On Becoming a Swan

I did not want Porter. I saw absolutely no reason to take on a young, small, Corolla gelding. As has happened so often, Rebecca was firm in her conviction that we should take him and she was proven right again.

I never paid much attention to Porter. He was small, bland, and could go completely unnoticed in even the smallest of herds. Like most Spanish mustangs he has proven to be a very slow grower. Between ages two and five he has grown a full hand. He is tolerant of the mistakes of young riders, and is both sweet and sluggish in nature. For the past two years he has carried smaller riders hundreds of miles through the woods.

This summer something happened to him. He not only grew, he matured. He stopped being gangly and awkward. He carries himself with a bit of dignity and for brief moments projects a sense of what the ancient Greeks called gravitas.

This week I began riding him. He is a calm, reliable mount but is unrefined and will benefit greatly from being ridden by an experienced rider who can work on flexion, collection and lightness. He is becoming quite handsome.

I have been bothered recently by something about his looks. He is distinctly different in appearance from my other Corollas, yet looked so very familiar to me. Yesterday, while looking through some old photos I learned why.

He is growing into the spitting image of Son of Sailor, a Corolla/Shackleford stallion who spent most of his life on the Wyoming range at the Cayuse Ranch. He provided much of the genetics for what became known as the east/west cross, a line of spectacular Spanish mustangs produced by breeding the Spanish mustangs of the southeast to Spanish mustangs of western lineage. (Uncle Harley, the 2009 HOA Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year, owned by Jacob Anderson, one of my best riders, is a product of that breeding program.)

Porter is maturing from being an ugly duckling into a beautiful Swan. I had under estimated him.

One should never underestimate a Corolla.

(Werowance, the little colt shown here during last winter's perpetual rains, is a half Corolla who will also be a swan. His father is Croatoan and he is as gentle and teachable as his father.)