Treatable, Perhaps Curable

I hope that I am not being overly optimistic in my belief in rehabilitative education for true horse professionals. Until proven otherwise, I will maintain the position that even if one has been professionally trained and educated and has spent a lifetime in the established horse world, it is still possible to learn as much about a horse's mind, body and soul as an 11 year old girl that has seriously studied natural horse care, natural horsemanship, and natural hoof care for nine months already knows.

As the cliche goes, first one must recognize that one has a problem. Unfortunately, many of those trapped in the established horse world spend their lives with others who are equally afflicted. Like the addict whose social circle is limited to those in whom they share a crack house, they simply reinforce each other's warped beliefs.

Unfortunately, the established horse world cannot be part of the solution to the crisis that horses face in the 21st century. They are, in fact, utterly, 100% responsible for that crisis. However, the brightest and most open minded among them have the ability to break out of the mindset that traps them as securely as a BLM holding pen and become actual horsemen.

I applaud those that reach out to these people and try to show the rewards of true horsemanship to such a crowd. I do not have the strength of character to be able to do so. I take the easy way out and reach out to untainted novices. Were I a better, more patient person I would do otherwise. However, I fear that in that regard I am neither treatable, nor curable.

(This is Croatoan, a wild Corolla stallion in a training clinic with Sarah Lin the fall after his spring capture. Neither Sarah Lin, nor Croatoan need any treatment nor cure.)

On Being More Than A File Cabinet

The proper role of a breed registry depends on the needs of that registry's particular breed. Colonial Spanish horses are nearly extinct as a group with some strains teetering on the cliff's edge. The Horse of The Americas registry recognizes these facts and can be counted on to do the actual work of preserving, protecting and promoting these horses. The HOA is more than a file drawer for dusty registry papers. The HOA is dynamic and alive and on the front line of preservation of these historic horses.

In the previous post I broached the idea of a far reaching program to encourage natural horse care, save family farms, and bring more kids into horse ownership. I will ask the HOA to partner in the development and promotion of such a program. I have no doubt that the leadership of the HOA will do everything in the organization's power to help out.

This is a critical time for our horses whether we call them Colonial Spanish, or mustangs. It is a time for action and leadership.

(This gangly colt has grown into a thing of beauty. He is still growing--just like the HOA)

On Saving Farms, Horses, Kids and Rural Culture

Family farms are going the way of full service gas stations. Horses are being shipped to slaughter outside of the country. Kids grow up in a vacuous culture of ipods and computer games. Yes, so far this has been one sorry excuse for a century.

With enough vision and dedication we can help turn these connected crisis around. Education and citizen action can help keep farms afloat, increase the number of horse owners and give more kids lives with meaning through horses. We can produce healthier kids, healthier horses, and healthier communities.

The key to doing so is to turn portions of unprofitable farm land into natural horse care boarding facilities. The first step is for everyone that cares about kids, horses, and family farms to read and completely understand two great books, Joe Camp's, Soul of a Horse and Jamie Jackson's, Paddock Paradise. These two books show both how a horse benefits from natural horse care and how to develop a facility that promotes a natural lifestyle for horses.

Family farms, particularly those close to urban or suburban centers, can create affordable boarding opportunities of varying size and can even do so on their most unproductive crop land. In many cases they can produce their own hay and increase their profit margin. The cost of converting open cropland to a natural horse care facility is minimal. There is no need to build a barn, stables or any other form of maximum security incarceration for horses. If shelters are absolutely necessary simple, three sided shelters which do not trap a horse inside an ammonia filled cell provide a healthy alternative to stables.

It is important to understand that every natural horse care facility need not perfectly mimic those set out in Paddock Paradise but that the principles of movement, forage diets, and fresh air are vital to the horse's health and well being.

How many parents out there would love to have their kids on horses but have no space for them and cannot afford the monthly board at a modern equine incarceration facility? The only way that we can find out how many such families exist is to give them access to enlightened natural horse care facilities.

What can keep this from happening? Two things, apathy and the intense opposition of the established horse world. That means that everyone that is willing to take on this crusade has to be prepared to thicken their skin, increase their knowledge, and work to make their communities a better place for horse, kids, and farmers.

Here is the beginning of an action plan for those who do care.

Become absolutely familiar with the literature on natural horse care. Do not be intimidated by "experts" from the established horse world. After one reads Soul of A Horse and Paddock Paradise one will already understand more about a horse's physical and emotional needs than do many of today's "real horse professionals."

