My white ancestors have been living near my horse lot since the mid 1600's. The farm has been in my immediate family line for well over 100 years.
A few years ago one of my uncles said, "Your Granddaddy Horace would have loved seeing all these kids and horses back here."
He was right.
I am in the middle of what is always the heaviest time of the year. Heavy enough so that yesterday when court was completed I went home and went to bed. As darkness approached I woke up and headed out to the horse lot.
Before my vehicle reached the tack shed I could see Chloe in the round pen working her new horse, Max, as her mother sat bundled in covers watching her progress. Barb was coming out of the pasture from being with Queen Jane. Jen had all ready left--trimmed a few horses and headed back to Portsmouth.
A small truck came up the path and Ethan and Ashley got out. Ethan caught Joseph and saddled up and Ashley tacked up our new mule, Belle. I got Holland and we headed out in total darkness for the young mule's first night ride.
Yes, this is a good use of this farm.
And there are thousands of farms all over America that could be used the same way--to make better kids, better horses and better communities. We will provide all the consulting services that we can at no cost to help farmers turn a little bit of their land into a place that their grand fathers would have loved to have seen.
Send this out to every farmer that you know.
They will love planting a program like ours on their land.
Pfft...Co worker just looked over my shoulder at this picture and asked if that big dude was going to ride that little horse..needless to say he is better educated now.
ReplyDeleteI never tire of telling people that we teach small children to gentle and train wild horses..the disbelief is palpable..then I break out the pictures...
In a perfect world..better than a hundred golf courses went belly up in the US this year..most of them would be prime real estate for such a program.
There are little programs simmilar to ours cropping up here and there, and I have yet to hear of one being less than successful. by successful, I mean making the lives of kids and horses better. Has nothing to do with financial success. Therein lies a rather profound rub. In a society which is ruled by a dollar, guess who suffers first and most..poor folks and poor kids. This is not only deplorable, it is immoral. As immoral as knowing you have a neighbor whose children go to bed hungry when you have a freezer full of food, and do nothing.
Elsewhere in this blog, you will find articles which speak of owning a Spanish horse, and the immorality of not sharing the gift of healing and that gentle bond of love that they bring, an article which brings up the subject of, "Above all else, do that which is right."
Share this around folks...we see, here, every day, the effect that working with these horses, seeing to their needs, learing about the horse, and by extension, ourselves has on the lives of children and people of challenged backgrounds..it is truly a beautiful thing. Make difference in the life of a horse, make a difference in the life of a child, one at a time. One horse, one child, may not mean much in the grand scheme of the world, but it will mean the whole world to that horse, that child. -Lloyd