Behind the Lens

Our group Facebook page, Mill Swamp Indian Horses (group page) is the best illustrated group facebook page that I know of. The credit goes to Sherry Leonard of Everyday Life Photography. Her photos are art of the highest caliber. They document everything that goes on at the horse lot.

They make it possible for one to understand that, yes, we really do teach little kids how to tame and train horses. Or that we make lard. Or that we make music. Or that we raise heritage livestock. Or that we preserve nearly extinct strains of horses.

And that we change lives.

And that, sometimes at the horse lot yesterday, today and tomorrow all happen at the same time.

This photo was taken less than a week ago. It is of our replicated 1650's era settler's farm with a hog freshly hung for preparation to go into the smokehouse.

But What Are You Going To Do When you Grow Up?

Are you tired of grown ups who do not understand why you want to spend every minute possible with horses telling you that you need to get serious and prepare for your future? It is frustrating when they do not understand that horses can, and should be part of that future. That can happen in many different ways.

Equine photography is a growing specialty niche in the photographic world. This great photo by Everyday Life Photography is beautiful art in itself but it also promotes the preservation of nearly extinct  historic horses like this mother and daughter Choctaw pair.

Natural hoof care is growing in practice as more people understand the importance of allowing a horse's hoof to be shaped so that it can function at its highest capacity. Jenn Hill is a professional farrier. She combined her practical experience with natural horsemanship and her education in farrier school to allow her to safely and humanely trim even hard to handle horses.

Quality hand made tack is always in demand.  Start up costs can be quite low and one can expand production slowly. Pam Yohn makes girths out of mohair and they are the best girths that I have ever used. They hold the saddle in place and expand and contract with the movement of the horse.

There is always a need for affordable horse trainers who focus on producing safe, solid family horses. When one thinks of trainers one often thinks of the horse show world. That world makes up a small segment of horse owners. Most horse owners are looking for a family horse for trails and recreation.

The best trainers are those who can also teach owners how to train their horses. These trainers recognize that training is a continuing educational process and that no horse ever finishes training. Every time one touches a horse one is training it. Lydia Barr trains horses and owners. Best of all she teaches them how to have close, meaningful relationships with their horses.

One of the most rewarding careers with horses is using them to improve the lives of other people. Equine therapy does just that. Combining a love of horses with a solid educational background in psychology, counselling or physical therapy can lead to a very rewarding career.

Many of us receive our first introduction to horses through books. Authors who specialize in children's books  create generations of happy horse owners. Kay Kerr wrote this award winning children's illustrated book about the endangered horses of Corolla. Her work entertains, educates, and helps bring awareness of the plight that these horses face.

The next time some adult who just does not understand tells you that your love of horses is "just a phase" that you are going through keep in mind that it might just be a phase that lasts through a long, meaningful life. 

Mill Swamp Indian Horses: Building Living Soil

Program participants learn natural horsemanship. They learn to tame, train, and ride wild horses. They learn animal husbandry and biological agriculture. They learn history. They learn music.

They learn to work hard and to work together. They learn teamwork and they learn leadership.

We are converting a former pasture into multi use Silva pasture. We are doing it by hand and we are doing it entirely without modern fertilizers and pesticides or herbicides. We have cut several thousand small gum, Mimosa, ash, cherry and pine trees. The trees are coppiced. That allows branches to grow back out from the stumps that provide nutritious browse for the horses and other livestock while allowing sunlight to hit the ground which allows the grasses to take off growing. Pines are being strategically removed to both allow timber production and maximum forage growth.

Trees that have been cut down are used as posts, poles, or firewood. We have built a pole and post fence all the way around the pasture. Its interior is lined with electric fence to keep the livestock secure inside. Over the winter about twenty horses have been kept on this acreage. They have been fed round bales that we have been rolling out on the ground. Doing so allows for maximum microbe growth in the soil, while reseeding the land at the same time. Over the summer the land will be sprayed with microbe rich inoculant teas that we are creating in our vermiculture (worm Farming) project. Weeds will be kept in check primarily with our Spanish goat herd. This summer we hope to expand our heritage poultry program by moving bourbon red turkeys and cotton patch geese onto the new pasturage. They will keep weeds and insects in check while spreading beneficial microbes into the soil. Mimosas are legumes. They radically increase soil fertility while providing a high protein browse for the horses and goats.

We are entering the season of seriously confused parents of kids in our program. For everything that we do not understand we must apply the analogies that our past experiences provide us. For those who were never raised around pasture and livestock those analogies interpret pasture production through the lens of lawns, golf courses and cemeteries.

