When Internships Work

...they benefit teacher and student. Samantha Patterson is a first rate horse trainer. She was very, very good when she came to me. She is better now. I hope that some of that improvement came from working with us.

She embraces the core of what I believe--that concepts matter more than specific techniques, that each horse is an individual, that control without affection is as worthless as affection without control, that the horse learns best when calm and only learns the really important things when he is dead calm, and that putting kids and horses together is important.

All of the best young trainers that I have seen have one thing in common, total control of their emotions when working a horse. Never have I worked with a person with more self control. If she had fear of any of the horses that she worked with me, I never saw it--and more importantly, the horse never saw it. Part of her confidence comes from the fact that she rides as naturally as does a horse's mane--both are on the horse to stay regardless of what twists and turns the horse might make.

How good is she? She is the only person that I have ever paid to train a horse that I was getting nowhere with (and it took her about three weeks to get the mare completely safe.)

Like several of my big girls, she has been a great role model for my little girls in more ways than how to sit on a horse. She is kind, caring and has a deep and abiding faith that keeps her from floundering around in confusion as happens with so many other young ladies her age.

And I am going to miss her. She is taking the bold step of going to New Mexico along with her family where she hopes to work professionally as a horse trainer (and I hope) riding instructor. As much as I will miss her I am glad to see her taking a step like this--lights should not be hidden under bushel baskets.

And I will be able to get by without her. I am sure that there are many things with horses that I must be better at than her .

Let's see. I can dig post holes faster and....ah....ah...well I am sure that there are other things that modesty must just be keeping from my mind right now.

If you have a bad horse and live in the west--send her the horse--she will fix it.

The girl is as good as you are going to be able to find.