Why We Get Hate Mail

A young reporter from a large regional paper has been spending a tremendous amount of time watching what we do in our programs. She has spent half a day on Saturdays for about six weeks. Yesterday we sat down and talked for the first time. She was shocked to learn that our program receives hate mail (actually hate email).

At first I was surprised too but now I see that those who attack us fall into several different categories with varying degrees of ill will.

Of course, there are the chronic trolls who attack for reasons that have nothing to do with the subject matter. I cannot help such people and simply disregard them.

There is another category of people that attack us that do so because they lack knowledge of the subject matter. These people are sincere, though misguided. I understand this group and if I did not know anymore about horses than they do I would be upset about our program.

For example, most people, including most experienced horse people have never seen a Colonial Spanish horse. They have utterly no understanding of the carrying capacity of these horses. They are shocked that well conditioned horses under thirteen hands can carry adults, especially for rides of as far as fifty miles with utterly no problem. They believe that the Corollas and other mustangs are in some discomfort or even pain when they do so. I do not blame these people. I had no idea how easily these horses carry adults when I first encountered them. The first time I went to a BLM auction I was shocked that anyone would suggest that these little mustangs who were only about 13.2 could possibly carry adults. My ignorance caused me to fail to obtain the only Sulphur mustangs that I will likely ever have a chance to get. Even more recently, I asked Tom Norush if the smallest Shacklefords could carry me. I was shocked that he told me that that would be no problem.

He was right. When I get on Wanchese I am still surprised at how easily he trots off for miles with me.

So while I do not like their tone, I understand that it is simple lack of knowledge that causes such people to suggest that I "be shot" for riding horses that they consider too small.

There is another group of people with their hearts in the right place that get themselves tied up in knots attacking our program. They do not understand the importance of breeding the Corollas domestically to prevent their extinction. They feel that the horses that we rehabilitate from serious injuries and illness in the wild are doomed to an existence like something out of teenage fiction about horses being abused by cruel trainers and people who over work them to the point of horrible cruelty. They think of these horses in our horse lot yearning in perpetual sadness to return to their life of carefree freedom. Some assume that our program must be somthing like a blm holding pen.

Were our horses incarcerated in stables and fed sugar and forced to wear crippling shoes, their concerns would be better placed. But our horses live outside 24/7, live in herd bands, eat grass and hay, never wear shoes and constantly given positive experiences with people. Yes my horses are stunningly healthy and happy. And no we cannot put them back in the wild because there is only a remnant of these horses in the wild and if one of these horses that has been exposed to modern horses and given medical treatment by vets carried a germ back into the wild for which the isolated wild horses had no immunity all would be lost.

Another category of critics are those that do not understand how unhealthy the modern model of horse care is and do not realize that they are living in a time when the importance of natural horse care is just starting to be known. It is rational for people who know no better to think that our horses should be blanketed, stabled, and kept obese. After all that is what people would want were we horses. Such people have not yet made the fundamental leap to understand that horses are not people and the lifestyle that humans desire is slowly toxic to horses. (Not very good for us either.)

The tide is turning on this point. Joe Camp has taken the lead in teaching both the importance of natural horse care and the cruelty of the modern model of stables, sugar, and shoes.

But I have little regard for the other category of critics that surface now and then--those of the established horse world who are completely stunned by my absolute refusal to accept them as the final arbiters on how horses should be trained and treated, what horses should be ridden and how people should be taught to ride. My utter refusal to pretend for the sake of diplomacy that there is any validity to their model of horse ownership infuriates such people.

I do not want the accolades of such people. If they think that our program stands diametrically opposed to how they would have things done. They are right.

Our program is designed to produce better horses but its main purpose is to produce better people. We teach natural horsemsnhip. We teach kindness. We teach compassion. We teach confidence and we teach courage.

When critics can show me that our program is failing to do so, then I will be concerned about their views.

( Now I am sweet natured, peaceful man. I fear that my granddaughter might not take such attacks with the same calm that I do.)