For the past three months I have been working frantically to prepare the New Land for spring. I have spent nearly no time training horses and have only spent a few hours in the saddle. Over the past week I have come to understand how poorly I have explained the importance of this work to many of the adults in our program. I did not grow up viewing forage production through the lens of lawns, golf courses, and cemeteries and I have not been accurately interpreting their misunderstanding.

From their framework of analysis I must be working so frantically because I want to improve the appearance of the property. Of course, appearance of the property means nothing to me. The ability of the land to regenerate itself and to produce maximum healthy forage for the horse while conserving soil and water means everything to me. When they look across the land they see brush piles that are unsightly and must be removed. When I look at that same land I see brush piles that are too small and too few because I need to have the brush off of the soil so sunlight can activate the grass seeds below the surface.

Our different back grounds have caused these parents and I to completely misunderstand what the other meant. This has been a very meaningful revelation to me. I am not as effective when communicating with adults as I am with children. I do not want to sound condescending so I say nothing at all. To make matters worse I assume, without giving it any thought, that others wear my lenses.

We really come from different worlds and it is something that I have to always keep in mind. When one's only exposure to animal care has been with the family cat or puppy one develops a view of animal care is based on showing how much one loves a pet by showing how much one worries about that pet's health. Any imperfection of health in that pet, however momentary, calls for a trip to the vet or at least the application of some chemical medication. In their eyes to do any less is to neglect the needs of that pet.

With that background they are unable to understand the importance of allowing an animal to heal itself. They cannot distinguish that from neglect. They cannot understand me declining to treat a trivial health hiccup that I know is of no moment. They view such benevolent non-action as a view that if the animal can survive without treatment, why go to the expense? When the reality is completely different---the animal is being harmed by compulsive applications of medicines that assault their immune systems, irritate their skin, disrupt their system, weaken their muscular system, and, in short, damage the horse.

I must do a better job of communicating with such people.

When people put horses on pastures that are resting and growing they do not understand that even a few hours of having one horse on that couple of acres does not allow the soil to heal sufficiently to create the kind of lush healthy pasture that benefits all of the horses.

I must do a better job of communicating that to people.

Which all brings me back to the original point of building living soil. Since around 1650 I have only had one direct ancestor in Daddy's line who never farmed. Although I am a prosecutor, I have grown up with agriculture. I have grown up knowing that to get better pasture one needed to till the soil, get a soil test, apply sufficient tonnage of chemicals and lime, plant the seed, poison the weeds, and repeat as needed.

And over the last few years, and especially over the last year, I have learned that everything that I thought was good for my soil was killing it. It is hard to throw away the assumptions that your "knowledge" is based on and make decisions based on evidence only. I truly felt queasy (this is not a figure of speech) when first rolling hay out on the new land. The idea of "wasting " hay like that sickened me.

It was hard to walk away from the beliefs of modern agribusiness.

Learning is hard. Unlearning is harder. I understand why there are people out there who believe that horses benefit from the abusive care advocated by the established horse world. I certainly cannot blame them for believing what they were taught. It takes a significant degree of character to put the interest of the horse first and to walk away from the established horse world.

That is a character trait that grows from the ground up.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: We Teach Natural Horsemanship to Kids

At its core natural horsemanship is simply using modes of communication with the horse that the horse understands instinctively. Instead of trying to teach horses to understand English we teach kids to understand equine communication. We teach empathy, understanding, kindness, boldness, confidence, gentleness and courage.

In short we teach leadership. A horse desires nothing more than he desires security. That security only exists when he is in the presence of a leader/protector. That can either be in the form of another horse or a person. Even a very young person.

The horse in this picture suffered a serious coyote bite as a foal. She is insecure and leery of the touch of a human. Yet, she finds trust and security in Liam, though he is still young enough to order off of the children's menu. If you would like for your child to learn to develop this kind of relationship with a horse contact us at msindianhorses@aol.com for more information.

If you want to see more children have the opportunity to have the Mill Swamp experience this is a great time to give us a hand.To learn more about our program see our website at www.millswampindianhorses.com. See the group Mill Swamp Indian Horses Facebook page.

 Look back through previous posts in this blog.

Future posts will focus on each individual string that makes up the entire harp of Mill Swamp Indian Horses. Stick with us over the next few weeks. Share these informational posts with everyone that you know.

