvertently picked up from HOA texts and the first use of the phrase went back to Vickie Ives.

With that memory firmly in place, I hesitate to claim credit for a slogan that is being used by those who promote ponies as mounts for adults in several corners of the world. But...I think that "I ride ponies because heart is not measured in hands.", is a quotation from my essay, "I Ride Ponies". The essay is an excerpt from my book, "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them: Learning From Wild Horses and Small Children". (The book is now available through the Corolla Wild Horse Fund's on line gift shop.)

In any event, I certainly do not mind anyone else using the line. I strongly support the promotion of the smaller breeds, especially for grown ups, and even old people. Especially old people. Heart is not measure in hands and true age is not measured in years. True age is measured only in what one does,...... or what one gives up doing.

Pain's Simple Sounds

2011-11-13T07:44:00.005-05:00

In the previous post I discussed the obvious answer to the question as to why people that have suffered tremendous pain in their lives make better horse trainers. That was an easy one.

I cannot answer a deeper question of pain and communication. Why are those who have suffered horrible, long term emotional pain able to master the use of simple words and phrases that create indelible images on our hearts?

Lincoln, Crazy Horse (e.g. "One does not sell the land upon which the People walk.), Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt, and Gram Parsons to name a few. Only Lincoln among them lived to be older than me. Two assassinated,three killed by drugs and alcohol all geniuses, all simple, all complex, all suffering, and each profound.

And each more popular in death than in life.

Lincoln's second Inaugural Address made sense of the senselessness of the slaughter. Crazy Horse gave meaning to both the fight and the flight of his people. Williams, Van Zandt, and Parsons wrote words of the clearest insight while blind drunk.

I have no hypothesis to explain the tie between their pain, their poetry and their prose. I only recognize what a shame it was that none of them understood their own greatness.

I'd Swim the Seas For To Ease Your Pain

2011-11-13T05:03:00.003-05:00

In the great documentary "Buck" it is pointed out that those who are able to communicate best with horses are often "tortured souls." Many of the best trainers suffered horrific childhoods of abuse and incessant trauma. It is no mystery why this is true.

The body language of humans is that of the predator. That does not mean that humans move like blood thirsty beasts. It simply means that all predatory species use many of the same signals, even when not engaged in hunting. The body language of a high school cheer leader and a Jack Russel terrier is indistinguishable.

But when a person lives in a state in which terror is the norm, he reverts to using the prey animal body language that was natural for him as a toddler. When he is a helpless child he actually is a prey animal. If he continues to be the subject of terror throughout his childhood he will continue to respond positively to prey animal body language and negatively to predator body language. (Ever met an abused child that enjoyed shaking hands? Of course not, and this is why.)

For such a person, a round pen is a place of peace, a refuge from a world that still constantly signals to his subconscious that it wants to do him harm. In the round pen he can find comfort by providing peace to a terrified colt. It may be the only place on earth where he finds such peace.

I did not suffer an abusive life, but my parents had over 100 foster children while I was at home. The vast majority of them had been abused and lived lives that were waking nightmares. I was always the oldest child. Often one or both of my parents worked night shifts. I had a much larger role in caring for the little ones than occurred in the average family. Without having any idea that it was happening,or even knowing what it was, I began to become fluent in prey animal body language.

For over a decade I have prosecuted all of the molestation cases and crimes against children and mentally retarded adults in the localities in which I have prosecuted. I have given formal training to other prosecutors on how to use correct body language to gain the trust and respect of a terrified child. (Yes, it is exactly what I use in the round pen with a terrified horse--advance and retreat, avoid eye contact, standing shoulder to shoulder, slow breathing, never walking in a straight line, etc)

I am constantly amazed that my riders are so often surprised by what their horses do. How could you not know that he was going to turn to the left and go around that tree? He had been telling you with his body that that was what he wanted to do for at least four steps and asking if it would be ok to do so for another two steps. Even very experienced riders seem to have deaf eyes. My eyes hear everything that the horse tells me.

It flows both ways. I have come to realize that I incorporate much of a horse's world view in my own. I get nervous and a bit edgy when the wind is blowing, even a fairly gentle breeze. I much prefer boredom to excitement. I even find myself chewing softly when I find the perfect word to put in a sentence. Few things make me mad as quickly as having people not get out of my way when I am walking into a crowd. The only thing worse for me than being alone is to be in a herd of strangers.

I have not sought to adopt these characteristics. I have simply recognized their existence. The ironic truth is that, although I am a prosecutor and try many cases every week, I actually spend more time each week communicating with horses than I do communicating with people.

Granted the equine communication is of a much simpler nature, e.g. "come here and stand by me" spoken with the eyes and a shoulder only. Ironically, "come here and stand by me" is one of the most rewarding and important things that one will see/hear in a lifetime, be it a tortured lifetime or not.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: From Lido's Point of View

2011-11-12T06:34:00.000-05:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: From Lido's Point of View: You do ride pretty, but not as good as me. My riding is a little bouncy cause only part of my body works. Keep on riding. You'll get bette...

A Year's Worth of Healing

2011-11-11T12:26:00.002-05:00

The Corolla Wild Horse Fund just put these photos up on Facebook. The bottom picture is of Edward a year ago, after he had already been treated for two weeks at a vet hospital. That picture is from the day that he was brought to us.

The other picture is from a few weeks ago. That is Edward with Croatoan. Edward's injured neck, now healed, is visible in that picture. That is how well he healed.

Edward has been ridden twice in the woods bareback with only a rope halter. He is a great little stallion and is waiting for someone to adopt him and keep him in the offsite breeding program.

I Am Not That Tough

2011-11-11T06:35:00.005-05:00

Anyone that has ever been the subject of a newspaper feature knows that on occasion they get the facts a bit confused. Those of you that read Carolina newspapers may have noticed an example of such confusion in a story about Tradewind. I want to clarify that point.

