A Lot of Emilys

I cannot remember all of the kids names, especially when I have 12 of them out there at once. I often call them by the wrong names, even kids who have ridden with me for years. However, I have so many girls named Emily the odds are that if I call someone Emily I will be right. We had Big Emily, Little Emily, and you name it Emilys. We had so many Emilys that my last Emily, Emily Wilda, was "Spare Emily."

Until yesterday. Yesterday she trotted so far and rode so well that Emily Wilda can no longer be Spare Emily. She is now Wilda Beast.

Do As She Says

And as she does. Little girls do not have enough solid role models in the horse world. The competitive horse world produces very few of them and the conventional model of riding lessons is not designed to bring out the best in kids.

I am delighted to have a very strong role model for my little riders in our program. Emily is good with horses, great with kids, and even better at simply living. She is better at moving little girls from fear to first rate horsemanship than I am.

She has helped me see gaps in my teaching model. I have never placed any emphasis on "keeping the horse out of your space" and I could not understand why so many others placed such importance on the concept. I never found a problem with having horses respect me, move for me, get out of my way, and avoid running over me.

As Emily pointed out, "You look different to a horse than Carley does." (Carley is a great young rider who will one day be a great horse trainer, but the preteen weighs about as much as my left leg.) As obvious as it should have been to me, I did not recognize that my life experiences gave me a way of moving, and a natural body language that horses respect. I am the oldest son, of the oldest son, of the oldest son of an only son. Partly as a result of that, from about the time I stopped wearing diapers I thought it only natural for others to do what ever I told them to do. That belief shapes the way I move in a round pen.

Emily helps instill confidence in the youngest riders in a highly effective, yet very different way than do I. Emily's consistent theme is "You can learn to do it. I used to have your problem and now, look at me. I can do it." I have always sought to instill confidence in kids with a consistent theme of "You can do it because I believe in you and I believe that you can do it."

Emily is a good teacher and I am learning a lot from her.

Energy Drain

Things are not the same at the horse lot lately. The mud is beyond belief. In fifty years I have never seen such a prolonged wet spell. Simply walking into the horse lot raises one's heart rate to anaerobic levels. The sky is the color of buckshot and the mud covered horses are the color of soot.

But that is not the biggest problem. We are missing a force of energy that I have come to rely on. Bill has been out for a while recovering from surgery and his absence seems to make everything move slower. Yesterday it took 55 minutes to saddle up for a ride. We had a few new riders and another complication or two, but given the same situation if Bill had been there we would have taken less than 20 minutes before we would have been ready to move out.

Organizations need thinkers, but they also need doers. Bill is both and I sure am looking forward to having him back out there with us.

A Frame Overo Deer In Front of My Home Lives

I saw her in her first fall, a frame overo fawn,
Snow white sides and a pie-bald face.
But that cannot be. There is no such thing.
A 10 year old wild stallion, an 8 year old rider
Cantering through the woods with confidence and grace.
But that cannot be. There is no such thing.

The following fall with her first fawn at her side,
a plain brown fawn, she burst by me like a flame.
But that cannot be. There is no such thing.
A two hundred pound rider on a 13 hand horse
50 miles in one day, cruising in comfort, neither in pain.
No, that cannot be. There is no such thing.

Now she is grown and has raised three fawns.
Looking from my window and I saw her stand by my mail box.
But that cannot be. There is no such thing.
Bare footed Spanish mustangs cantering happily through rocks.
Surely, that cannot be. There is no such thing.

When last we met she stood silently by the trail.
white sides glistening before she bolted through the pines.
But that cannot be. There is no such thing.
Little children training wild horses and making fine 'quines.
Impossible! that cannot be. There is no such thing.

Yes,a frame overo deer in front of my house lives.
Each time I see her I am reminded that what some think isn't; really is.
Oh yes,she CAN be. She is such a beautiful thing.
Little children saving Corollas, a soft open hand conquers a developer's fist.
And it WILL be. Wild and Free, such a beautiful thing.

(A frame overo is a pattern of pinto coloration often found in Paint horses. The white pattern is surrounded by a darker color that goes around the horse's top and bottom much like a picture frame. This doe is very very real and carries that same unusual marking.)

Standing On Higher Ground

Riding through the snow covered woods in the darkness gave me one big surprise. The horses maintained their footing and the lead horses trotted along the safest part of the trail even though they could not see the ground. In the recesses of their minds they had memorized where to take a hard left and which side of the path was the safest for jumping. To a human eye the trail all looked the same, just a blanket of snow. The horses could feel their way along the familiar sections of trail.