Again, we have no paid staff. We are all volunteers. Our horses eat from 10-14 thousand pounds of hay each week. We are funded from program fees and donations. We have never turned anyone away for inability to pay program fees.

This is our time of greatest expense and also our season of fund raising. You can donate directly at the donation button on our website or you may write a check to Gwaltney Frontier Farm and mail is to 16 Dashiell Drive, Smithfield Va 23430. Donations are not tax deductible for a 501 (c) 5 breed conservation program. 

Become a follower of this blog to stay in touch with this effort. And as you read this and upcoming posts keep in mind that each post will only show one aspect of what we do.to do so.

Mill Swamp Indian Horses: The Stone That the Builders Rejected

Tradewind is older now, but he still has the heart that makes him so special. He is a formerly wild Corolla stallion and a lynch pin of our breeding efforts to prevent the extinction of the Banker strain of Colonial Spanish Horses, particularly those of Corolla origin. He was the 2011 National Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year for the Horse of the Americas registry. More than any horse in our program he demonstrates the gentle nature and extraordinary athletic ability of these historic horses. As recently as 1927 several thousand of these horses roamed the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Today only two small herds remain, the Corollas and the Shacklefords. The remnant of the horses that the Spanish brought to America nearly 100 years before the English landed at Jamestown retain the endurance, smooth gaits, amazing carrying capacity, and strong survival instinct that made them so valuable to the Conquistadors.

Tradewind won the 2011 award because in 2010 he carried me 206 hours on the trail, through cutover, swamps, woods paths and woods with no paths at all. The vast majority of those hours were spent trotting or gaiting. During that year I weighted around 220 pounds. That is about one hundred pounds more than the suggested carrying capacity of modern breeds of horses.

But the real story is not how much he achieved, it is how far he came to make those achievements. Tradewind is insulin resistant, a health problem rare among these horses.  While wild he foundered horribly, likely as a result of being given access to sugar by tourists.  His front right hoof had grown out while abscessing. He walked on the side of the hoof.

He was totally crippled. It took many months of Pete Ramey style hoof trimming to get him sound. It took a few months to train him to saddle. And in return he has given our riders years of pleasure learning from him.

Tradewind  is a very special role model. He shows kids and adults the importance of perseverance--never giving up--staying in the fight--no matter how hard it is to do so.


To learn more about our program see our website at www.millswampindianhorses.com. See the group Mill Swamp Indian Horses facebook page. Look back through previous posts in this blog.

Future posts will focus on each individual string that makes up the entire harp of Mill Swamp Indian Horses. Stick with us over the next few weeks. Share these informational posts with everyone that you know.

Again, we have no paid staff. We are all volunteers. Our horses eat from 10-14 thousand pounds of hay each week. We are funded from program fees and donations. We have never turned anyone away for inability to pay program fees.

This is our time of greatest expense and also our season of fund raising. You can donate directly at the donation button on our website or you may write a check to Gwaltney Frontier Farm and mail is to 16 Dashiell Drive, Smithfield Va 23430. Donations are not tax deductible for a 501 (c) 5 breed conservation program. 

Become a follower of this blog to stay in touch with this effort. And as you read this and upcoming posts keep in mind that each post will only show one aspect of what we do.

Mill Swamp Indian Horses: Raising Yesterday's Horses For Tomorrow's Riders

Sunday I had some unexpected guest show up at the horse lot while I was clearing land. I had a great time showing them around. I was already a bit tired from cutting firewood for half of the day and I found myself rambling a bit as I described what goes on in our program. We have grown into such a multifaceted rare breeds conservation program that I have no doubt that I confuse people by simply listing what we do.

One of the most important aspects of our program often slips by visitors. That aspect is how we are funded.

Instead of listing our programs I am going to make an effort to briefly post on every aspect of what we do. We are a 501 (c) 5 breed conservation nonprofit corporation. We have no paid staff. We receive no government grants. Everything that you will be reading about over the next two weeks is all accomplished by volunteers.

Our primary focus is on preventing the extinction of the historic Banker strain Colonial Spanish horse that now remains wild in only two herds--the Corolla and the Shackleford bands on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We have seven stallions who were either born wild in those bands or are first generation domestically born. We have six mares of the same back ground. We have a small group of pure Colonial Spanish horses of other strains who are closely related by genotype or phenotype that we carefully include in the foundation herd to provide the genetic diversity that is essential to the survival of these horses.

