To Fight The Darkness You Must Fight Dirty

Fighting depression and anxiety disorders is a full time job that requires full time commitment. No one ever gets better without putting tremendous effort into the struggle..

There are no accidental healings.

The answers are not easy but they never come until the questions are asked.

Here is a hard, basic question that goes to the heart of getting better--why is this illness so much more prevalent in modern society than in agricultural cultures?

I have no doubt that we are genetically predisposed to farming and animal husbandry. It is a simple evolutionary fact. Those who were drawn to farming survived at much higher rates than hunter/gatherers.They produced more off spring and came to dominate the genetic pool

There is also the suggestion that microbes in soil may be necessary for a human brain to function correctly. If so, there is a direct link between the soil and happiness.

The Darkness rarely leaves on its own accord. It thrives in seclusion and blossoms in inactivity.

But the Darkness can't live forever when it is forced to enter a shadow. Getting outside, getting in the sunlight, getting into situations where one is constantly able to see one's shadow is toxic to the Darkness.

And one sees one's shadow in a horse lot. One sees one's shadow in a pig pen. One sees one's shadow in a poultry yard. And one sees one's shadow in a goat pasture.

But there is no shadow in a darkened room. There is no shadow in a bedroom with tightly drawn shades. A bottle of liquor does not generate the light needed to create a shadow.

There are no shadows in coffins.

Plant a tree. Pick a fruit. Feed a pig. Gather an egg. Slaughter a goat.---get your hands dirty.

And fight the Darkness.

Another Great Corolla In The Woods

Little Hawk, son the the famous Red Feather, had his first ride in the woods today. Yesterday I rode him in the round pen. Last night I ponied him in full tack on a night ride.

This morning Terry rode him in the woods.

He is going to be great!

When I Started I Did Not Plan To Ride 1000 Miles In Six Months

Sometimes these things just creep up on you and before you know it--bam! you are caught up in it. I planned to ride 1000 miles in a year. Eventually I decided to keep the GPS on and go for it in half that time.

These rides were about 85 percent cantering, trotting or gaiting for the first four months. For the last two months they were much more than 95 percent cantering, trotting or gaiting. I rode 300 miles in the last 22 days.

My main horses were all Colonial Spanish Horses. Joey, a Choctaw, was my fastest ground coverer. Ta Sunka Witco a high percentage Choctaw was my most comfortable to ride at a lope (though his lope was much slower than Joey's trot). Holland, my Shackleford, gave me smooth gaited rides and sure footedness that I could always could on when riding through the woods. Twister, a Choctaw, improved with every 10 mile run.

I rode a few other Corollas but the horses listed above were pretty much the string that took me through this. Towards the end instead of running a horse from 7-8 am, I began to ride much earlier, generally around five am. Terry, my good friend and paralegal joined me for most of the 5:00 am rides. Of course she loved the ride but I think that she was also riding because she did not want me running a horse very hard alone in the woods so long before the sun rose.

A few odd notes on the effort:

1. I did not get a single saddle sore.
2. The girth's that Pam makes from mohair greatly out perform any of the other girths that I used.
3. Lost over ten pounds on the last 11 days of the ride--riding very hard, many hours in the saddle each day and low carbohydrate diet.
4. A conditioned horse can be counted on to move at speed for ten miles at a time.
5. #4 is only true if we are talking about a horse living in a natural horse care environment.
I can not make such a claim for horses trapped in lives of sugar, shoes and stables.
6. Every single horse, on every single ride carried more than the silly 20% weight carrying capacity myth that so many riders fall prey to.
7.   A bit of perspective on distance: Norfolk Virginia is 983 miles from Des Moines, Iowa and 1009 miles from Kansas City, Missouri  and 1012 miles from Havana, Cuba.

1000 miles in six months at age 56 while serving as Deputy prosecutor for Isle of Wight County and running our program, and being significantly over weight.

Take away point-- you are not too old, too busy, or too out of shape to get in the kind of hours in the saddle that you and your horse deserve.

What's Coming Up

Very little done on the blog lately--been busy--rode over 300 miles in 22 days and rode 1000 miles in six months--now I will be getting back into training, writing, and program development over the next six months.

In the meantime--here is a shot of Burns Red In The Sun--the first foal born on the east coast from a Bacca stallion and Taney Town, our new Marsh Tacky yearling filly.

Good stuff will be coming!

Krista Wins Carol Stone Award

The Horse of the Americas Registry (HOA) has awarded the prestigious Carol Stone Ambassador Award to Krysta Rutherford, for the second year in a row. The Award is presented each year to a registered HOA member who has accumulated the most points in the Promotion category for the Colonial Spanish breed of horse. The award is given in loving memory of Carol Stone a longtime friend and lover of the Colonial Spanish Horses and their owners. The HOA honors, preserves and promotes North America's First True Horse, the Colonial Spanish Horse of which there are less than 5,000. Rutherford adopted her HOA registered horse, Katalina, a Corolla Colonial Spanish Mustang, in February of 2013.


Krysta Rutherford, only 14 years old, is the daughter of Bob and Karen Rutherford of Smithfield, VA, has continued to work hard to secure this national award again. She is the youngest member and the only teenager to ever receive this award. Krysta was inspired by Steve Edwards of Gwaltney Frontier Farm to bring the attention of this endangered strain of horse to a larger audience. The Corolla wild horses teeter on the brink of extinction, with only about 100 left in the wild on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.


Krysta has worked hard to educate the public as to the plight of these horses Her efforts included, producing a video, professional pamphlet, training demonstrations, speeches, and news articles. She even went to Washington to lobby for the Corolla Wild Horse Protection Act. Rutherford’s efforts have also earned her the 2014 President’s Volunteer Service Gold Award, Girl Scouts Silver Award, Prudential Spirit of Community Award Local Honoree, and now will focus her Girl Scout Gold Award on a documentary about the various strains of Mustangs.


The Corollas are likely the rarest and oldest distinct genetic strain of horses that exist in America today. Mill Swamp Indian Horses, in Smithfield, heads up the effort to breed these horses domestically. Those efforts are supported by the Horse of the Americas Registry, http://www.horseoftheamericas.com/, and The American Indian Horse Registry, http://www.indianhorse.com/.


Krysta knows how impressive these little horses can be. She has ridden domestic Corollas hours on end and with the help of other participants in the Mill Swamp Indian Horses program gentled and trained her own formerly wild Corolla filly.


Mill Swamp Indian Horses is a program of Gwaltney Frontier Farm, Inc a local 501 (c) 5 corporation dedicated to preserving and protecting endangered strains of historic horses.


For more information on Gwaltney Frontier Farm programs or to learn how you can support its programs, check out the website at www.msindianhorses.com or send an email to msindianhorses@aol.com.

                                           Krista with then Senator Hagan of North Carolina

(This is a re-print of a recent Smithfield Times article. The Smithfield Times is a local newspaper that has provided spectacular coverage of our program and our efforts to preserve these horses. Few local papers in the nation have provided the kind of consistent, high quality journalism over that years that is typical of this newspaper.)