It Was Like Riding With The Governor

That is what Terry had to say about riding beside Daddy in the Christmas Parade. She said that it seemed like everyone on the sidewalk knew him and was calling out his name. Forty seven years ago he and I first rode in the Christmas parade together. He rode Flag, a highly charged thoroughbred, I rode Tonka, a welsh-hackney cross, and Momma rode Cracker Jack, a pinto mustang/Arabian.

This year he rode Medicine Dog, a BLM mare that we trained who now belongs to Ruthann. His mare is still a little green for parades but she will be ready for him to ride her in the next five or ten parades.

When Not Getting What You Want is The Best Present of All

Years ago was urged to seek the position County Attorney. This is not an elected position. The county attorney advises the county on contracts, hiring practices, and a host of other matters in addition to representing the county in lawsuits. It was not a job for a trial lawyer and in reality I was not well suited for the position. However, I had a great deal of support and was urged to pursue the opportunity.

I did not want the job, but it paid more than double what I made at the time. I really did not care about the other advantages of having a high income, but I was interested in the position so that I could afford to build, of all things, a barn. I had in mind a modern barn design that would include paved floors and two rows of stables.

Of course, with that position I would not have the time to build a riding program and would likely only keep a few horses around for my family. But, I certainly would have a beautiful barn.

I did not get that position. Had I gotten it I would never have built our program, worked to preserve the Corollas, become a writer, clinician, and speaker on mustangs and natural horsemanship. I would not even know my riders and their families. My life would have become a very empty shell if I had gotten that high paying job years ago.

A life devoid of meaning. But I would have had a beautiful barn.

The Importance of a Good Set of Wheels

When Lido was about 12 or 13 he and I were watching RFD-TV when a commercial for a manure spreader came on.

'Dat's what Ah want," he said emphatically.

I asked him what in the world he would do with a shiny, new manure spreader.

"Ah take my guwl friend widen on it," he advised, surprised that I did not realize how impressed a young teen girl would be at a ride on a brand new manure spreader.

That Strange Edmund Ruffin

Google Edmund Ruffin to learn more about this strange man who was a hundred years ahead of the rest of the south when it came to agricultural innovations and an epoch behind most of the nation when it came to the immorality of slavery. He likely fired the first shot at Fort Sumpter and his last shot was certainly to his own head. He preferred death to living in a reunified America. All in all a pathetic figure who wasted his talents.

In one of his books, which I believe was written in 1856, he wrote a few paragraphs on the Bankers, whose remnant remains wild today at Corolla and Shackleford. He throws out two important points for those who love these horses today.

He said that horses not raised on the Outer Banks were unable to survive its harsh environs. That certainly has been born out by looking at the wild herds of Corolla and Shackleford which show no sign of having modern breeds bred into them. Their adaptability allowed them to live in isolation which allowed them to maintained their Colonial Spanish genetic heritage.

It was the other side of the equation that Ruffin wrote that has puzzled me. He said that Banker horses could not survive long on the mainland. Why could that be? What was it about mainland domestic life that was life threatening to the Bankers?

Take a look at the picture of this wild Corolla taken last week. More importantly take a look at his 'pasture". It is hard to imagine horses living on the sparse vegetation of the Outer Banks. However, the Corollas not only live off of it, most remain in good flesh even in the winter.

The Corollas certainly do graze from the ground but they have to cover some ground to get a belly full. They also, especially in the winter, eat above the ground on honey suckle, green brier, and twigs. Though not particularly calorie dense, such a diet keeps the horses from being exposed to worm eggs. The positive side of this is that the wild herd has a very low parasite load. In fact, I have only seen one wild Corolla that was removed from the herd that showed any signs of worm infestation. The negative side is that many of them, even mature horses, have not developed an immune system that kills most of the parasites that seek to migrate through their bodies. When wild Corollas are placed in an environment flush with parasites they become very hospitable hosts. Heavy strongyle infestations can take away a lot of blood in a matter of hours. Heavy infestations can lead to colic. Couple that threat with being given strange food (i.e. corn) and placed in a stress inducing stable and one has created a life threatening situation for a wild Banker.

I strongly suspect that this accounted for Ruffin's claim that Bankers just could not make it on the mainland.

Christmas Cash

For those of you that receive a bit of cash for Christmas and will be looking to spend it over the next week or two let me make a few suggestions:

1. Buy Joe Camp's book, "The Soul of a Horse"
2. Buy "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them: Learning from Wild Horses and Small Children" which can be ordered directly from me.
3. Donate to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, The HOA's Lido Fund, or USERL.
4. Enroll in our on line class "The Horse,, The Herd, and the Hoof."
5. Use the money to become part of something bigger than what you are.

This is a picture of Rebecca giving Annie, a USERL mustang one of her first rides. This picture illustrates just how one can become part of something bigger than one's self. This is a picture not just of a young women and a horse but of a movement. Rebecca is well schooled in natural horsemanship and natural horse care. She is mounted on a mustang, a group of horses feared and loathed by the established horse world. Not only that, Annie is a USERL mustang which means that she has 'no marketable value." To the established horse world, marketable value is the only kind of value that matters. To make matters seem even more ridiculous to the established horse world, Annie's owner is a retired school teacher, a novice who chose an untrained mustang for her first horse.

What could be more obvious than the fact that it would be impossible for a retired, novice to get on a mustang that was not even professionally trained and take her on a trail ride through the woods?

But for the fact that that is exactly what happened a few hours after this picture was taken, it would indeed be impossible, absurd even. But when one becomes part of something bigger than one's self impossibility falls by the wayside.