While it is true that my riders and I have completed several rides of 50 miles in a day, the reporter made a bit of a mistake in stating that I ride 50 miles every day.

If I did so I would have little time left to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

(Here is a working man in the Dominican Republic riding his working Spanish horse with home made tack. I strongly suspect that he and his horse would leave me and my horses in the dust on a fifty mile ride.)

The Blood of Good Blooded Horses

2011-11-11T03:38:00.002-05:00

A bit of perspective is needed when looking at the current horses market. I must admit that I was caught off guard a bit when it was suggested that because of the "glut" of horses available today it was wrong to try to stave off the extinction of the Corollas. That may have been the single best example of gnat straining/camel swallowing "logic" that I have encountered.

November's issue of Horse and Rider has some telling statistics. In 2000, 17,089 Appaloosa mares were reported bred. In 2010, the number dropped to 4,768. Among Paint mares, 103,534 were bred in 2000 but by 2010 the number dropped to 24,480. Quarter horse mares bred dropped from 220,785 to 122,177 over the decade.

The off site breeding program contributed to America's "surplus" of horses by producing four foals. (That is four, not four thousand.)

The worst thing about these statistics is the horrible truth that lies behind them. We do not have a surplus of horses. We have a shortage of new riders. The industry should focus on increasing demand. Supply has obviously been cut to the bone.

It can be done, but not by using the model of the established horse world. We can make the cost of horse ownership plummet while increasing the health and happiness of our horses by encouraging natural horse care. Natural horsemanship makes it possible for dedicated novices to train their own horses. Much of the expense of ownership is tied to our ridiculous system of horse shows. The idea that someone would want to dress up like a figure on the top of a wedding cake to ride a horse is utterly alien to me.

Here are some facts that are not discussed when considering horse ownership. The cost of properly feeding a Colonial Spanish horse for a day is only a bit more than the cost of feeding high quality dog food to a German Shepard for a day. My average vet bill for my horses is less than the average vet bill for our four terriers. (Granted I spend much more on dewormers for the horses than for the dogs.) A great used saddle can be picked up at the local auction for $125.00. The price to shoe a properly shod horse is $0.00. (A properly shod horse wears no shoes). Proper hoof trimming is easily learned and most owners over the age of 12 can learn to do a first rate job of hoof care. A year of horse ownership can cost less than a year of membership in a select league soccer team.

The irony is that the things that make horse care so expensive are the things that hurt horses the most. A life of sugar, stables,and shoes costs a fortune. A healthy lifestyle for a horse costs a fraction of that amount.

Instead of promoting enlightened horse care and working to reduce the cost of ownership, too many breeders and breed associations all fall in line to support big agribusiness' solution to the "glut"--horse slaughter. Instead of working to give a kid a life with meaning through horses they prefer to take the life of a horse.

There is something deeply wrong with an industry that produces pedigrees to show how good blooded their horses are, while, at the same time, advocating spilling that good blood on the slaughter house floor.

Houston, We Have Landed...and, uh, We Ain't Going Nowhere

2011-11-08T04:32:00.004-05:00

I do not come from adventurous frontier stock. My white ancestors settled about 8 miles from the Little House in 1678 and since that time I have had a relative within a 15 mile radius of the Little House.

Such a background creates roots that city people do not quite understand. Sunday night there was a dinner at the little country church across the road from my house, just down from the cemetery which was built on land cleared by my grandfather and great uncles, along with others in the church. The cemetery is filled with my relatives, most who farmed, rode,played music, and hunted hard.

Inside the church, Gwaltney, my great uncle was sitting up close to the desserts. Gwaltney is the oldest of his generation. He does not use the ramp to get into the church. It takes too long. With a bit of help he takes the short flight of stairs. I have never heard him speak ill of another person, nor have I ever heard anyone say anything bad about him. Gwaltney turns 100 years old in a bit more than ten days.

Daddy was outside with his guitar by the fire. He is the oldest member of his generation. A few men younger than me had guitars out. On several occasions the younger men would forget the words to some songs. Daddy would pick up the words and keep going. He told that when he counted up he knew over 500 songs. Daddy is about 75 years old.

After all of these years I recently learned that to make a guitar sound like it has spent some time with Maybell Carter you need to tune it down about four frets and put a capo on the fourth or fifth fret and then just play like that is how things are supposed to be. I used to study the ancient songs hard. I used to know the words to many songs, but not lately. I do not know nearly as many songs as Daddy. I am the oldest member of my generation. I am 51 years old.

Ariyanna came over by the fire and helped with a few songs. She has a solid voice but is a bit hard to manage on stage. She keeps trying to sing my parts and is a bit too free with a willingness to adjust the melody to suit her mood. She is my granddaughter. She is 4 years old.

Last night we had our first session for some of my little riders to learn to play and sing some ancient songs. Christian is not in this picture. He was sitting off to the right absolutely eating up the fret board on the dulcimer. I do not know that I have ever heard a dulcimer fit in so well with a guitar. These three girls, Samantha, Ashley, and the baby range from 4 to 11 years old.

We were upstairs in the Little House, above the room where my mother was born and in the room that I slept in when I was about five years old. The Little House is about 120 years old, a generation older than Gwaltney.

In pasture number one, out behind the Little House, the ground is scattered with stone relics of an Archaic Indian village. That village was there about 1,500 years ago, maybe as much as three thousand years ago.

I believe that the song that we were singing in this picture is "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"

A Ticking Clock

2011-11-07T04:56:00.004-05:00

Efforts to stave off the extinction of the Colonial Spanish mustangs of Corolla face obstacles on every front. All are frustrating, but none are as frustrating as the problem of placing stallions that have to be removed from the wild. We need to place them they where will be maintained as stallions. Instead the stallions are too often gelded. The scalpel of the vet ends their lineage as efficiently as does the gun of those who have shot and killed wild Corollas. Whether gelded or killed by a drunk driver, the lineage ends all the same.

