Educational Component

Dan made this tremendous kiosk which prominently features Tom's sign. It is this kind of volunteer activity that keeps our operation running.

It is the purpose behind that kiosk that makes it worth the effort to keep our operation running.

We ride. We train. We learn.

But most importantly, we teach.

We teach horses, history and humanity. We teach music. We teach cooperation and compassion.

One can ignore a footnote in a book. One can even ignore a book, but one cannot enter our horse lot without seeing and being drawn to this kiosk. It is designed to present information in a manner that it can can quickly absorbed.

So quickly, in fact, that a kid can learn something before he has time to realize that he is being educated.

Homecoming

Finding a bright teenage boy in this culture requires a patient and diligent search. Several years ago I found one. KC was one of the brightest spots in a post-Lido horse lot. Perhaps as bright as me, certainly as eccentric as me, KC was always looking to fill the empty spots in his brain.

As long as he was learning,(about nearly anything) he was happy. As long as I was teaching,(about nearly anything) I was happy.

This picture is about four or five years old.

 KC moved away.

Now he has come home.

Early this morning he was on the sofa reading Richard Goodwin's "Remembering America". He was learning--from one of my favorite books of all time.

He has ridden every day since moving in. He has ridden Ghost Dance more than she has ever been ridden. He has ridden Feather, a four year old Colonial Spanish horse that he is training for a couple of woods rides and gave her her first opportunity to canter in the woods.

He has nearly finished building a new hog pen. He has played music twice at a tea room and once at a senior citizens convalescent center. He has learned to play Ashley's favorite song, "I See Fire" as I never could and the two of them have really hit a home run with the song. He has helped Dan get the new parking lot going.

Tomorrow will make two weeks that he has been back with me.

He is off to a good start.

We have a thousand good things going on as we are expanding our program. Having KC home is the best of them.

Stilll Being Surprised

It has been pointed out to me that the blog is running slowly these days. I am working on another major writing project for a film that is occupying my thinking time. (In fact I should be working on that right now.)

However, I cannot help but note how surprised I was Sunday afternoon riding Joey, the pinto Choctaw Colonial Spanish horse shown above.

I know smoothness. I ride mustangs.

I know toughness. I ride mustangs.

I know stamina. I ride mustangs.

I know heat and humidity. I ride in Tidewater Virginia.

But I really did not know how fast a mustang could move out while gaiting until Sunday. Joey sought to find a place where there were no biting flies. He seemed to think that such a place must be just up the path. He gaited out at such a speed that the other mustangs loping behind me were barely keeping up. Snow on Her is an SMR and was certainly able to move with us, but she was carrying much less weight than Joey.

There is a great deal of good to be said for the Choctaws. There is a great deal of bad to be said for a horse world that would even consider the possibility of allowing these horses to become extinct.

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