Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: The Importance of Good Grooming

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: The Importance of Good Grooming: Yesterday I took a break from trimming hooves and sat down under a tree at the Little House. My granddaughter was behind me and begin &qu...

Spring is Coming and It's Time To Compete!

No, I have not changed. I still do not like horse shows, especially for kids. I do not approve of any activity that teaches a 12 year old girl that she should sell her best friend and purchase a stranger because the stranger might be able to win a different color strip of cloth than her best friend can.

That sums it up. Horse shows promote the idea that a horse's worth equals his sales price and if he is a winner then he is worth more.

No, horses, like people, are all of equal worth. Some cost more than others but that has nothing to do with "worth." A horse's worth is not something that people can assign to him. God assigned the horse his worth when he drew his first breath as a foal.

However, if competition could be designed that would encourage people to work with their horse and stick with their horse instead of trading them like base ball cards, that would be a great thing. That is what the awards programs of the American Indian Horse Registry and the Horse of the Americas Registry do. By awarding cumulative points for various activities they encourage kids to spend time with their horse and to earn points for their activities with their horse.

This form of competition encourages the development of a strong relationship between horse and rider. Conventional competitions work to weaken that bond.

Once again, I go back to our purpose. The primary reason that we practice natural horsemanship is to create better people. Consider these two models:


1. Fourteen year old whose parents purchase her a $20,000.00 horse and have it trained by a professional for the purpose of hauling it to a series of horse shows over the summer to be sold for a higher price if it does well during the season, or replaced if it fails to bring home the blue ribbons.

2. Fourteen year old whose parents adopt a wild Corolla Spanish mustang for $700.00 and the teen works tirelessly to gain the horse's trust and to gently train it for the purpose of riding endless miles on trails for the next twenty years. If it needs additional training the teen provides that training, producing a "worthless" horse that the teen would not consider selling for even $20,000.00.


The AIHR and the HOA have an awards program that recognizes the value of the second option.

Which option do you think produces the better person?

(This little stallion is The Black Drink. He is the first stallion that we have produced in the Corolla offsite breeding program and is the anchor of the Corolla progam at Boy's Home of Covington, Virginia)

To Stand the Test of Time

Smooth, steady, dignified, resilient.....and nearly extinct. That is the connection between music with meaning and mustangs.

 Irreplaceable yet nearly gone.

For several hundred years here in America the little Spanish horses transported the bodies of working people while their music transformed the spirit of working people.

I do no know anything about this lady. She appears to be of Indian descent. She is holding the most important instrument to come to the new world from Africa. Her dulcimer is an American adaptation of instruments likely to have German origin.

This is a picture of America--Red, Black And White. A blm mustang is also a picture of America.

Mixed blood, mixed origin--pure American. It is nauseating enough to see the established horse world denigrate the blm mustang, but it is much worse to see those of the Spanish mustang world do so.

We should know better.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: No Wall Is Higher, No Barrier Thicker Than a Good...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: No Wall Is Higher, No Barrier Thicker Than a Good...: Too many people love their excuses more than they love truth. The believe to their core excuses like: I can't speak out. People migh...

To Take So Long as it Would In The End

After living fifty four years one would expect to no longer be surprised to see spring arriving once again. Every winter I am shocked by the bleak landscape of death and every spring I am surprised at the vivid return of life. It is starting to happen. First the willows, then the dog woods and poplars will come out.

My bleak slippery, mud hole will become a lush, soft pasture. My stiff, sore body will become limber again. My shaggy looking scrub ponies will once again become the sleek horses of the nobility of at least four, and maybe five continents, as they have been over the past 1000 years.

Soon there will be no need to seek out beauty. It will come running to me every day.