The gelding of any of the few Corollas that we have left should never be viewed for anything other than what it is--vandalism. I find no virtue in doing so what so ever. Unfortunately, I have as many stallions as I can effectively use at our horse lot. If no one else comes forward to adopt any of the male colts the Corolla Wild Horse Fund has no choice but to geld them while they await adoption. They certainly cannot be criticized for having to take such a horrible action. They have no choice. Were it not for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund and its selfless staff, these horses would be already gone. The CWHF is not the villain. Ignorance among horse owners is the villain.

What passes for horsemanship in America has come to believe that horses come in three varieties--mares, geldings, and stallions. They do not. Horses come in two types--trained and untrained. If a stallion is poorly trained, kept up in a stable, fed sugar and not given the opportunity to move about, he will become very dangerous. So will a gelding. So will a mare. Of course, maintaining a stallion requires additional steps in training and handling than maintaining most geldings do, but the task is not all that daunting.

My mother's horse was a stallion. She rode him in shows, parades, and rides in the woods with children. Not a week goes by that we do not have several rides with Corolla stallions being ridden along with, and by, children. We train wild stallions with the assistance of elementary school students.

Over the next year I fear that the Wild Horse Fund will have to geld some young stallions that for various reasons must be removed from the wild. To do so is much like having a man lost in the desert with only a bottle of water stop every few miles and pour out some of his only remaining water.

The man lost in the desert has a choice. At this point The Corolla Wild Horse Fund does not have a choice. Without adopters that will take on and gentle a wild stallion they have to geld them.

All horses are potentially dangerous. All horses that are untrained are even more so. The only horse that is completely safe is a dead horse. All horses regardless of sex must be trained and handled by competent, confident handlers. I do not suggest that a novice, without training or assistance should take on the sole responsibility of a stallion--or of a mare or a gelding.

Millions for Trash, Pennies of Knowledge

2011-11-05T04:42:00.003-04:00

It is a bad sign for horses when stating what should be obvious is viewed as arrogance. I have had people look at me in the greatest of shock when I respond in the affirmative to the question as to whether I believe that I know more about my horse's health needs than does the vet. I certainly do and if you care about your horse you should also.

A vet likely only only spends a few minutes a year with your horse. You,(hopefully), spend several hours every week with the horse. The horse cannot tell the vet where it hurts but if you have a sound relationship with your horse you can tell the vet where he hurts.

I do not say any of this to disparage vets. I am very impressed with my vets. Yes, they know more about equine medicine than I ever will, but I know more about my horse's behavior, diet, normal practices and normal appearance than they ever can.

I am something else that the vets will never be. I am the first responder. I have a duty to my horse to educate myself as much as possible about equine health issues. That means that I have a duty to stay up with the research. I have a library of medical information under my finger tips right now that vets twenty years ago could never have dreamed of having such quick access to. Do not waste that resource. Get your medical information directly from the studies. Do not rely on what some self appointed expert using a false name writes on some horse forum.

Aside from often simply being based on fairy tale beliefs about horse care, such advice often repeats knowledge that was the state of the art 20 years ago. I do not want that for my horses in an emergency.

When I was 8 years old I began to play antique football. Although it was 1968, my coaches taught us using the same techniques and plays that they were taught when they were in high school in the fifties. Their coaches had taught them everything that they learned when they were playing in the forties. In 1968 we played the game of 1948.

If you think that giving your horse a mash of wheat bran will clear sand from his gut you are not only incorrect, you are doing the equivalent of playing antique football.

There is one starting place. Every horse owner should fully understand all of the precepts of Joe Camp's, "Soul of a Horse." In all seriousness, if one owns a horse or is even thinking about owning a horse this book must be more than read. It must be absorbed. The information in it should be chewed and swallowed so deeply that it leaks from one's pores. Step two is to read 'The Horse' magazine and "Equus" magazine. Neither are perfect, but both are loaded with helpful information. From there go to your computer, not for light entertaining stories about "My First Pony", but for cold, raw, dull information.

There is nothing about managing or training a horse that is common sense. This stuff is not logical to predators whose digestion is not dependant on fermentation of carbohydrates.

It is sad to see how much money people spend on supplements, special pads, tack and training gear, etc that does nothing positive and often much negative for their horses. Such money would be better invested in obtaining knowledge. One day your horse's life might depend on it.

Often what one picks up from people that have been around horses "all their lives" contains a grain of truth. If I have a colt on the ground that seems perfectly healthy, yet cannot stand up, I want more than a grain of truth. I want an entire wheat field full of truth.

The limited knowledge that many horse people passively acquire is a dangerous commodity. Such people could look at this picture of Charlotte in the snow and conclude that it is a picture of frozen sausage.

Do not follow the lead of such people.

My Favorite Rides Are Like My Coffee

2011-11-03T06:34:00.002-04:00

Pitch black. I used to dread the short days of fall and winter because it meant that my opportunities to ride were boiling down to nearly nothing. Now it is my favorite time to ride. I enjoy no riding experience more than gaiting through the woods, relying on my horse to avoid the trees and keep us both safe. We have never had an injury during a night ride and I only recall one rider getting tossed in the dark.

Tonight we will not set out until after it is completely dark. Black powder season is in and I want to give all the hunters a chance to get out of the woods before we go in. Looking forward to things too much generally leads to disappointment, but I am looking forward to hitting the woods tonight.

(Here is a picture of The Black Drink, a five month old stud colt that we bred in the off site breeding program. He is so beautiful that he even looks good in the dark.)

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: And It Pleased God To Place Before Us a Greatte Re...

