Now She Is Grown--But Lydia Was Not Always One of My Big Girls

Lydia and Owl Prophet

Owl Prophet, named for the Commanche holy man, was born to Ghost Dance and Wind in His Hair on Easter Sunday three years ago. He had a serious chill in the hours after his birth and nearly died. Luckily for him, Mill Swamp Indian Horses is a high tech, modern equine facility of the most sophisticated variety. As a result, I had my equine infant incubator on hand. I drove that Chevrolet Silverado incubator right on out to him and placed him inside the truck. I turned the heater heater up high and in about half an hour he was sitting up and happpily staring out of the window lookiing at Ghost Dance.

I doubt that Lydia had to be heated up in a truck after she was born, but aside from that they are quite a match. Both are lean, long legged,athletic and intense. Lydia is about 13 and has become a very good colt starter. She creates the appearance of having absolute control over her emotions, fear, anger, joy--they all look the same on her face. In fact, the only time that I have ever seen her appear angry was when I claimed to be funnier than her father. (Just a warning, if you meet Lydia I cannot be responsible for what she might do if you dare suggest that you are funnier than her father.)

Primarily becuase of her extreme self control, she instills trust and confidence in colts that few professionals could. Lydia is particularily skilled at getting terrified colts to step into and gently out of huge tractor tires. (Tire training has become an important part of our despooking program.)

Owl Prophet is a nervous, jumpy colt. Yesterday she lead him through the amusement park and gently handled him for about two hours. Later she saddled him without incident and mounted up as I lead him around the round pen for perhaps 15 minutes. He relaxed, yawned and walked around with his head lowered. Lydia will soon have him in the woods. He will be a super distance horse.

To the person who quite rudely questioned the worth of our horses, I suggest that you contact Lydia instead of any of my other riders/horse owners. She is much more likely to maintain her composure while discussing the matter with you. Just do not suggest that you are funnier than her father.

(Ghost Dance and Owl Prophet when he was a foal are depicted in the picture above.)

Posted by Steve Edwards

The Best Garment For Our Kind Of Riding

Ponchos and Serapes

For night riding and for all day riding when the weather is quickly changing I find no garment to be better suited than a poncho or, for very cold weather, a serape.

Ponchos of heavy horse blanket material shed briers and brambles quite well. As soon as we reach a clearing the poncho flips back over the shoulder to allow for riding in comfort in warmer weather. It works especially well for night riding in the woods for the same reason.

Horses need to be desensitized to the garments flapping in the wind before their use. A long serape flapping wildly in the wind can spook horses who have not been trained to them.

Completely aside from their wonderful function, riding in a poncho keeps one from taking the dangerous step of looking like everyone else. Looking like everyone else, as Mao-tse-Tung understood, leads to thinking like everyone else.

Thinking like everyone else leads to not thinking at all.

The Importance Of Preservation--Equine, Cultural, and Musical

 

 

 

I Would Just As Soon Not Die Like A.P. Carter.

For most of my life I have had two heroes, Abraham Lincoln and A.P. Carter. I have all of Lincoln's frailties but that is where the comparison must end. On the other hand, most of the rest of his world did not understand him, but A.P. Carter and I would have understood each other very well. We have a lot in common, both in our strengths and our flaws. Though he died just a few months after I was born he and I would make sense to each other.

I understand why he would hop in a car without a penny in his pocket accompanied by Leslie Riddle, a great young black musician with an impeccable memory for tunes, and ride over the mountains to learn and adapt ancient songs that would otherwise have been lost to the ages. He would understand why I would take on another wild corolla stallion, heal him and train him, so that he, and his breed will not be lost to the ages. A.P. and I both had adoring daughters who would, at times, simply shrug and say, "My Daddy is very peculiar man." He had utterly no interest in arranging the old songs that he preserved to make them more acceptable to the public. He "worked up" his songs until he had them the way that he and his family liked them and if the rest of the world was not sharp enough to pick up on the quality of his work, he felt that the loss was theirs. I would not have to explain to A.P. why I would be no more impressed with the approval of the established horse world than I would be if a mosquito paused to let me know that my blood was of the highest quality.

Sarah's voice was impeccable. Maybelle's guitar playing drew in the crowds. He had neither the vocal nor instrumental talent of his beautiful wife and his young sister in law. He did not mind putting them out front. He did not mind what spotlight there was being on them. He recognized his role. He simply was the genius that worked to collect and work up the songs that Sarah and Maybelle performed so well, as he occasionally "bassed in",as he called it. (A.P. was never constrained by vocabulary. When he needed a new word he created one. Hence, he referred to himself as a "songster" whereas Maybelle was a true "musicianer.")

When I was a young politician my life was not without excitement. As a 21 year old student at William and Mary I picked up the phone to be asked by the White House operator if I could stay by the phone because the President would like to speak with me and would be calling within the next five minutes. Being thanked by the President for the advice that I had given his campaign staff on putting together a successful caucus strategy for Virginia was heady stuff for a kid of that age. But my legs never felt weak. I could breath fine.