Foals that we produce are then placed with others who agree to use them to raise more of these horses in satellite breeding programs. Tsennacomacah, shown above with his mother will be going to Colorado this summer where he will be the furthest placement that we have made from our program. The foals born last summer have all been placed and we have a list of people who are awaiting the foals to be born this spring and summer. In 2018 we will breed more mares than we ever have before.

To learn more about our program see our website at www.millswampindianhorses.com. See the group Mill Swamp Indian Horses facebook page. Look back through previous posts in this blog.

Future posts will focus on each individual string that makes up the entire harp of Mill Swamp Indian Horses. Stick with us over the next few weeks. Share these informational posts with everyone that you know.

Again, we have no paid staff. We are all volunteers. Our horses eat from 10-14 thousand pounds of hay each week. We are funded from program fees and donations. We have never turned anyone away for inability to pay program fees.

This is our time of greatest expense and also our season of fund raising. You can donate directly at the donation button on our website or you may write a check to Gwaltney Frontier Farm and mail is to 16 Dashiell Drive, Smithfield Va 23430. Donations are not tax deductible for a 501 (c) 5 breed conservation program. 

Become a follower of this blog to stay in touch with this effort. And as you read this and upcoming posts keep in mind that each post will only show one aspect of what we do.

Our Trees--Another Effort to Grow and Teach

Update for those of you who have been out of town--much has been accomplished in the last week.

Nearly a hundred ash poles have been cut for wattle fencing--it is ready to drag out and move to the settler's farm.

The Teller family has set up a small green house for us to start plants for the Colonial garden in. Jake and Amanda, of Browder's Fresh Pickin's, have donated a large number of starting trays and pots. We can use them for many things, including having MSIH Mimosa trees, MSIH persimmon trees, MSIH wild grapes, MSIH sycamore trees and even MSIH Mulberry trees for sale---all trees that we start only from trees on our land and only started in our pesticide and herbicide free soil.

Plants that we do not sell can be produced to be set out all over our property to improve the soil and create tons of soft mast for livestock feed and wild life habitat. Our permaculture and biological farming techniques are really beginning to pay off. This week I was shoveling a bit of soil on the top of a hugelkulture mound and every single shovel full of dirt but one contained at least one earth worm!

I love art that does work. I love beauty that educates.

And I love to create soil that gives us that art and beauty

From Pines and Poison Ivy to Pasture and Poles: A Year of Pasture Development

In November of 2016 Beth and I purchased the nearly 20 acres beside the horse lot for the use of our program. The land had been farmed for at least 150 years and was planted as pasture in the 1990's. For most of the past 18 years it was not managed and most of it grew back up in sweet gum, Mimosa, pine, ash, and wild cherry.

No heavy equipment was used to clear the land. Nearly all of the work was done with three chainsaws and Wendell's DR brush buster.

Cherry and mimosa were cut into fence posts. Pine and sweet gum, which do not hold up well in the ground were used as 11 foot long poles for the fence. The interior of the fence was lined with electric wire which kept the horses from pushing up against it.

Last spring I began to put horses on the New Land. They foraged and consumed so much healthy browse that for a few months we reduced our monthly hay bills by over 30%. The land was so super fertile that the coppiced tree stumps grew to such heights that not enough sunlight reached the ground to allow for full grass development. Honey suckle, which had only covered a very small part of the land flourished and spread beyond imagination. In early spring and post frost fall the horses consumed the honey suckle well, but not enough to keep it in check. We added additional strains of electric wire and today I hope to move our herd of Spanish goats onto the land. I expect them to erase the honey suckle and to keep the coppiced trees in check. The mimosa coppices will continue to provide great forage for the horses.

Boy Scout and Girl Scouts have volunteered to help clear land and build brush piles. The land was already loaded with rabbits and we are building a wildlife paradise with brush piles and allowing small stands of pines to remain in place, giving the land a varied eco-system.

Over the summer and fall I have been studying biological farming and have taken a great class from Simple Soil Solutions and that I where I learned of the importance of rolling hay out over the land to develop microbes that will reduce soil compaction, inhibit weed growth, and serve to reseed much of the land.

We have built a strong vermiculture program and will be using that along with foliar fertilizer whose active ingredient will be the IMO's that we are raising on site to enhance forage growth. We do not use any chemical fertilizer, herbicide or pesticides on our land.

And best of all, much of this work is done by hard working kids who are learning the joy of building soil, conserving land, water, and heritage breed horses, goats, hogs, and turkeys.