2011-10-31T14:12:00.000-04:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: And It Pleased God To Place Before Us a Greatte Re...: Having landed upon the shore of the river called by us James, for our beloved King, and called by the Indians, Powhatan, for thier King, c...

Soothing A Savage Beast

2011-10-30T06:50:00.005-04:00

When I sing to wild horses in the earliest part of their training one can see them begin to relax. I am not convinced that it is the music that has any direct bearing on the horse. I think that it is more likely that singing reduces the stress signals that I send out. In short the effect is on me but the results show up on the horse.

Rhythmic repetition has a powerful impact on the human mind. It is at the core of the concept of mantra use in meditation. It is the reason that knitting brings peace to so many people. I do not remotely understand the whys and wherefores but the reality of it cannot be denied.

Last night I slept better than I have in many months. Yesterday afternoon I went upstairs to the music room in the Little House, picked up my guitar, tuned it down four entire frets and played two songs. I was alone. I repeated the two songs until I had them like I wanted them. I did not have a watch and there is no clock in the music room. When I got home I realized that I had been playing those two songs for nearly three hours.

Music's impact seems to vary with individuals. Lydia and Emily caused me to have an insight about the role of playing music that, though I have been playing for forty years, had never occurred to me.

As we are preparing to start up the music program with a new round of little riders Emily told me that it was very important to teach the kids some "happy" songs. She further said that most of the ancient songs that I enjoyed made her felel bad when she sang them. The only thing that floored me more than that was the fact that Lydia strongly agreed.

I had never given this issue a great deal of thought. I knew that I divided music into songs with meaning and frivolous ones. I only enjoyed playing songs with meaning and the frivolous ones were just something to be endured because audiences enjoyed having some thrown in.

The girls caused me to realize that every song that I have ever considered to have meaning were songs of tragedy. Love songs that I enjoy focus on couples together for many decades only to be separated by death (e.g. "Gathering Shells By the Seashore") The other type of love song that has meaning are those that involve being driven to suicide by the abandonment of a lover (e.g."I Never Will Marry", "Dear Companion")
For songs of history I find myself drawn to "The Titanic" and "The Cyclone of Rye Cove" (a great song of A.P. Carter's about the tornado that destroyed a public school and killed a dozen people.) For old time gospel songs I like those that seek to give meaning to suffering like "Farther Along" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"

It had never occurred to me before they raised the point, but I cannot think of a single frivolous song that I enjoy. Some I just dislike more than others.

But that was not the biggest surprise for me. I was stunned to hear that performing sad songs made the girls feel bad. I feel so much better after playing or listening to songs with meaning, songs about real suffering. I thought that everyone did.

My feeling is not based on some rational, moral of the story, see things could be worse, etc, kind of reasoning. The feeling is not based on any reasoning rational or irrational. It simply is. Just as getting under a blanket makes one feel warm and standing barefoot in the snow makes one feel cold, listening over and over to "In My Hour of Darkness" makes me feel peaceful.

So, I will teach the little ones some happy songs but I will not change the ones that I listen to or play by myself. I have a handful of things that give me feelings of peace and I am not going to throw any of them away just because it does not work that way for other people.

I See History: Galicenos

2011-10-30T05:53:00.005-04:00

Galicenos of Suwannee Horse Ranch, near Live Oak, Florida, is the focal point of an effort to save a beautiful strain of horses that came up out of Mexico about fifty years ago. Check out their web site and if you can do so go check out their beautiful little horses. Just from pictures one can readily see the Colonial Spanish heritage of these horses. The Galicenos are a very rare strain yet odd chance and circumstance lead us to have one when I was very young.

Around 1966 Mrs. Butler moved to our area from the southwest, Arizona perhaps. She was quite the talk of the area. She had an adopted daughter that was in her late teens and that was it as far as family went. She was related to no one here and how she decided to purchase the farm beside my grand parents is a mystery to me. Everything about her was different. I believe that she is the first person with whom I spoke that appeared to have an accent different than the rest of us. She was different in more significant ways.

She was a rancher. None of us ever called ourselves ranchers. We were farmers. She not only was a rancher, she was a sheep rancher. We did not raise sheep. Very few of us even had beef cows. We raised hogs. She had a mare of a breed that no one around here had ever heard of, a Galiceno. When Mrs. Butler moved she left the mare with us.

Daddy quickly trained her to pull what those of us around here called a buggy, but which I later learned was called by the rest of the world, a sulky. She was a bit skittish to to my eye, but she was also the first mare that I had ever handled. (Momma and Daddy rode stallions. This was in the days before America became sissified about stallions.)

I liked her look and I loved the idea that we had a horse of a breed that no one else had ever heard of.

That little search box on the computer showed me the next Galiceno that I would ever see, nearly 45 years later. I love what I saw. The Galicenos that are being preserved and promoted by this non profit bring to mind the lighter built southwestern type of Colonial Spanish Horse, but they also bring to mind the Mongolian horse of today. John Fusco showed some Mongolian riders a Horse of the Americas publication featuring pictures of some Colonial Spanish horses and the Mongolians immediately recognized the similarity between their horses and ours.

If any Mongolian herdsman find themselves near Live Oak, Florida I suspect that they will wonder who stole their horses and brought them to America.

If I live long enough, and if the Galicenos make it long enough, I will add one to my herd and produce a few stunning little Corollicenos.

Genetic Selection by the Horses Themselves

2011-10-30T04:46:00.004-04:00

When the opportunity permits, it seems that many horses seek out others similar in type or color to themselves. This is not always the case, but it happens enough to have an effect on the genetics of wild, free roaming horses.