When I stepped into the museum at the Carter fold for the first time it hit me that I was really standing in the actual country store that A.P. Carter owned AND that I was talking to his daughter, Jeanette. My legs buckled. I could inhale fine, but exhaling was not as easy. Maybelle's guitar pick, Sarah's dress, A.P.'s shoes...this was more than my body was designed to handle.

A.P.'s music was his life and but for about a decade of that life the rest of America forgot him and set his music aside. Sarah divorced him and moved to California. Maybelle and her daughters moved to Nashville and became popular playing popular, current songs. A.P. went back home and opened a little country store and eked out a living. As his grandson Dale said, "It is hard to know that you are all so gosh darn famous when you don't have but two pair of pants."

A.P. died in 1960. The folk music craze had not taken off on college campuses as it soon would. A top rate professional banjo player could make more money as an electrician. When A.P. died he had no reason to hope that his music would not die with him.

But tastes are fickle. Three years later, Sarah and Maybelle were big draws at the Newport Folk Festival. When a young Bob Dylan met Johnny Cash the first thing that he said to Cash was "Did you know A.P. Carter?" Within a decade of his death the songs that A.P. worked all of his life to preserve became part of the repertoire of hundreds of blue grass and folk music groups all over the nation.

'Will the Circle Be Unbroken," "Keep on The Sunny Side," "Wildwood Flower," ...and over 300 more songs.

My point is simple. A.P. lived to be 69 years old. I doubt if I will live that long. It is my strong preference that there be enough Corollas preserved, both in the wild and in captivity, by the time of my death for me to die with a smile on my face.

Oh come on, what else do you have to do more important than making an old man happy?

Your Chance To Become Part of What We Do

Mill Swamp Indian horses is a program of the Gwaltney Frontier Farm. Gwaltney Frontier Farm is a 501 (c) 5 breed conservation program. We are a nonprofit organization with no paid staff. Our programs are run entirely by volunteers. Contributions to our program are not tax deductible.

With that said, I want to take a moment to discuss the programs that we run. We are primarily a breed conservation program that focuses on  the prevention of the nearly extinct Corolla Spanish Mustang. These horses are one of only two wild herds of Spanish mustangs left on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In our off-site breeding program we raise Corolla breeding stock and seek to place them with others who will continue the breeding of these horses.

Originally the Corolla's were the only horses that we sought to preserve. However, as a result of the success of our program, people interested in the preservation of other extremely rare strains of historic Colonial Spanish horses have asked us to take on horses of their particular strains in order to preserve and promote those horses. Such strains include the Choctaw's,  Grand Canyon's,  Shackleford's, and Galicenos.

For over a decade we have taught natural horsemanship and have taught children, teens, and adults to humanely train and ride formerly wild horses. Many of the participants in our program have adopted their own historic horses.

 We have never turned a family or person away for inability to pay program fees.

In the last decade our educational programs have expanded to include training programs and demonstrations in three states, countless on site training programs, the development of a significant library of educational material on natural horsemanship, natural hoof care, and natural horse care. We even present  living history programs depicting life in early colonial Virginia  performed in a replica of 1650's era colonial farm site where we also have other rare colonial livestock such as Spanish goats.

Our program is unique. Although we are not a therapeutic riding center, early on one we recognized the extraordinary healing power of horses. Many of the participants in our program have overcome significant challenges. We provide, at no cost, equine programming for patients residing at the local veterans hospital. The results are striking. Seeing the impact that this programming has on the patients is one of the most rewarding ways to spend time at our horse lot.

It is  not remotely an exaggeration to say that what we do changes lives. In fact, on many occasions I have had program participants bluntly tell me that our horses saved their lives.

Ashley Edwards, of the Road to Repair LLC, conducts two vitally important programs using our facility. Ashley is a survivor of horrific abuse. One of her programs is designed to use the horses to teach law enforcement, prosecutors, social workers, and all of those who are involved with communicating with people who have been through intense trauma, how to effectively use body language to facilitate that communication. The other aspect of her program bring survivors of trauma and abuse into direct contact with the horses in order to facilitate their healing.

Our horses are extraordinarily healthy and happy because they are able to live in herds, on as natural of the diet as possible, and to remain free of stables, sugary feeds, and shoes. We have over 17 acres of open pastures that are currently divided into 13 paddocks along with approximately 20 acres of  fenced in woods environment.


And here is where we need your help. The most significant improvement that we can make to the property is to develop a system of automatic waterers and an irrigation system for the drought times. This will require us to dig a deep (artisean) well.

During times of extremely dry weather we have to bring water in a large tank and distributed daily. It is not unusual that to take more than three man hours each day. It is quite labor-intensive. But we have always managed to get that done.

It is the irrigation that the system will provide that will be the most beneficial to our horses. With sufficient water and prudent use of organic fertilizers, subsoiling, and other permaculture practices we will be able to maintain pastures even during the driest months of the year. Doing so will reduce runoff, provide the horses with first rate forage, reduce our hay costs (our monthly hay bill is around $5,000.00 ) and enhance the beauty of our facility.

