It's Not Bad To Think Little Spanish Horses Can Only Carry Children...

....what is bad is refusing to learn to the contrary when the facts are presented. Ten years ago I did not know that the Corollas and Shacklefords could carry adults. I fell for the same outmoded cliches, "twenty percent of body weight, etc" that everyone "knew" to be the case.

These cliche's may be appropriate for some breeds. I will let advocates of those breeds speak to that issue. They are inappropriate for Spanish Colonial horses. I do not base this assertion on theories or old Cavalry standards. I base them on what I have seen and what I have felt riding these horses in rough, wet terrain for much of the past decade. Tradewind, shown above, was captured because he was severely foundered. We used Pete Ramey trimming techniques and made him perfectly sound.

In 2011 he carried me 206 hours in the woods, the vast majority of that, trotting or cantering. That is well over 1000 miles in just one year. It does not include the miles that other riders put on him.

It struck me that I have probably ridden Corollas more and Shacklefords more miles than anyone else alive. (I hope not, because I would love to hear from someone who has done even more miles on these horses).

I am the proof, all 220 plus pounds of me, of what these horses can do.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Houston, We Have Landed...and, uh, We Ain't Going ...

Hit this link to see an old posts about acquiring roots.Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Houston, We Have Landed...and, uh, We Ain't Going ...: I do not come from adventurous frontier stock. My white ancestors settled about 8 miles from the Little House in 1678 and since that ti...

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I'd Swim the Seas For To Ease Your Pain

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: I'd Swim the Seas For To Ease Your Pain: In the great documentary "Buck" it is pointed out that those who are able to communicate best with horses are often "tortu...

An Old Road

This is a portion of an old wagon road that went from the interior of the county out to the James river. It was used in the 20th Century for farmers to take goods down to the steam boats. Farm familis here rode on those steam boats as they hopped from one place in Tidewater to the next. My Grandmother told me that the trip from this path to Norfolk (about 35 miles directly) would begin before the sun came up and one would be home well after dark. The steam boats went from Smithfield, to the Peninsula, to Norfolk and back.

This might be a portion of the same route used by my great grandfather when he would drive a team of three trained farm horses toward Portsmouth where he would purchase a wild mustang (known then as "Texas Broncs") off of the rail road cars and hook it into the fourth position in the harness and drive them home. The long trip did an awful lot to get the wild horse started in his training.

The white settler's roads often followed the same trek that the Indians had used for centuries. It is very likely that this road, then but a foot trail, had been in use for many years before John Smith first landed in Isle of Wight in 1608.

Now there is only a small section of this trail recognizable to the eye. Just a small trace of history left. That's all.

I am riding Holland, a Spanish Colonial Mustang from Shackleford Island in this picture. When my ancestors rode along this trail in the late 1600's they would have been riding Spanish colonial horses just like Holland. Back then that was the only kind of horse in this part of Virginia.

Now they are nearly extinct.

Just a small trace of history left. That's all.

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Unwanted Horses

Mill Swamp Indian Horse Views: Unwanted Horses: Annie is a USERL mustang. Vickie is a retired school teacher. Annie was an unwanted horse. Vickie always wanted a horse. Annie needed a hom...