It has been theorized that horses instinctively seek out horses of the color that they associated with warmth and security as foals, the color of their mothers. My light colored males tend to bond with each other as do most of the bays. The Corollas take up with other Corollas within a day of entering my herd. This lead to the logical assumption that they recognized each other from the wild. However, when Shacklefords, who came from an island 175 miles to the south of Corolla, were added to the mix, they bonded just as quickly with them.

In that case it seems that even more so than color and size the common factor was movement, specifically the gaits that made the Banker horses of Corolla and Shackleford different from the other horses in the herd. This is also born out by another unusual pair in our mare herd. My father's Walking Horse is tightly bound with a half Walking horse. They are of completely different colors but both are very spine high, with more pronounced withers than the other mares. Of course, they are the only horses in the herd that have a running walk.

This throws an interesting wrinkle into the idea that wild horses are entirely the result of natural selection. Without a doubt survival of the fittest is the principle force in driving their genetics, but it may also be that a degree of self selection and self imposed genetic isolation may also be part of the story.

To Endure Is To Win

2011-10-28T06:41:00.008-04:00

Ecclesiastes, The Letter of James,
A Sermon on the Mount, instrumentals without names
Glues and pastes, warm sunlight, soft rain
Holding things together, giving meaning, soothing pain

Picked softly on the high strings, driving hard on the bass
Steady, even rhythm, a soft and steady pace
A song can be played with meaning yet still have none
Life must have meaning, each day, until that day is done

Horse hair reins and stiff rawhide
Catch 'em, break 'em, mount up, ride.
The world's greed, violence, blood and force
Whipped with a good guitar and a great little horse.

Some Questions Best Not Be Asked

2011-10-28T06:14:00.003-04:00

Feel free to brag about how much your saddle costs. Tell the world about all of the money that you spend on lessons. Crow from the highest tree of the ribbons that your horse's great grandfather won. Just make sure that there is a period after each utterance. If there is a question mark after such utterances you could run into a problem when talking to some of my little riders.

Don't ask an 11 year old what she could possibly do with one of those wild horses. Her response might simply be "Fifty miles in a day last spring, but I am trying to work my way up to riding 100 miles in 24 hours."

Responses like that make your horse's great grand father look, well...dead.

A Size Surprise

2011-10-28T04:55:00.003-04:00

Here is Pasquenoke at less than five months old. She is only about an inch shorter than her mother, Secotan from Corolla and is taller than her father, Wanchese, from Shackleford. Anecdotal information hinted that crosses between the herds from these two different islands on the Outer Banks often produced offspring larger than the parents seems to be bearing out here.

She is the first foal produced in the offsite breeding program using these two Colonial Spanish mustang herds, (Bankers). Go to the Horse of the Americas website and pull up the Corolla/Shackleford inspection report to see more about these two herds.

When Only the Worst Is Good Enough

2011-10-27T04:59:00.005-04:00

I spoke with someone that was concerned about the expenses that they are incurring with their horse care---full stable board, feed, supplements, turnout blankets, joint injections, shoeing expenses, and steady vet bills. In short, the rider is making a very substantial, non-tax deductible contribution to the established horse world which advocates for the horrific living conditions that most modern horses are required to endure.

If there was real honesty in advertising the established horse world's slogan would be "Show how much you love your horse. Keep him, fat, sick, weak and lame!"

What these poor horses need is for their owners to get a literary supplement. Start with Joe Camp's "Soul of a Horse" and learn how to stop making your horse miserable.

Not That It Would Need Another Verse

2011-10-26T08:33:00.004-04:00

But if Gram Parson's spectacular song about the death of three people that touched his life needed a posthumous verse perhaps this would fit:

Only twenty six years old, his life could not be saved.
Like his Daddy and his Momma, a much too early grave.
Now who will sing of the Grievous Angel beneath a Joshua tree?
Or the songs he'd do with Emmylou, and who'll write songs like "She"?

In my Hour of Darkness
In My Time of Need
Oh Lord grant me visions
Oh Lord grant me speed.

Training With Raw Power and Domination

2011-10-26T06:16:00.005-04:00

I am not averse to flexing. I believe in being modest and humble unless modesty and humility reach the point of dishonesty. Then they become no more virtuous than any other lie.

I believe that effective training of horses and kids requires the proper exercise of raw power and domination. When I was young I was a politician. Exercising power was very rewarding for me. There are two ways to exercise political power--by getting things done or by preventing things from being done. I never understood the "preventers" who showed their power by staking out turf, being obstacles, waiting for others to show proper obsequiousness to them.

I loved showing my power by getting things done to help people that could use a hand. The reality is that it takes more power to open a door than it takes to shut one, and I never enjoyed shutting doors. I never minded the use of raw power to open doors and I used whatever raw power was necessary without the slightest regret.

The same dichotomy exists among many teachers and trainers. I do not believe that the proper, or most impressive, use of raw power is to beat or humiliate a horse into compliance. I am not impressed by a trainer that is so smart, skilled, and shrewd that he can outsmart a horse that has, at best, the mind of a five year old child. I am not impressed by the use of a "stud chain" across a horse's nose. The stud chain is a perfect symbol of hatred.

I am not impressed by hate.

I am impressed by extreme demonstrations of real power such as that shown by the trainer that has a wild horse following him around the round pen while disparately seeking to comply with the trainer's request. I am impressed when a terrified horse approaches a rushing stream and actually looks back up at its rider and then, after seeing the reassuring look in the rider's eye, gets the courage to ford the stream. That rider shows raw power. That rider shows domination. That horse moves in spite of its fear of the rushing water, not because it is afraid of the rider. That horse moves out of love.

I am impressed by love.

The exercise of raw power and domination out of love is the only force on this earth more powerful than the exercise of raw power and domination out of hate. Love does not require that discipline be ignored. Love does not require the rider or trainer to allow the horse to decide what it wants to do. Love does require that power never be exercised out of anger or frustration and that the amount of force used is no more than that which is necessary to teach the horse to succeed.