We anticipate this project costing between $13,000 and $15,000. We fund our program on monthly program fees. I pay for anything that we do not have sufficient fees to cover. In order to get this watering and irrigation system in place fundraising is necessary. Our Mill Swamp Indian Horses group Facebook page has 580 members at the moment. Our blog received over 6000 views last month. Those who regularly read the blog or a group Facebook page know that I have only touched on a fraction of the programs and activities that we provide for those who need it.

You can become part of what we do by mailing a check made payable to Gwaltney Frontier Farm, 16 Dashiell Drive, Smithfield VA 23430.

I Do Not Remember Writing This Old One At All--But It's As True Now As Then

Yesterday, When I Was Young So Many Happy Songs Were Waiting To Be Sung

Death is predictable. Life is not. Life today was filled with surprises. I got drenched during the morning riding and cancelled the afternoon rides as the rain showed no sign of letting up. I invited the riders to come to the Little House to watch riding and training videos. Been a while since I went through the collection there and I did not expect to find what I found.

In 2003 I made a video of the first saddling and riding of Wind In His Hair, a young Chincoteague stallion. It was in the stack. I started to set it aside and then I remembered that there might be something important in it.

The sound quality was poor because of the heavy wind. Wind In His Hair Looked stunning. I looked ridiculous with rib protectors too small and helmet too ugly. (Quite a shock though to notice that I was wearing the same pants in the video that I have on today.)

None of that was what made the video matter. I doubt if I have seen it since about 2005. My memory shot back to that filming and I thought that I remembered something about Lido roping fence posts in the background of the video. After a while we were able to get the video up and playing. It was pleasant to see.

Not only was Lido in the back roping fence posts at about age ten, he appears significantly in the final section when the mounting occurs. At one point I am thinking out loud as to whether Wind was calmed enough for me to hop on him. I could hear Lido off camera saying "I say do it."

It was the first time that I had heard his voice since December 28, 2008, the night before he died.

It sealed a great deal of indecision that I had been going through about our program. I had come to believe that I needed to spend much more time on technical riding instruction and perhaps needed to incorporate more of some of the big name clinician's techniques into how we start colts and wild horses. In short, I was working towards making our program more conventional.

Nope. Over the years we have started around forty colts and wild horses. Our methods have not injured a horse. The number of injuries that my riders have had over the years is minuscule when one considers the number of miles that we ride, that most of them started their own horse under my direction, and that the majority of my riders are young kids.

I taught Lido how to ride and cerebral palsy made it so that only about half of his body was of any great use to him. I taught him to listen to a horse's body and he learned to hear it every bit as well as I can.

There are a plenty of other instructors out there that can follow any teaching model that they want to, but I am sticking to my very simple model.

The best way to learn to ride is to ride--to ride regularly, great distances, to the point of exhaustion until fatigue whips anxiety.

ColoniaL Spanish Horse Strains of the Southeast

Bankers, Tackies, and Crackers

That  is a list of the three primary strains of Colonial Spanish Horses that were developed in the southeast by European Americans.I am often asked how the three are related.

DNA is a precise science. Understanding history is an art. In my entire wardrobe there is not one lab coat. I am not a scientist. My unscientific impression is as follows.

The Bankers are, of course, the strain of Spanish mustang that was bred and used on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They are small, sturdy, gaited,(though their gaitedness is not as obvious as, say, a Paso Fino), super calm and tractable, with levels of endurance that dwarf that of modern breeds. They seem to have very few non-Spanish bloodlines, perhaps among the fewest of all Colonial Spanish strains. Recent research by Bonnie Gruenberg for her spectacular book, " Wild Horse Dilemma" shows that in the late 1700's and earl 1800's it was common for Colonial Spanish horses developed b the tribes of the southeast such as the Seminole, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Cherokee to be bred into the Banker strain.

 

These horses remain wild only on the Island of Shackleford and at Corolla.

The Marsh Tackies are wonderful horses that are likely to be very closely related to the Bankers. They share the Banker's temperament and are so calm that they are used to jump shoot deer in the marshes while carrying shotgun bearing riders. My hunch is that from perhaps as early as the 18th century they carry the lines of the now extinct English Hobby. The Tackies are endangered but thanks to a group of dedicated breeders and the American Livestock Breed Conservancy there is reason to be optimistic about the breed's long term survival.

The Florida Cracker Horse was once the horse of working cattlemen all across Florida. This strain of Colonial Spanish horse has been selectively bred for many generations. They are more pronounced in their gaitedness and have a more refined look than do the Bankers. They are sturdy and border on being elegant. From my very limited exposure to the strain it appears that they are not as calm natured as are the Bankers.

All of these great lines of historic horses are endangered, but it is the Bankers that are most at risk. Without passage of legislation pending in Congress there is no hope of maintaining a wild Corolla herd.

Posted by Steve Edwards

Ashley's Award Winning Poem From A Few Years Ago

Ashley Edwards, my youngest daughter, won the international Voice For the Horse poetry competition for her poem about Cyclops, the one eyed ancient stallion who rested  easy in our pastures for his final years. His eye was gouged out while he was still a foal. He went on to become one of the dominent stallions at Corolla for many years. I met him in 2008 when he was still wild. he kept himself between us and his mares every moment that we were there. This winter my brother watched as he ran a large coyote out of the pasture. 

