For
the first few years that I trained horses my little brother, Lido, was
the first person to get on all of the wild horses and colts that we
started. He did so though he was only about ten years old, had cerebral
palsy and had a right hand and leg that were of nearly no use to him.
Lido,
without letting anyone know, slipped an old Appaloosa mare back to the
tack shed late one night and bred her to Tradewind, one of my Corolla
stallions. Several months later he told Daddy what he had done but Daddy
assumed that it was a joke.
The colt was born several months
after Lido died. Legacy is a very impressive colt. He will likely be
gaited and will definitely be beautiful. That is his owner, Samantha,
there with him in the picture above.
Yesterday was a big day for
Legacy, Samantha,.....and me. I took Legacy into the old round pen that
Lido and I used to use and put him through all of the despooking and
calming exercises that we always used. He took everything well. It was
the first time that I put any intensive work into the colt, though
Samantha's mother has been doing a great job of introducing him to
learning.
Yesterday the introductions were completed. I paid
back the favor to Lido. I gave Lido's colt his first mounting the same
way that way he provided so many of my colts with their first mounting.
He did great as I got on and eventually let him take a few steps with
me. He will continue to be trained slowly and patiently---the way that
we used to do it.
Samantha was not so sure that she wanted to
mount up. However, we proceeded--slowly and patiently--and before the
sun set Samantha had also sat on her horse. She went home happy. Legacy
went back to the pasture contented and I went home with a feeling that I
had nearly forgotten--satisfaction.
I encourage my little
riders to study every thing that they can get their hands on concerning
natural horsemanship. I encourage them to go see every great clinician
that they can meet and to learn all that they can from them. I encourage
them to apply everything that they can learn from every great
clinician.
I discourage them from falling into the trap of
believing that any particular clinician has all of the answers and that
all other methods are wrong.
That false belief is an insult to Lido, and to Legacy.
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