The proper exercise of raw power and domination in training requires one to be perfectly comfortable both with having a shot gun in hand, and in never having to use it.

To those who feel that I give horses too much credit for ability to have feelings beyond the instincts that are necessary for survival and insist, "A horse can never be taught to love me." You may be correct. If so the flaw lies in you, not the horse.

This all comes back to the basic reason that one should practice natural horsemanship--to become a better person.

And Their Worm Shall Never Die

2011-10-25T05:42:00.002-04:00

I just got a great question by email concerning the use of wormers. Once again we fall into the problem of definitions and misuse of terms. What most people hate about natural horsemanship is a practice that is not even natural horsemanship at all. Ignoring discipline and control is not natural horsemanship. It is neglectful training. Ignoring health problems in horses is not natural horse care. It is neglectful care.

Worming strategies are complicated by the threat of parasite resistance to the major classes of dewormer drugs. The development of parasites that are completely resistant to these drugs is the greatest threat looming on the horizon for horses in America. We have to come to view deworming drugs the same way that we view antibiotics--as something to be used with care so that they will continue to have any use whatsoever.

The ideal situation is to worm horses after conducting a fecal egg count in order to determine the need for worming. The old practice, still unfortunately advocated by some vets, is a bi monthly rotational system of worming. Such a system encourages the development of super worms that cannot be treated by existing drugs.

I consider such a practice unethical. The eggs of the super worms will reach other horses and the super worms will slowly spread as horses are bought, sold, competed, and transported across the country. Unfortunately, few horse owners are aware of this threat.

The purchase of wormer is my second largest expense after hay. It is absolutely necessary for nearly all young horses, nearly all old horses, and perhaps 25% of adult horses that are still in their prime. The young, the old, and those with poor immune system self protection against parasites serve as breeding farms for worms and make it harder for healthy adult horses to fight off infestation.

My horses have a much lower incidence of infestation as a result of some management changes that I have made in the past two years. I keep foals and weanlings away from the main herd. The foals and weanlings are thus unable to constantly re-infest the larger herds. Nearly all of my hay is now fed in round bale holders and or nets. This reduces potential for contamination of the hay. Unfortunately, we now experience summer droughts as a regular part of our weather cycle. My horses are not receiving as much pasturage as I prefer. The only positive aspect of this is that fewer parasite eggs are consumed because there is less grazing available.

All of this brings us to my most controversial idea concerning proper stewardship of horses. I have been asked, often in a rather hostile tone, "Do you think that you know as much about your horse's health care needs as your vet?"

I most certainly do and if you do not your horse is at risk. This is not because of any fault of the vet. Your vet only sees your horse for a few minutes each year. Your horse cannot tell him where it hurts. If you have the proper relationship with your horse you can tell the vet where he hurts. I like my vets. I admire my vets. They are a great resource, but they are not around my horses several hours each day as am I. I am always the first responder and I owe it to my horses to be a qualified first responder.

To become a qualified first responder takes work and research. The answers are at your finger tips if you are reading this from a computer. Stay away from fake science. Stay on the cutting edge of medical equine research. Focus on digestive maladies because that is what is most likely to kill your horses. Horses can recover from the most horrific injury would that one can imagine with little human intervention yet they can colic and die from a stomach ache of so little severity that if we had the same symptoms we would not even miss a day of work.

Use science. Do not get your information from an established horse world that lauds the cutting edge research of 1986 while desperately trying to sell you something.

Give yourself a quick self test to see where you stand as a first responder.

Answer the following:

Does ivermectin kill tapeworms?
Which clears sand from the digestive tract best wheat bran or psyllium?
One horse has slightly visible ribs. The other has a crested neck and fat deposits at the base of its tale. Which is at the greatest health risk?
Can a horse's mineral needs be met with the use of a trace mineral block in the pasture?
What is best used to put weight on a horse increased fat or increased simple carbohydrates?
Does a coggins test prevent sleeping sickness?
Are stitches the preferred way to treat large surface wounds above the knee?
You have a perfectly healthy acting month old foal that can sit up but not rise. When helped to its feet it happily canters off. This goes on for days. Is his problem nutritional or joint related?
Your horse eats non toxic tree bark and even entire non toxic trees the size of baseball bats. What does he need more of in his diet? Is there a problem that he does so?
Does adding a supplement of psyllium in the amount of a few spoonfuls daily prevent sand accumulation?
Your horse has hoof cracks. Which is most likely the solution--better supplements or changes in hoof trimming strategy?
What is a horse's natural body temperature?
When are the best times of the year to treat for tape worms?
At what time of the day is the sugar level highest in pasture?

This is just a quick list off of the top of my head. Your horse would really appreciate it if you knew the answers to each of these questions.

In Two Weeks We Start Playing Again

2011-10-24T04:27:00.000-04:00

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Spring Planting: Of course my little riders can do more than just train wild horses! This picture is from a benefit for the local homeless shelter program t...

Destabilize Your Horse If You Care About Him

2011-10-23T07:33:00.002-04:00

Like Joe Camp says, stick with the science of the matter. Another study has come out linking the stabling of horses with increases in incidents of colic. Colic is the leading cause of death of adult horses. The healthier horses in the study were those who remained outside 24/7. The saddest part of this study is that it will not be publicized widely enough. The next saddest part is that it is necessary to do such a study in the first place.

Why doesn't everyone already know this? Because there is no money to be made in telling people that natural horse care works and is the only humane way to care for horses. Stables, supplements, expensive tack and gear--none of these are about horse health. Their sole purpose is to produce income for the hucksters that peddle them.

The Devil invented stables because he could not get horses to smoke cigarettes.

