...were ridden by people of color and that is all the proof that proper Englishmen needed to know that pintos were inferior. The Irish and the rural poor often rode ponies. Therefore a proper mount for an English gentleman must tower over the ponies of those he considered his inferiors. The wild stallions, symbols of freedom, self reliance and unbridled sexuality,reminded the rural poor of their own bondage.
Throughout history horses have been accorded the social status of their riders. The horse of the poor need not be proven to be inferior. The proof of his inferiority was the fact that he was the horse of the poor. His actual ability and talents mattered no more than the actual ability and talents of his owners.
And still, even today, the mustang is viewed as too small, too violent, too lacking in pedigree and dignity to be the proper mount of the properly mounted equestrian.
But there are others who feel that merit matters and who are unwilling to scrape and bow to the dictates of the established horse world. We are subversive and we disrupt their sense of order and, worst of all, question their unquestionable right to be the final arbiters on all things equine.
The established horse world is peopled by naked emperors and the sight of a child taming and riding a wild mustang stallion reminds them of their lack of dress.
These are three beautiful Choctaw Colonial Spanish Horses, (or mustangs) or (Indian Ponies). They have incredible endurance, smooth gaits, are easy keepers, great hooves, naturally healthy, gentle and affectionate--- with "pedigrees" in America that go back centuries.
And not one of those facts requires the acceptance or approval of the established horse world to be true.
Merit matters.
It is wonderful to have these three Choctaws in our herd.
Pffft..pedigree..a word that sounds alot like the substance I scrape out of the white line of a hoof before it is trimmed.
ReplyDeleteA pedigree that I can live with is knowing that my horse is descended from a big mustang named Buckshot, Another named Barbwire, and a whole bunch of slots in the registration form that simply say "Bookcliff" or "Chaco," whatever range these horses came from, they are survivors. Never mind That Snow on Her's Sire is a fairly accomplished dressage horse..he was a survivor first.
A horse that lives in a fancy stable has no option other than to meet his owner at the door...a horse that has a herd and all sorts of room to move that meets you at the gate is worth more to me than all the paper that has ever had a pedigree printed on it would cost...
I did not know much about Choctaws until Joey and Twister arrived..and now Sacred Man has joined them..
It is said that what you give a horse is amplified and given back to you, be it good or bad..
I think that we, in this blog, have established the the Spanish Colonial horse, in all his varied, multicultural splendor is a very good thing indeed..
That is what a Choctaw horse seems to me..a mustang, amplified and giving back.. -Lloyd