Shinin' Times

My little riders and I have demonstrated Corollas, Shacklefords, mustangs, and other Indian Horses in parades, at clinics, at fairs, and festivals, but Saturday will be a first for us. We are going to show living, historic horses to a group of living history enthusiasts.

We will be riding through the woods into a neighboring county for a mountain man Rendezvous put on by the Old Virginia Primitive Riflemen. We will not be in period costume, but we will be riding horses that are in period costume twenty four hours of every day.

I Ride, Therefore I Am

Hannah has learned to ride with her ears--She listens. She seeks direction, follows instructions, and applies what she is taught. She is only one of my new crop of little riders that will become the backbone of our program over the next several years. Jenny, Matthew, Hannah, Samantha, Andrew, Ashley, Emily W., and Emily F. will be teaching new little riders in a few more years. Jessica, who is too old to be a very little rider, is a promising young teen who will become not just a rider, but a trainer and a teacher.

More leaven for the future. And is it a good thing, because, as Hannah pointed out to Emily M, soon I will be too old to keep all of this up.

Following the Crowd Over a Cliff

Training wild horses is easier than raising healthy children. Forty years ago in rural cultures in every corner of America being a good parent meant to work to raise children who developed solid values, a good work ethic, and concern for their neighbors. Kids worked hard and played hard. Scrapes and bruises were signs of an active, healthy life, not evidence of abuse.

In today's parenting ethos, being a good parent means to shelter children from physical challenges and to demonstrate one's love for a child by purchasing the latest expensive electronic gadget at the child's whim. The result is a pandemic of adolescent obesity and panic disorders, particularly among boys.

Ashley was not raised to cower back from physical challenges. Unfortunately she is part of an ever shrinking minority of kids. We recognize what a threat cigarettes are to a kid's health and as a result no parent would buy a carton of Camels for a kid. We pretend not to recognize what a threat the sedentary lifestyle that video games are to a kid's health and as a result parents contribute to the wasting away of their kid's health with computer games and a soft lifestyle.

I have no doubt that there are horse's in Heaven and computer games in Hell.

For Sale: Meaning, Direction and Peace

I have been down with some flu-like illness and have been in bed nearly the entire day. It was raining a bit this afternoon and I really was not feeling up to feeding up and checking on everyone.

When I got to the horse lot Phil was working on fence work and Ruthann was putting her horse, Medicine Dog, back with the mares in pasture number one. Two months ago Ruthann had no horse nor did Phil's family. Now both of his kids have horses and his entire family rides with us. Ruthann drives over from across the river to ride in the morning and then sometimes comes back for night rides. Rebecca lives over an hour away, last night she drove over to ride her beautiful young mustang for nearly two hours around the fields and through the woods on one of our better night rides yet. Norm lives even further away yet he made the long trek for a Sunday ride and then was back for a Monday night ride on a fiery ex polo mustang named Riggs.

The bitterest piece of hate mail that our program has ever received demanded that I "quit breeding worthless crap that has no marketable value." She has no knowledge of what we breed, but most importantly she has no knowledge of what we sell.

Our program changes lives--both of horses and of people. That is what we sell. And we do so at a generous price.

Fifty Two Miles: We Did it Again

Yesterday Emily M. and I set out to get in a fifty mile day. I had ridden a hard 13 miles the day before. Ruthann joined us for the first fifteen miles of the ride before it was time for her to go home. She rode Comet and her great horse Medicine Dog for her stretch of the ride. Emily M. did 37 miles on Young Joseph, a Chincoteague/BLM cross, that seems incapable of exhaustion, and did the remainder on Samson, a Corolla who rode lead through the darkness like an old pro, with one hard five mile ride on Wanchese, my little Shackleford stallion.

I rode my SMR stallion, Ta Sunka Witco, for 30 miles, gave Trade Wind a hard five mile ride. and did the remainder on Holland, my Shacklford shown pictured above.

We were joined for the last seven miles in darkness by Emily W. on my Shackleford, Porter and Norm rode Riggs for his first night ride.

I have done fifty miles in a day on several occasions but this time Emily and I did things differently. We took extended lunch breaks and even went into town for supper. These breaks, and the change of mounts, gave our horses enough time to rest to allow us to really cover ground when we were riding. In fact, the vast majority of Joseph's miles were accomplished at a lope and to a lesser degree so were Ta Sunka's miles. By doing so we finished nearly two hours sooner than on my first fifty mile ride.

Emily sees beauty everywhere she looks. I see challenges everywhere I look. Yesterday, Emily looked around and saw a beautiful day. I looked around and saw a day that I whipped, and whipped badly.

Fifty two miles. Fifty pounds over weight. Fifty years old.

I won.