Eqqus Sapiens

2011-10-21T05:43:00.003-04:00

We are social animals. Humans cannot be happy without warmth, closeness, and friendship. The perverse irony, and the cruelest aspect of our existence, is that the loss of one who is close hurts much more than the gaining of another with whom one might be close. The result is not merely a zero sum game. That would be bad enough. The result is a game in which we always loose, because the pain of loss trumps the pleasure of gain.

I have no solution, only a strategy. The more people one cares about the more pain one is assured of having. However, the same is not true of horses. The only thing that a horse can do that causes me pain is to die, and that only happens once. The pleasure of becoming close to a horse trumps the pain of loosing one. The result is a game in which we have a chance at winning.

The bottom line is that one must be very careful about inviting anyone into your life that does not eat hay.

Immersion

2011-10-21T05:08:00.002-04:00

Here is a practical note for everyone involved in trying to teach kids to ride. The biggest problem that kids face in learning to ride is fear. Unfortunately modern society and the modern parenting model does nothing to help a kid overcome fear and instead encourages kids, especially boys, to admit fear and give in quickly. I suspect that one day we will find that this is one of the major causes of our epidemic of anxiety disorder among young adults.

Success trumps fear. However, if a kid only rides weekly it takes a long time to ring up enough successful, safe rides to over come that fear. I am in the early stage of a new scheduling system for young riders that is really encouraging so far.

I am working on a new model in which the kids ride as often as possible for a three week period so that the skill and confidence needed to become a safe rider falls into place in a month instead of nearly a year. So far I am seeing dramatic increases in skill level by riding several times a week. I am only in the first week of this experiment and if it continues to pan out I will use it for all new students.

The simple reality is that riding is very easy to learn. Heels lower than toes, toes in front of knees, sitting on your pockets, arms relaxed and not bent, back slouching and sagging, eyes focused on where you want to go, not where you are afraid that you will end up, escalate pressure until the horse responds then immediately release pressure, never pull both reins at the same time, "whoa" is produced by exhaling and gently pulling the left rein toward the left knee.

Visualize the perfect outline of a rider--an exhausted, chain smoking, alcoholic, old cowboy with tuberculosis is the outline that your horse prefers. Sitting up straight and rigid is for horse shows. Riding like we do is how horse show riders would look if the horses wrote the rules.

It is that simple--but nothing can be achieved while the kid is locked in terror. I may be on a path that unlocks the door for modern kids.

The methods used to motivate boys when I was little seem a bit out of place now. I cannot just say, "Shut up whining. If you think this is bad wait until you get bigger and the Viet Cong are pumping bullets at you."

(Raising boys was much simpler in the days before Phil Donahue and soccer).

A Sensible Plan

2011-10-20T05:46:00.003-04:00

A pretty young nurse was on her first shift with a nurse that had been around the ER a decade or two. The older nurse immediately gave the young women time worn advice.

"Listen, do not date any of the cops and the paramedics that you meet in here," she warned.

"No need to worry about that. My future husband is a farmer," the young nurse responded.

"That's interesting. Where does he live?," she asked.

The young nurse responded, "Well I have no idea. I have not met him yet."

The best news that I see on the educational front is that more young people are interested in agriculture. They are not interested in being a factory worker that treats livestock as if they were machines. They are interested in being part of a true culture of of growth and life. My daughter and her husband work very hard on their second jobs as horticulturists. She loves her egg operation. Last night they showed me their outlay for their advertising/marketing program for the spring. He was in the Peace Corp. They both have Masters degrees.

When my daughter was young I do not imagine that she ever had a dream to marry a farmer, but it is obvious that she is glad that she did.

I Just Might Have Been Wrong Again

2011-10-19T14:59:00.003-04:00

I might have to back off of my belief that there has not been a song composed since 1932 that was worth the trouble of tuning up before you play it. Hank Williams was a poet that came very close but his best work still does not fair well when put up against ancient songs that percolated through the mountains, like Pretty Polly, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and Angel Band. Bob Dylan put together some nice lyrics on occasion. Townes Van Zandt, Emmylou Harris, even John Denver all wrote songs that were nearly as good as the ancient ones.

But this computer is allowing me to walk back through time to find some lyrics from the late 60's and early 70's that are crisp, clean, laconic, and tell you enough to make you want to know the story behind words. His name was Gram Parsons. Drugs and alcohol silenced him, but not before he wrote "In My Hour of Darkness", a song that I just found that really hits home for anyone old enough to have lost people close to them. I knew who he was, but I did not know the quality of his lyrics. "In My Hour of Darkness" is among the best five songs that I have ever heard.

Which brings us to the topic at hand. Beginning the first Monday night in Novemeber I will be getting together with some of my little riders and showing them how to play a range of acoustic instruments,--- mandolin, banjo, dulcimer, autoharp and maybe a few more. Equally important, they will be learning the lyrics to the ancient songs and the rhythms of old time music. I expect that they will be learning a bit about Gram Parsons too.

The Little House is back now to what I want it to be--a place to relax and a cultural/ educational center. We have a first rate library of works on horsemanship. Art classes are held twice a month upstairs. Music will be going on weekly. Daddy thinks that the little house is about 120 years old. Momma was born in it.

It got a new lease on life. Turns out that it is a great place to listen to recordings of Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons.

The Corolla Wild Horse Fund Does Not Do Hospice Care

2011-10-19T08:08:00.002-04:00

The Wild Horse Fund is not an organization whose function is to help the wild horses go gently into that good night. It is not an organization whose only function is to pick up injured and dying horses and wring our hands about them while we watch the entire herd go extinct because of the machinations of bureaucrats.

The horses would be one step away from being gone, but for the work of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund and the strong leadership of its Executive Director. The struggle to save the horse has been long and hard. It will take longer and will get harder. Keep the faith. Support the Wild Horse Fund.

