To Earn the Respect of Intelligent People

Bonnie Gruenberg, author of "Hoof Prints in the Sand," the best book heretofore written about the horses of the islands of the east coast, is working on three more books on the subject. She spent the weekend with us after spending Friday at Assateague and heading out for Corolla this morning. Bonnie has been researching and writing about these horses for nearly twenty years but had not ridden one before. She is a very skilled rider. Saturday night she joined us for a night ride. She rode the first half of the ride on Holland, a Shackleford, and rode home on Manteo a Corolla stallion. The last stretch through the woods was in total darkness. She learned first hand what these horses can do. She gave a great presentation to our riders on topics to be featured in her upcoming books. We work very hard to be more than a "ride in a circle in the sand" riding "lesson" facility. We are a center of education with speakers and programs that cover archeology, equine history, music, natural horse care, natural hoof care and natural horsemanship. This weekend was one of the most important ones for our program yet. This is a great shot of Bonnie over at the Spear's home during her presentation.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: The Blood of Good Blooded Horses

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: The Blood of Good Blooded Horses: A bit of perspective is needed when looking at the current horses market. I must admit that I was caught off guard a bit when it was sugg...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I'm Not Kin To Most of My Family

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I'm Not Kin To Most of My Family: Yesterday was a great day for our program and I think that it could lead to a great day for the Corolla preservation effort. The day was ...

Quick Tip #11--Don't Forget the Bosal

A lot of ink is spilled on the question of the perfect training bit for a young horse. It has become stylish in some programs to start a colt using only a rope halter. There is merit in doing so. I have achieved the kind of results that I want with a bosal.

Until I started having very young riders I rode all of my horses in a bosal. However, kids as young as four or five seem to need the additional power that can be found in a simple snaffle. This summer I am going back to the bosal for all of the colts and wild horses that we start and I will keep them in a bosal indefinitely.

The bosal comes with a great deal of history and tradition behind it. I find them more attractive than bits. I love their simplicity. Most importantly I love that they are not bits. It is not that bits are per se bad. The problem is that they provide a built in excuse for performance and behavioral problems. All too often the "solution" to every training problem is to find the perfect bit.

Don't spend your money on the search for the perfect bit. Instead spend your time training a horse that is perfect for you.

To Teach is To Learn

 

I wince at the term "riding instructor." The world is filled with people better suited than am I to teach riding. Instead I work very hard to teach kids to want to ride. Kids that really want to ride become dedicated riders. I strongly suspect that you are looking at a picture of a boy that will be a first rate mandolin player. Monday night I was impressed with what he has been taught to do on a guitar and I told him that at the appropriate time he could borrow my mandolin and figure it out. At the end of our session Monday we decided that we had reached the appropriate time. His mother sent me this picture with a note that he has been playing nonstop since then. This all brings us back to one of the central purposes of this blog. The established horse world has created a system of horse care that is detrimental to the health of horses, destructive to efforts to build solid relationships with horses and all at a cost that is beyond the means of working families. That system must be replaced one step at a time and one of the first steps is to get more people teaching kids to ride at affordable rates. Teaching kids to ride amounts to teaching kids to not be afraid to ride. After that everything else falls into place. When it comes to teaching kids to ride inspiration is the most important part of instruction.