Meet with your county extension agent. Educate that agent on the advantages of a natural horse care facility for the local farmer. Speak with a rural insurance agent concerning the cost of insurance for the services that a board provider at a natural horse care facility would actually need. Determine the cost of fencing per acre for a facility.(No barbed wire, electric fencing and suitable wire mesh fencing is entirely appropriate, metal "T" posts would require some form of capping system to make them safe)Research the cost of boarding horses in you area as it currently stands. Determine how many kids are in school in a fifty mile radius of a proposed facility by simply looking up enrollment in local schools.

In short, know the answer to the questions that any farmer is going to ask right off of the bat. How much will this cost me to build? What about insurance costs and liability? How much will it cost me to provide care for each horse and how much will the market bear for a monthly board fee?

Then develop a program that, with the help of your local extension agent, that can be presented to local farmers. Work with your local extension agent to develop a brochure/flyer that can be made available to farmers on natural horse care facilities.

We will provide a short DVD at no cost that can be used at informational meetings with local farmers. (Yes, home made and cheap but you will not be using it at the Cannes Film Festival.)

Get evangelical about this! My weekdays consist of prosecuting children and adults that commit crimes against children. I know how much these kids would benefit from the entire experience of having horses. I look into pastures where obese horses stand around wearing their pasture blankets in 50 degree weather. I drive past land that was farm land for 200 years but is no longer possible to farm at a profit.

Then, I get home to my horse lot where I am met by happy, healthy, dirty horses that eat grass, hay and browse and never enter a stable or wear a shoe. I watch as kids go out to the pasture, catch their horses, saddle their horses, mount up on their horses, ride their horses, and improve their lives.

We can make this happen all over the country. All we have to do is work.

(Editor's note: This message does not apply to hose who have more important things to do than saving farms, kids and horses.)

American Azteca and Foundation Stock Society

The horse pictured above is Holy Toledo, an Azteca owned by Jeff and Katrina Saunders. The picture comes from the web page of a new registry, The American Azteca and Foundation Stock Society. The formation of this registry is another great opportunity for the off site breeding program for the Corollas.

Breeding Corollas to modern stock is a tricky move. The only real danger is if the 1/2 breeds were somehow slipped into the offsite breeding program as pure Corollas or Shacklefords. It will be up to those participating in the program to be diligent to protect its integrity.

That important caveat aside, I know just how wonderful a foal can be produced by such crosses. As it has for the past 50 years, the American Indian Horse Registry provides a great home registry for horses of of 1/2 Colonial Spanish horse descent.

This new registry has an interesting twist. HOA registered horses, of which all Corollas and Shacklefords are eligible to be, may be registered with the American Azteca and Foundation Stock Society as foundation breeding stock. I intend to do so with all of my Corolla and Shackleford stallions.

The founders of this registry are serving a very important purpose in working to develop the American Azteca. Modern breeding fads have allowed modern breeds that were once rooted in Spanish Colonial cow pony stock to create horses that have neither the body nor the temperament to have made solid working stock on the western ranges of the 1800's. The recognition of the historical reality that the root of that working stock was the Colonial Spanish horse is implicit in the use of HOA registered horses as foundation stock.

Like all endangered heritage breeds of American livestock, the Corollas should be preserved for the sake of preservation. They should not have to prove their worth. Time has proven their worth. But for those that want additional reasons to preserve these horses we show their athleticism, endurance, tractability, and inherent soundness every time we saddle up. The existence of the American Azteca and Foundation Stock Society helps illustrate the third reason that these horses should be preserve. Their genes are vitally important in continuing to improve the modern breeds whose roots are in the Spanish Colonial horse.

I will register my stallions with this registry and intend to register every stallion that we produce in the off site breeding program with this far sited registry. Unlike splinter groups of Spanish mustang registries, this registry compliments and does not compete with the HOA.

Tougher Than A Junkyard Dog

Here is Lydia, the person, with her namesake, Lydia, the dog. A week ago we did our most recent fifty mile in a day ride. Lydia dog is now a touch over six months old. She trotted along with us for forty of the fifty miles. (I kept her back for one ten mile circuit because we were going to ride by some bull dogs that might have wanted to establish a no fly zone over her.) The next day she joined my riders for a day of riding in the woods seeming as fresh as the day before.

Lydia dog is 50% boxer, 50% Coon Hound and 100% tough. (Lydia the person recently rode 98 miles in two days. She is no wimp either.)