 

While wild he sired Manteo, Baton Rouge, Samson, and Skyco.

      

To See Through My Eye

These naked horses that stand on two hooves
And cover their nakedness with colorful things,
How ugly they can be.
These naked horses that bare their teeth in happiness,
And copy the songs of the birds,
How strange they are to me.
These naked horses who come as they please,
And tear the land apart,
How destructive they seem.
These naked horses who came up to me
And shoved their hooves toward my mouth,
How scary they were to me.
These naked horses from whom I ran away,
They chased after me;
How mean they have become.
These naked horses gave me no place to go;
I run up an incline with gaping holes; these things called ‘stairs’,
How frightening this is to me.
These naked horses that cornered me are nowhere to be seen.
I turn and the holes in the incline look so dark;
How deep they look to me.
These naked horses made me jump over the side,
And I land in agony; this cylindrical thing sticking out of the ground;
What pain it has caused me.
These naked horses are now out of my thoughts,
And now all I can think of is this blinding pain;
Half of me cannot see…
If you could see through my eye.

This painful journey is about to begin;
Though I am young I must deal with this demi-blindness,
How new this is to me.
This painful journey is one I am not yet taking alone;
I have my mares with me for comfort, and I make use of this.
This painful journey has its blinks of joy,
And I bring to the land many handsome children;
How wonderful they are to me.
This painful journey, how fast it blurs by!
I am getting old, and all I want is to be alone;
How quiet I wish things could be.
This painful journey has taken me up north,
Away from the sand and water I once knew;
How different this place is to me.
This painful journey makes the years pass swiftly,
Full of fights for food and home, and this lump near my front hoof;
How tough this all has made me.
This painful journey is becoming old and dull;
I return South to the old shores but I am not as young as I was,
How old and weary this all has made me.
This painful journey comes to an end,
And I have no fear left in me when I see the naked horses again;
How tiring this has become to me…
If you could see through my eye.

This new beginning comes by in a surprising way;
I am tricked into a silver box that moves,
How still fear has made me.
This new beginning starts when the silver box opens up,
And I gallop out onto a green field;
How beautiful this is to me.

These naked horses, they fix up my wounds,
Though they hurt for a while, and the lump grows back, I heal slowly and am happy;
How ponderous they are to me.
These naked horses gave me a place with others of my kind,
And I can eat and think about the old days, and am at peace…
If you could see through my eye.

A Post For Equine Progam Managers Only--The Sun Is Not Really Burning Out

Hurts more than the kids realize, more than you can realize when you are 12 years old. When I get home on Saturday I am often in significant pain. When I come in after a heavy Sunday afternoon I am always in significant pain. Yesterday came the added bonus of realizing that I seem to have mildly fractured my thumb during the latter part of the week. I am coming to grips with the fact that we have so many new participants that many of them will become good riders before I can be counted on to remember their names. Spent so much time teaching and working things out that I only rode about seven miles yesterday.

Bottom line--went to bed beaten down and absolutely worn out. Slept until nearly 4:00 this morning and came in to begin the morning's correspondence on the computer.

First thing that I see is a simply worded, powerful note from a program participant letting me know the impact that the program, and yesterday in particular, has had on her.

Made my thumb feel better--feels good enough to type this post!

If you are an equine professional and your program is not giving you the satisfaction that you hoped for,---- or if you have been thinking about developing a program-----go to the Mill Swamp Indian Horses group face book page--scroll through and look at what goes on at the horse lot (not the business page, the group page).

What we do is not magic, but the results that we get are.

And what we do is not hard to replicate. And what we do can be done anywhere there are horses and people. And what we do should be going on all over the country.

And if you put a program like this together it will leave you absolutely worn out.

But not burned out.

(The rider shown above was not the one who sent the the note over night, but these pictures were just to good to ignore)

To Learn, To Teach, To Ride

The best way to learn to ride is to ride. If one defines good riding as the ability to ride in a manner that is comfortable for the horse and the rider, at all speeds, in all terrain, in all weather, day or night, for hours upon hours on end, while using the lightest of cues--- it is the only way to learn to ride. Our "system" of teaching is based on the student first coming to understand the horse--his fears, his motivations, and what brings him pleasure (unfortunately in the established horse world only a minute percentage of riders ever reach this level of understanding). The student next learns the way to best sit in the saddle to allow for comfort for the horse and rider and to keep in that saddle. The final instructional point is to learn to administer cues to the horse with perfect consistency. When the student understands the principles set out above the only thing left to do is to ride far enough and often enough to embed these lessons deep in both the brain and the muscle.

 In this video we are returning from a ride that was over fifteen miles in the woods. The entire ride was nearly exclusively trotting and cantering with walking only when necessary as a result of the ground conditions. Several of these riders were novices. Many had never trotted a horse an entire mile before. The ride included several mares and three stallions. The overwhelming majority of these horses were either born in the wild or were no more than two generations from the wild. Every horse on the ride was gentled and trained by the riders in our program for the past decade. The youngest rider is eleven the oldest two are over fifty five. This is what is possible when instruction is based on taking all of the mystery out of riding (it truly is simple) and working hard to understand the only real mystery that matters-- the mind of the horse.

