Teach Your Children Well: Turning Pro

I have many expectations of my riders. One of the most important expectations is that when they are grown, or even before, they are to teach kids how to handle horses. Several of my riders have already been hired or have volunteered as riding instructors, colt starters, riding camp staff, and even hoof trimmers.

Abby is my first rider to go full time in an equine profession. More about her wonderful new job in future posts.

You Cannot Ride a Horse in a Hospital Bed.

"But they are so small!"

I do not blame people for having this reaction when they see the Corollas and Shacklefords. I do not blame people for not knowing that they have sufficient carrying capacity to carry a man my size fifty miles in a day. I did not know that myself several years ago.

I wish more people understood how much safer it is to ride a smaller horse than a bigger horse. This point is beyond debate. It is simple, (and I do mean simple), physics. One is more likely to be injured by having a 1200 lbs horse roll over on them than to have a 700 lbs horse do the same. One is less likely to shatter bones falling from a 13.2 horse than a 16.3 horse.

As a general rule a twelve hundred pound horse will generate more force while kicking one in the face than will a 700 lbs horse.

These are important considerations for kids, but they are even more important considerations for riders over forty years old. We bruise easily and break often. Healing is slow, painful, and often incomplete. I broke my pelvis a few years ago in a fall that would have barely dusted me as a teenager. The bruising was so extensive and the swelling was so pronounced that I did not realize that the fracture was there until the swelling finally subsided and I felt the the clearly defined ridge where the bone had cracked and healed.

Yes, these horses are so small and so sturdy, and so strong....and so safe.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I Was Not Raised Like Other People

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I Was Not Raised Like Other People: "Over the years my parents adopted ten kids and kept over 120 foster children. My father was one of the founders of the local Rescue Squad ..."

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Karen McCalpin Executive Director Corolla Wild Hor...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Karen McCalpin Executive Director Corolla Wild Hor...: "In the past some critics have derided the Corollas as being “Back Yard ponies.” What evidence do we have that ties the Corollas back to t..."

A Critical Mass

We now have Corollas that will be part of the off site breeding program in several states. I have had three foals born this spring and I expect to place one out of state, another in Virginia and I will keep Pasquenoke here. We will continue to urge people from across the nation to participate in the off site breeding program. However, a phone call that I received yesterday lead me to rethink the importance of wide geographic distribution of the horses that are part of the program.

Karma Farms will continue to do a great job at getting Sea King out in front of the public in Texas. I have decided to shift my emphasis by recruiting primarily participants in Virginia and the Carolinas. It is possible to spread butter so thin that it cannot be tasted. Perhaps for the next decade the best first step is to develop a viable core of foundation stock in this region.

The only practical difference that this will make is that we will concentrate our efforts at publicity and promotion in this region. We will still be delighted to place horses in other parts of the country and will do everything possible to make that happen.

The stallion in the picture above is what lead me to this shift in emphasis. He will have to be captured and removed from the wild within the next few days. He has a "problem" with his stifle that is more common with Colonial Spanish Horses than with many other horses. While it looks painful, it is not and is easily remedied by strengthening the muscles of the hind quarters. It is a situation that is difficult for a horse to remedy on its own but is about as easy to fix as any problem that a horse could encounter.

We will exercise him, gentle him, train him, and ride him. Then we will work very hard to place him with a person dedicated to the preservation of these horses. We have enough stallions from Corolla here in Smithfield. We will be looking to place him with someone that wants to ensure the survival of the oldest and rarest distinct genetic line of American horses in existence today.

We are looking for people that would see value in horses that:

1. are the gentlest and easiest to train of any horse with which I have come in contact;

2. are smooth gaited with extraordinary endurance;

3. eat little more than does a billy goat;

4. carry riders who weigh well over 200 lbs with the greatest of ease;

5. are the state horse of North Carolina;

6. are some of the foundation stock of the Virginia Quarter Mile Racer, which was part of the foundation stock of the American Quarter Horse;

7. are registrable with the Horse of the Americas Registry, American Indian Horse Registry and as foundation stock for the American Azteca Society;

8. produce spectacular half breed horses when bred to mares of other breeds and strains;

9. are a remnant of the horse that once populated all of the southeastern part of our nation;

10 are drawn to bond with people as naturally as they are drawn to eat grass.

Preserving these horses domestically is a safety net and not a substitute for maintaining a herd of wild and free Corollas. In fact, the more people see of these horses that have been tamed the more likely they are to support efforts to preserve them in the wild. The safest band of wild horses in America are the Chincoteagues. Because they are so well known, they have what amounts to an auxiliary army of supporters that would oppose efforts to extinguish them.

If the Corollas become as well known as the Chincoteagues they will also be forever safe in the wild. We have little time to make that happen. They are nearly gone.

For the off site breeding program to succeed we have to draw dedicated people into this effort. We have to breed and train and show off many horses--200 in 10 years?--1000 in twenty years?

We can do this thing.

Do you want to be part of something that matters?