Washani Coming To Virginia

There is the kind of excitement going around the horse lot that usually only comes up when a foal is born. On February 24 this beautiful mare will be making the trip from Texas to join our program. I am delighted to have such a high percentage Huasteca strain horse in our program. When one throws in 50% Choctaw lineage and the body type of a Banker , it is hard to imagine breeding that would fit better in our program.

When she arrives I will likely have the New Land in good enough condition to be able to give her the same type of intense daily training that I gave to Sally last summer. I am looking forward to that. Washani has been under saddle but has not been ridden in a while. I am looking forward to bringing out the best in her.

This will be a wonderful addition to our program.

Biological Farming: Building Better Pasture One Cell At a Time

I have spent a lot of time learning about pasture development over the past two years. I have absorbed everything that I can about rotational grazing. What we want is easily definable--first rate forage growth, high quality forage production with high mineral content, soil that absorbs water with minimal run off, and plants with deep root systems.

We are converting twenty acres of over grown land that was pasture about 15 years ago. I have taken on line classes with Simple Soil Solutions and have learned how to advance microbial growth by rolling out round bales and have come to understand the detrimental effect of soil compaction.

Spring is coming soon and we are beginning to plan for production of Indigenous Microbial Organisms to spray on the land. Production and use of IMO's will be another wonderful step towards raising healthier, happier horses in a natural model that helps bring the cost of ownership of horses within the reach of working families.

If you have pasturage or if you simply care about preservation and enhancement of soil, research biological farming, microbial enhancement, and use of IMO's.

Or, if mindless conformity to the p;pronouncements of big agribusiness is more of your style, then continue to spend a fortune on modern chemicals that poison your land and produce lower quality pasture while closely adhering to the dictates of the established horse world.

Enough Wisdom To Get Through The Winter

"Ain't but two kinds of music--the blues and zip-a-day-do-do."
Townes Van Zandt 


"Ain't but two kinds of music--the good music and the bad music. I play the good."
Louis Armstrong


" Horses don't have birthdays. They come in three ages--too young to ride, too old to ride, and alright to ride"
Anonymous 

"Which one the biggest, Steve or the pony?"
Benny Poole, a very old farrier when Daddy asked him how old he thought my yearling pony would need to be before I started riding him (I was age 2 at the time.)

"When you get hung up bad in briers-- accelerate"
Even more Anonymous than the first one

"I have seen the David. Seen the Mona Lisa too
 And I have seen Doc Watson play the 'Columbus Stockade Blues'"
Guy Clark

"Ain't but two kind of men and I ain't neither one of them."
Jason Isbell

"Eugene Parker's a big farmer. He run liquor and grew corn.
 Beat his wife on Saturday. Headed up the Deacon Board."

"When children die they die deader than old people do when they die."
 

Collision:Walking In Two Worlds

The unexamined life is not worth living--Socrates


"Twenty years? No one should do that more than two years." That is what a former prosecutor told me this week when I told him that I have just past my 20th anniversary of prosecuting crimes against children and sexual assaults.

One of my greatest hopes in life is that over the next fifty years programs like ours will pop up all over the country. I often stress how simple it is to do what we do when urging others to merge education, entertainment, public service, livestock conservation, and permaculture and healing into one program.

I have often said that anyone who cares about horses and kids could do what we do.

I am not certain anymore that that is true. My life is limited to prosecution and running the horse lot. If my regular job did not provide such unyielding pain I doubt if I would have the energy or drive to throw the rest of my life into running the horse lot.

And yes, I realize how old I am. And yes, I realize that I have not been getting enough sleep since 1992. And I know that my truck has over a quarter of a million miles on it. And yes, I know that my guitar is only a Sigma because I would feel very selfish if I bought an expensive Martin.

But I know that the New Land must be cleared. And I know that there are hundreds of people in our area that need for our program.

But it is more difficult than some might imagine to spend a wonderful day helping a new rider gain confidence and skill and then have nightmares in which my little riders images are substituted for the victims of crimes that I am prosecuting at the moment.

Agritourism, Horses and Healing

I have been invited to speak to the 2018 Virginia Agritourism Conference in Williamsburg at 10:30 on March 22. I will focus on how we use a variety of programs that attract people to the horse lot. I will show them how many more participants one can get by transforming a riding program into a multifaceted program whose product is "meaning" not just horses.

I will also use the opportunity to encourage more networking, coordination and cross promotion of programs that promote rural culture across this state.

Much of the presentation will have the same theme that our day long series of demonstrations for the annual meeting of the Livestock Breeds Conservancy in November had--that melding education, entertainment, and public service is a solid recipe to attract visitors to a new way of life.