The saddest part of all of it is that the established horse world is so blinded by the pursuit of profit and the mad dash for conformity that when looking at this video all it will see is a rag tag army of riders and horses that it can make no money off of.

Spend Some Time Thinking About This Point If You Want Your Horse To Be Proud of You

Among equine professionals one will find the full panoply of human virtues and vices. One will find successful breeders and traders who are deadly honest and some who are utterly lacking in integrity. One will find great riders, some kind and generous and some cold and miserly. One will find highly successful barn managers, some who care deeply about their horses and some who do not care at all.


But you will never, ever find anyone who is truly great at taming wild horses or starting colts who is filled with hatred. Nor will you ever, ever find one who is truly great at taming wild horses or starting colts who is filled with anger and selfishness.

Some things cannot be faked and sincerity is one of those things. If you find it impossible to gain the trust of horses look deeply into your soul.

Chances are the horse has noticed somethings about you that you need to work on.

(And this little girl is one who gentled horses with her own gentleness)

The Registries--HOA, AIHR, SMR, and SSMA--Circles Within Circles

Sorting out the registries is complicated. While I have little patience with experienced riders not knowing the history of the various strains of Colonial Spanish horses, I do understand the confusion about the registries.

I am not going to get into the history behind the registries, nor am I going to get into the various personalities and conflicts behind the development of each registry.

The Spanish Mustang Registry is the oldest of the registries for these horses. In order for horse to be registered in the Spanish Mustang registry both parents must be registered in that registry.

The American Indian Horse Registry was formed a few years later. The American Indian Horse Registry seeks to recognize horses of the type used by American Indians and modern breeds whose genetics go back to those horses. There are several categories within the American Indian Horse Registry. For a horse to be classified as "o" it must be an original Colonial Spanish horse. That means that it must be registered, or its parents must be registered, with the Spanish Mustang Association, the Southwest Spanish Mustang Association, or the Horse of the Americas registry. Horses in the "m" category are those from modern breeds whose roots are traced back to Colonial Spanish horses. The most obvious example of such horses are Paints.

The Horse of the Americas Registry is an umbrella registry that seeks to bring together all Colonial Spanish Horses. A horse may be registered with the Horse of the Americas registry if it is registered with the Spanish Mustang Association, the Southwest Spanish Mustang Association, the American Indian Horse Registry as an original, or if both of his parents were registered with the Horse of the Americas Registry. Of vital importance to the strain the conservation movement, the Horse of the Americas registry recognizes that there are still small pockets of colonial Spanish horses existing wild or in isolated breeding programs. As an umbrella registry the horse of the Americas registry recognizes the Marsh Tacky, the Florida cracker, and the Galeceno.

The Southwest Spanish Mustang Association recognizes colonial Spanish horces with Tobiana markings. As such, many of the Choctaw and Gilbert Jones horses are in the the Southwest Spanish Mustang Association registry.

Now to take a few simple examples from our herd, Snow on Her is a Spanish Mustang Registry horse. That means that she is also eligible to be registered with the Horse of the Americas registry and the American Indian horse registry in the  "original" category.

Hickory wind is a Marsh Tacky. Therefore she is eligible to be registered with the Horse of the Americas registry. By doing so she also becomes eligible for registration in the American Indian Horse Registry as an "original". The same is true of our Galeceno.

Joey, a Choctaw, is registered in the Southwest Spanish Mustang Association, the Horse of the Americas registry, and as a result is eligible to be registered with the American Indian horse registry as an "original".

Chincoteague's started out as pure colonial Spanish horses but over the centuries have had many several modern breeds mixed in with them. As a result, a Chincoteague is eligible for registration with the American Indian horse registry but not as an "original". All of our half Chincoteague horses are eligible for registration in the American Indian horse registry but are not eligible for registry in any of the other colonial Spanish horse registry.

Legacy's father is a pure Corolla and his mother was a registered modern Appaloosa. As such his mother would have been eligible for registration with the American Indian horse registry in the "modern" classification and his father is registered as an American Indian horse registry "original". This means that he is eligible for registration with the American Indian horse registry but none of the other colonial Spanish horse registries because his mother was a modern horse.


I urge everyone to go to the websites for the various registries in order to study their histories and understand the purpose of each registry.

I also urge everyone, before the end of this month, to join both the Horse of the Americas Registry and the American Indian Horse Registry. I also hope that each of you will make sure that your horses are registered in every registry for which they are eligible and to seek awards from those registries.

My 2009 Interview With Author Joe Camp

Joe Camp

Perhaps one of the clearest voices in the natural horse care movement is Joe Camp, author of "The Soul Of a Horse." I am delighted to present his interview today.

Joe, I have to say right off of the bat that Buck Brannam's, "The Far Away Horses," has been my favorite horse book since it first came out, but I believe that you topped it with "Soul of the Horse." I find many adults in their forties and fifties, coming into the horse world for the first time. What does your book have to say to those people who might become discouraged and maybe even feel like they have bit off more than they can chew?

