A Guest Post On Life At Mill Swamp Indian Horses

Five years or so now. It seems like another lifetime, one snowy February day....my then-wife and mother in law had come up with the plan to get the kids riding lessons...so they looked and looked for a place, finally found some place called Mill Swamp Indian Horses...supposedly five minutes from the house and "Guess what? Parents ride free with the kids!" Sigh...."ok....I guess I can get on one of the slow, stupid ones and tool around and watch the kids."
We showed up after hunting for the place in a snowstorm to find a bunch of people trying to cram some hogs in a small pickup. Most folks would have been a little put off, but here, at least, was familiar ground for me...I piled in and tried to help...got hogs loaded. Bacon is important....
We started up in about April....the kids doing the lesson thing...me watching. That pasted all of a week or so...Little red horse was having some trouble and drew my interest. Baton Rouge is still one of my favorite horses...just enough independence of mind to be interesting...sweet enough not to bite. She had taken to persuading little girls to go bother somebody else. Now....I knew nothing of training horses...this end eats...that end poops...sit in the middle, facing the end that eats.
So....I sang to her....and walked up and touched her...I sang the same song, over and over..."You'll never Leave Harlan Alive...." Pretty soon, she was totally comfortable with me....she and I got down the trail ok. To this day, I can sing that for her, and she will perk up and come on.
Fast forward....One crazy mare showed up....Snow on Her....frumpy looking mare who had no concept of herd manners....I just started loving on her....in return, she found her way into the herd...and taught me to think like a horse...she taught me how to understand any horse in the world....to get in their heads...to understand what makes the equine mind tick..she taught me to be a trainer, and blossomed.
I told Steve several weeks later, that I wanted to get on her....he mumbled some thing that sounded alot like "your funeral...."
Alot of hoofprints have gone under the two of us....that grouchy old mare has given me alot of healing...still does....I have great hopes for the foal she is carrying right now.
We shall see.
I have not been present much lately, as badly as I wish things were different....I am going through some major changes in life....shocking changes, shocking, even to me, things I never imagined...but they are important...critical...if, often painful. But that is just part of growing into one's true self. I hope I am close to getting there.
I am not gone, just resting, I guess..focusing on a life I have not had....but I will be back, I just won't be the same person that I was. I will be better...happier...more content in my own skin. This is a new thing for me....and would never have been possible without all the days and hours spent down swamp....