In November Beth and I purchased nearly twenty acres of land adjacent to the horse lot for the use of our program. Once it was a pasture but it has grown up in gum, pine, wild cherry, mimosa, and ash trees. The land will be used primarily as pasture for the horses but will also be the home to our Ossabaw hogs, Spanish colonial livestock and poultry. Plans include the construction of several native American structures that are linked to the history of our horses, such as a Choctaw Chickee, a Tidewater North Carolina Scare Crow Hut and a Wickiup.
The pasture will be developed and enhanced using principles of permaculture and we will likely build a wooden round pen and seating area in the shade of the large pine trees for our natural horsemanship demonstrations.
Mill Swamp Indian Horses is the program name of Gwaltney Frontier Farm, Inc, a 501(c)5 breed conservation non-profit. We have no paid staff. We are all volunteers. In addition to working to breed, preserve and promote nearly extinct strains of colonial Spanish horses we have a wide range of riding and educational programs. We also provide, at no charge, weekly programing for in patient PTSD veterans from the Hampton VA.
For more information on this unique program please see our website at www.msindianhorses.com
On Saturday February 4 beginning at 9:00 am we will be working all day clearing the land and constructing a .64 mile pole and post fence as seen above. Everyone is invited out to give us a hand. You only need to wear some gloves and warm clothes.
We are located at 9299 Moonlight Road Smithfield VA 23430. If you would like to join us send me an email at msindianhorses@aol.com
The path to our tack shed is suffering from mid winter deep potholes. If you drive in proceed very slowly and carefully.
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