Joe – IT IS ALL WITHIN YOURSELF. YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU DESIRE IF YOU FOCUS AND GIVE YOURSELF THE ADVANTAGE OF MILEAGE. TIME SPENT WITH YOUR HORSES LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND AND COMMUNICATE WITH THEM. TOO MANY FOLKS WANT RELATIONSHIPS TO BE AUTOMATIC, WHETHER WITH HORSE OR PEOPLE. DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. TIME NEEDS TO BE COMMITTED TO MAKE THEM WORK. EVERY HORSE ON THE PLANET WANTS TO BE IN RELATIONSHIP. IT’S ALL UP TO US. COMMIT TO THE MILEAGE.

Your book deals with natural horsemanship, natural hoof care, and natural horse care as a total package for modern horsemanship. Do you find much resistance to your strong endorsement of natural hoof care and natural horse care among today's established horse world?

Joe – OF COURSE. BUT THE RESPONSE IS SCIENCE. I DON’T PROMOTE MY “OPINIONS” OR “PHILOSOPHIES”. I TALK SCIENCE. EVERY HORSE ON THE PLANET IS GENETICALLY THE SAME. WILD OR SO-CALLED “DOMESTIC”. THEY’VE BEEN ON THIS EARTH FOR 52+ MILLION YEARS. AND WE WOULD’VE NEVER KNOWN HORSES IF MOTHER NATURE HAD NOT GIVEN THE HORSE THE GENETICS TO SURVIVE. FOR A PREY ANIMAL, A FLIGHT ANIMAL, THAT MEANS GREAT FEET TO FLEE FROM PREDATORS. HORSES IN THE WILD DO NOT HAVE HOOF PROBLEMS. ONLY HORSES WITH METAL SHOES, IN STALLS, EATING SUGAR, AWAY FROM THE HERD, LIVING COMPLETELY OPPOSITE THE WAY THE HORSE WAS GENETICALLY DESIGNED TO LIVE HAVE HOOF PROBLEMS. AND STRESS PROBLEMS. AND ALL KINDS OF HEALTH PROBLEMS.

If we are going to continue to draw new people into horse ownership, what changes do think need to be made to our modern model of riding lessons, shows, expensive horses, and even more expensive horse products?

Joe – I WOULD LIKE TO SEE FEWER PEOPLE COMING INTO HORSE OWNERSHIP, ELIMINATING THOSE WHO ONLY WANT HORSES TO USE AS A TOOL, ONLY WANT HORSES TO PROMOTE THEIR OWN EGOS. I’D LOVE TO LIMIT HORSE OWNERSHIP TO THE FOLKS WHO ACTUALLY CARE FOR THE HORSES THEY OWN. AND WHO HAVE TAKEN THE TIME TO LEARN ENOUGH TO THEREBY KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT THEM TO ACTUALLY ALLOW THEM TO LIVE AS HORSES SHOULD LIVE. THE “MODEL” THAT YOU MENTION IS NUTS. THE “MODEL” SHOULD BE: THIS IS A LIVING, BREATHING BEING WHO WANTS DESPERATELY TO BE IN RELATIONSHIP AND WANTS ONLY TO LIVE AS HE WAS DESIGNED TO LIVE.

Your book has a mythical thread running through it that begins with a Shackleford horse. Why did you select a Shackleford to represent the genesis of horses in the new world? Where on earth had you even heard of a Shackleford?

Joe – I’M A STUDENT OF OUR EARLY COLONIAL DAYS AND PRE-COLONIAL DAYS IN THIS COUNTRY. I’VE SPENT A LOT OF TIME IN WILLIAMSBURG AND ACTUALLY BEEN TO SHACKLEFORD BANKS.

Besides Monte Roberts, what other horse trainers and clinicians impress you?

Joe – IT’S ALL IN THE BOOK AND IN THE RESOURCES SECTION. ALL THE GOOD ONES ARE MERELY TRYING TO TAKE YOU TO THE POINT WHERE YOU CAN FIGURE THINGS OUT FOR YOURSELF. NOT ONE OF THE CLINICIANS I STUDIED EVER STUDIED THE DVDS AND BOOKS OF OTHER CLINICIANS. YOU GET THE BASICS, THE UNDERSTANDING, THEN YOU NEED TO BE LETTING THE HORSES BE YOUR TEACHERS.
All of my riders are human and that means that all of my riders have problems in some aspects of their lives. The full title of your book is The Soul of a Horse: Life's Lessons From the Herd. What are those lessons? Which of them are the most important?

Joe – THE LESSON MOST IMPORTANT I THINK IS: WE LEARNED THAT TO BE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HORSE WE HAD TO GET OVER ON HIS END OF THE LEAD ROPE. TO LEARN WHAT HE MIGHT WANT OUT OF THIS RELATIONSHIP, AS OPPOSED TO WHAT WE WANTED OUT OF IT. TO DETERMINE WHAT HIS DESIRES AND EXPECTATIONS WERE. AND ISN’T THAT THE WAY WE SHOULD APPROACH ALL OF OUT HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS AS WELL?

