Friday, October 17, 2008

A Time to Reap, A Time to Sow

As darkness approached last night three of my little riders joined with three of my grown riders and we hand sowed a winter pasture across a few acres of our horse lots. One of the adults had mentioned her plans to come out and hand sow the pasture and was informed that that was not possible, that we would need tractors and equipment to get the job done.
We could have used tractors and equipment but it would have taken longer than it took for us, working together, to get the job done. It not only was not impossible, it was fun.
There are those out there who believe that it will never be possible to preserve the wild mustangs of North Carolina. They believe that we do not have the power to take on the tractors and equipment of the big developers and faceless bureaucrats.
This week those critics were proven wrong. The Corolla Spanish Mustangs received a new lease on life thanks to the hard work, done by hand, of Karen McCalpin, Director of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. Last Saturday my little riders showed participants at the national meeting of the Horse of the Americas Registry just how good our little horses can be.
My riders were all hand sowed, with no heavy promotions or big money behind their efforts to learn to tame and train wild horses. I am proud of the crop that they are becoming. If you wonder who will be out there looking out for these horses 40 years from now, go over to the Spanish Mustang Focus message Board and look at the post of Lifetime Rider, under the Strains thread. Lifetime Rider is Katelyn, a Corolla owner and one of my riders. I am so glad that she mentioned that she is 13 years old because the quality of her writing and the maturity of her thoughts could lead one to believe that she is an adult. Forty years from now, she will not be working by herself. Sarah Lin, Chance, Emily, Amanda, Jacob, Lydia, and all of my other riders who either own or love to ride a special Corolla will be there too.
All precious seeds. All sown by hand.

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