It Is The Relationship That Matters

2011-10-19T05:53:00.002-04:00

Let's just pause here for a moment and look at a training story. There are many different ways to approach natural horsemanship, but when done properly they all come back to the same thing--using forms of communication that the horse instinctively understands to tell the horse what you want it to do while developing the kind of relationship with the horse that makes the horse delighted to do what you want it to do. Some systems are simple. Some are layered and complex. Which ever system suits one best is entirely a function of one's personality. For example, many may take comfort in a very specific program that sets out very specific goals to be attained before one seeks to attain the next set of very specific goals. Such a system is not for me. I prefer a comfortable t shirt to a straight jacket in every case.

Danielle has become a first rate trainer using the same free style, play by ear methods that I use. This is her little mustang. Danielle can catch her, saddle her, ride her through whatever terrain or obstacles that are present, and return home safely. The horse had not been handled for quite a long time. Last night Danielle rode her as if the horse had been riding the woods every day for ten years. The last time that someone tried to get on the mare she blew up badly. Danielle could have chosen to focus on what had happened weeks ago and worried about whether the same thing would happen to her. She could have decided that the horse was simply dangerous and untrustworthy and chosen other horses to ride. She could have nervously mounted up, held her breath, squeezed tightly and hoped for the best.

Instead she found a safe place to mount up and did so with cool confidence. The horse responded just as she had when Danielle trained her over a year ago. She rode off with her head down, completely relaxed.

The mare would not have done that for anyone else, unless they conducted themselves exactly as Danielle did. Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 have their place, but the most important level is to have a level head. When she is training horses that is what Danielle has.

The Trouble With Treats

2011-10-17T03:25:00.003-04:00

Properly done, the use of treats is a great training aid. Used incorrectly treats can train a horse to be so dangerous that it is a threat to all people within its reach.

I have no concern that treats will "teach a horse to bite...become tools to bribe him... cause a horse to be disrespectful." Careful and planned use of treats causes neither disrespect nor biting and the entire concept of "bribery" is a peculiarly warped piece of anthropomorphising. (It is about the same as fearing that giving a horse additional hay will lead to the horse committing tax fraud.)

The first real problem is nutritional and that is simple to fix. If a company is willing to charge an outrageous enough price there will always be gullible horse owners out there who think that the product must be great for horses. No where is this demonstrated better than in the marketing of horse treats. Putting a few vitamins and minerals in a handful of sugar does not change the fact that it is a handful of sugar. Sugar is never a preferred source of calories for a horse and can be lethal to one that is insulin resistant and prone to founder (Founder is now the second leading reason that adult horses are put down by vets--and is making a strong effort to replace colic as the leading reason to end a horse's suffering).

Forget about the candified, junk food treats and simply use black oil sunflower seeds in the shell that are sold as bird feed. They are relatively high in protein, filled with good fat, and also contain some helpful vitamins and minerals. The treat, when given as a reward, need not be any more than five or six seeds at a time. This eliminates the possibility of choke and allows the horse to quickly swallow the treat and return its focus on the trainer instead of spending the next five minutes standing and chewing with a complete loss of focus on the task at hand.

The bigger problem is the effect that treats have on the trainer. The trainer can come to see their role as simply doing doing something that the horse approves of. In short, a completely inverted view of the training process. If I allow the horse to view me simply as a food delivery system, I will eventually begin to see myself in exactly the same light.

I cannot train a horse under those circumstances. I can feed him, but I cannot teach him. The horse, in order to feel secure and to develop a real relationship to me must see me not as a food delivery system but as an affection and discipline delivery system. Parelli is right with his emphasis on love and leadership. Leadership (discipline) can be easily undercut by the improper use of treats. I met a horse whose human interaction for several years consisted entirely of being released from the stable and at night being fed carrots. This was a domestic horse, yet was the most dangerous horse that I ever encountered. It was the only horse that I have ever given up on trimming its hooves. The last time that I was with him I had to walk backwards out of the pasture and fight him off of me with the hoof trimming stand.

That is what a life of all carrots and no correction can produce--a criminal horse.

The last problem with treats is the simple fact that there are 24 hours in each day. Every moment that I spend with the horses must be prioritized to get the most out of that time. Time that is spent shoveling sugar into a horse's mouth is time that is not spent providing the horse with companionship and affection. The horse does not need the treat to be emotionally healthy, but it does need physical contact. It needs time spent with the trainer rubbing its neck, standing very close by, while synchronizing his breathing with the horse

The horse does not need your candy, but it does need your time. I wince when people refer to horses as their children. As a society we do a remarkably bad job of raising children. I certainly do not want that to be the model for a horse/human relationship. Unfortunately, too many people train their horses the same way they raised their children. They demonstrate how much they love both by showing how much money they spend on them. Your child needs your time much more than he needs your money.

So does your horse.

Reality Versus Appearance

2011-10-15T06:47:00.004-04:00

Emily made a very telling observation about our program while a film crew was out last spring. We called for the kids to saddle up about six horses and get ready for some pictures of swamp riding. Kids grabbed horses, got out tack, brushed off any mud that might have accumulated where saddle or girth might go, and mounted up.

They did not spend hours (or even seconds) trying to make their horses look sparkly, shiny, and cute. They put their time on what was real, what mattered--getting their horses ready to be comfortably saddled and ridden in some very rough and wet terrain.

I have no problems with trying to make a horse look beautiful as long as it does not take away any time from making that horse actually be beautiful.

(Incidentally, neither Spicer nor Sea Biscuit spent any time in wardrobe or make up before this shot was taken yet they are about as elegantly beautiful as rare Spanish goats will ever be. There is a lesson there for my little riders that might consider putting on gobs of makeup. If you ever want to look as good as Spicer, put that eye liner down and run, don't walk, away from it.)