Agribusiness giants and the established horse world cannot make money off of natural hoof care and natural horse care. Will their economic interests be strong enough to forever keep natural hoof care and natural horse care out of the main stream?

Joe – THAT DEPENDS UPON US. WILL WE LET THAT HAPPEN? WILL WE, WHO CARE FOR THE HORSE AND HIS HEALTH AND HAPPINESS, HAVE MORE IMPACT THAN THOSE WHO ONLY WANT TO USE THE HORSE AS A TOOL? THE SOUL OF A HORSE IS CURRENTLY NOT BEING SOLD IN MOST TACK AND FEED STORES BECAUSE THEY READILY SAY THAT I AM ADVOCATING AGAINST THE PRODUCTS THEY SELL. THEY’RE WRONG OF COURSE. I AM ADVOCATING ONE THING ONLY: THE HORSE IS A LIVING BREATHING COMPASSIONATE BEING. GIVE HIM THE LOVE, CARE AND RESPECT THAT YOU YOURSELF DESERVE.

For Your Breeding Program

Corollas, Choctaws, Shacklefords, and so many other historic strains of Colonial Spanish horses teeter on the brink of extinction. Breeding these horses and getting novices involved in riding them is their only hope for the future. It is a tall order for lifelong members of the established horse world to  be able to recognize the value of the small horses upon whom this nation was built. It takes a strength of character that too few people exhibit to do so. That is why bringing novices who are not crippled from the weight of carrying such baggage into horse ownership is so important.

Natural horsemanship, natural horse care, and natural hoof care give us healthier, happier horses who are affordable for working families.

Bloody Knife, the little filly shown above, will soon be going to a new home in Carolina where she will grow up to be part of the network of breeders that work to prevent the extinction of these horses. Poncho, is growing into a beautiful Corolla colt and will be a stunning stallion. He awaits placement with a family or a breeder that will keep him as a stallion, and train and ride him so that he becomes an ambassador for the breed and the sire of scores of foals over his lifetime.

Contact us if you want to raise yesterday's horses for tomorrow's riders and  be part of preserving this integral part of America's history.

But Don't We Have To Kill The Horses To Keep Something Bad From Happening To Them?

Whoever Said it Had a Good Point

My memory has dulled a bit. I cannot remember if it was Lincoln or Fredrick Douglas that said, "I hear many that speak of the virtues of slavery, but I find none who would volunteer to be a slave."

Horse slaughter advocates that claim that we need to kill horses to keep something bad from happening to them seem to me to make the same moral equivocations.

If a humane horse owner supports horse slaughter because of all of the neglect claimed to happen without it, would it not be a more humane and virtuous stance to take to offer up all of your horses that, after all have had such good lives, to the slaughter house and replace each of them with horses from rescue operations? That would free up more space in the rescues. Doing so doubles the number of horses that have an opportunity to have years of good lives. Seems like a more humane trade off than simply killing those that you have deemed neglected, which will not increase the number of horses that have had the opportunity to have a good life. This must be so, unless you find slaughter so appealing that you find the value of a good death to equal that of a good life.

The return of horse slaughter will give those of you who cry such crocodile tears over the fate of the neglected horses a chance to really demonstrate how much you care. Put your daughter's show pony on a slaughter bound truck and replace it with a neglected horse. Now there is a win-win, for everyone! I mean you do really care about all of those neglected horses don't you? I understand that you cannot save them all. I understand that you cannot even afford to take in even one neglected horse. But therein lies the beauty of horse slaughter's return. After you allow each of your horses to make that one last road trip you will have room to give a great life to a neglected horse that you now have room for. And think of all the  Belgians you will be making happy by giving them the opportunity to enjoy high quality American horse meat. So if you really love your horse, don't give him treats. Help make him into one!

This is a great solution, unless you are one of those that merely preaches the virtue of slaughter with out being willing to volunteer to offer up your horses to the blood factories. You need to act now. We certainly cannot expect those that run rescue facilities to take up the slack by emptying their pastures of horses. Obviously they do not care as much about neglected horses as do you or they would be on the forefront fighting to bring back the horses best friend, the slaughter house.

Morality only becomes difficult when one seeks to actually apply it.

Our PTSD Program With The Local Veterans Hospital

Kay Kerr has been involved in art and recreational therapy for most of her adult life. She has been riding with me for many years and is employed at the Hampton Veterans Hospital.A few years ago she began to develop a program that allowed patients in the PTSD program to come out and work with our horses.

The program could not be more simple. We bring out  three horses and participants spend about 10 minutes simply brushing the horses and detangling their manes. After they have relaxed and become accustomed to the horses I take one of the horses into the round pen and do a round pen demonstration that focuses simply on moving  the horse in different directions.

Eventually the horse works its way in towards me and stays closely attached to me as I proceed around the ring. I explain to the participants that the horses are  prey animals and as such are constantly seeking security. I explained that, unlike predators, the desire for security greatly outweighs any desire for autonomy or excitement. I explained how the horses communicate with each other using the body language of prey animals. After pointing out that humans instinctively use the body language of predators I illustrate how much that body language disturbs horses.

