And When I Am Old And Tired I Will Ride A Wild Colonial Spanish Horse

Objective criteria--not puffery, not  hyperbole--These are needed to show what these horses are capable of--not to convince the established horse world, but to show those with open minds what is possible.


"They are not super horses!"

That is what a person who had never ridden a Corolla or any of the nearly extinct southeastern strains Colonial Spanish horses told me while demanding that the horses be treated to the horrors of the unnatural lifestyle that most modern horses are forced to endure--stables, sugar and shoes.

The refrain constantly rings out from the commercial horse world --"And big, big, they must be big!--twenty percent maximum weight carrying capacity! No one over 200 pounds should ride horses!

"Smooth gaited?, they say.  What does that mean?", "Lot of endurance? Prove it!" "Good temperaments? Ha,they are wild horses"

It takes objective criteria to answer those who believe that they understand horses and who can prove the accuracy of their beliefs by showing that they walk in lock step with the edicts of the established horse world and the big agribusiness combines that fund that world.

The only thing thatleaves me with are facts and actual experience. The unfortunate reality is that I have likely ridden more miles on Corollas than anyone alive on this planet.

I find these horses to be smooth gaited. I base that on the fact that I am fifty six years old, overweight, and arthritic and have ridden Colonial Spanish horses of Corolla, Shackleford, or Choctaw lineage 871.42 miles in the past six months. And I am not broken down from the experience. In fact, I hope to go knock off another twenty miles of riding in the woods today.

Every single horse that I ride carries much more than 20% of its body weight.

And they do not break down. They do not go lame.

Yet I will still hear, "Well, maybe not right away, but in a few years they will!"

All know is that for the past decade they have not.

The only thing that I know about their temperaments is that in order to train these horses to saddle one does not have to be a bronc rider.

Look at the kids in the picture above. The summer this picture was taken those kids got seven horses under saddle without generating a single buck.

Do I think that these nearly extinct horses are "superhorses"?

Of course they are.

 I would have to be blind to believe otherwise.