I then  casually mention that people who have been severely traumatized are often deeply disturbed when confronted with the body language of predators. I further explain that those who have been severely traumatized often relax and respond much better to the body language of prey animals.

I do not have to dwell on this point. In fact, I find it much easier to explain the importance of prey animal body language to participants with PTSD than it is to explain that same body language to people who have been active with horses all of their lives but have not been exposed to natural horsemanship.

Participants are then given the opportunity to come into the ring, move the horse around the round pen, often changing directions, and then inviting the horse to come in and latch on to them because of the leadership that they have shown.

It is that simple.

The results are often dramatic. Of course, the horse serves as a wonderful diagnostic tool. The horse will not respond to a person who does not demonstrate leadership. The horse will not respond to a person who is overly aggressive. The horse does not respond well to anyone filled with anxiety.

I am not a psychologist. However, it is obvious to me that for any form of counseling treatment to be effective it is necessary for the patient to be able to trust someone, or something, in that patient's life. Many of the participants have lost trust in every human they know. With just a short amount of time in the round pen many of the same patients begin to develop a degree of trust with the horse. Even if they have never touched a horse before in their life.

Many of the participants have lost the ability to view themselves as leaders. When they see an 800 pound horse, especially one that was once a wild horse, not only following their direction, but developing trust and exhibiting affection towards them their self image is altered.

I do not believe that these programs are a miraculous cure-all. However, I am absolutely convinced that for many of the participants the program opens the door for them to more effectively participate in the other treatments and counseling programs that they are receiving.

Participants generally get out of the van during their first trip to the horse lot looking quite unsure of themselves. Some of those same people, within an hour, open up and tell me of extremely personal and painful experiences they have had. Many of them make it quite clear that they are fealing hope and peace when working with our horses to a degree that they have never felt before.

And it is all this simple. We do not charge the participants any fee for this program. We do not charge the veterans hospital any fee for this program. This program could be replicated all across the country.

This program should be replicated all across the country.

Those who have never seen the program in action might have a hard time understanding what is going on. This is not recreation. The participants do not simply come out to have fun and relax. Working with the horses can be a life altering experience for anyone. Working with the horses is highly likely to be a life altering experience for anyone who has suffered profound trauma.

It is exciting and inspiring to simply sit back and watch this program happen. But if in addition to that one could also hear the things that the participants whisper to me about the impact that they are seeing in themselves from spending such a short time with the horses, one would understand why we enjoy providing this program so much.

In a later post I'll go into detail about a great program that Ashley Edwards, of Road To Repair, has developed called "The Other Side" that involves a more intensive program of healing with horses that focuses on participants who have survived sexual assault.

Our program began as an effort to save endangered horses. That is still a focus of everything we do, but over the years we have learned that our horses can save endangered people.

That is the most rewarding part of what we do.

Training for Riding: It's More Fun When It Does Not Hurt

It will require the help of parents, but this year there will be much more pressure on our riders to increase both their level of aerobic fitness and strength in order to become better riders, safer riders, more confident riders, and healthier people.

The best exercise for riding is to ride and ride and ride--trotting, gaiting and with the occasional canter thrown in. Brief amounts of barefoot jogging, conventional circuit weight training, posting on a large inflatable ball, planks and wall sits, farmer walks, pounding a heavy bag and best of all, kettle bell work outs are the best ways to build the power and endurance that will make you a better rider.


And a safer rider. I am not , nor have I ever been, a great athlete. But I remain strong for man of my years. Most of the time that I remain in the saddle during hard spooks or bucks it is because of two things--my body is properly situated in the saddle and I am strong enough to stay on.

A fourteen minute tabata session three days a week will make riding much easier. A fourteen minute kettle bell session with a light kettle bell is even better for riding.

There really is no down side to being in good physical shape. If parents simply removed all electronic devices from teens until after they finished their daily work out sessions the kids would snivel and whine for a while but after about two months they will have to grudgingly admit that they feel and look much better.

This might cause some of our riders to leave the program but this year we are going to produce better young riders who will grow into stronger and healthier adults.

For You, Your Horses, and All Horses

Today is the day to decide to do the best thing that you can for yourself, your horse and for horses in general. A key to reducing the number of horses who are slaughtered is to increase the number of people who ride. Novices need not only to know that they can learn to ride at any age, but that horse ownership can be affordable and life changing.

But we need data to support these claims.

Here is how you can help. Now clear your mind and focus a minute.

Make 2016 the year that you and our horse achieve maximum health benefits by working hard together. Get your annual physical this month, including blood work. Now, set a goal of miles to be ridden in 2016 and achieve that goal.

Keep very accurate records. My personal goal for the year is one thousand miles. For others 500 miles or even 250 miles might be more reasonable.

But in an event--ride, and ride, and ride. You can ride in the rain. You can ride in snow. You can ride in heat. Ride and watch your health improve, physically and mentally. Note the weight loss, muscle increase, reduction in blood pressure, and better sleeping, Note the improvement in your horse's health.

Keep records--and tell the world. Brag and publicize what your horse is doing for your health.

There is nothing that you can do better for horses or people than to get more of them together.