Washani Coming To Virginia

There is the kind of excitement going around the horse lot that usually only comes up when a foal is born. On February 24 this beautiful mare will be making the trip from Texas to join our program. I am delighted to have such a high percentage Huasteca strain horse in our program. When one throws in 50% Choctaw lineage and the body type of a Banker , it is hard to imagine breeding that would fit better in our program.

When she arrives I will likely have the New Land in good enough condition to be able to give her the same type of intense daily training that I gave to Sally last summer. I am looking forward to that. Washani has been under saddle but has not been ridden in a while. I am looking forward to bringing out the best in her.

This will be a wonderful addition to our program.

Biological Farming: Building Better Pasture One Cell At a Time

I have spent a lot of time learning about pasture development over the past two years. I have absorbed everything that I can about rotational grazing. What we want is easily definable--first rate forage growth, high quality forage production with high mineral content, soil that absorbs water with minimal run off, and plants with deep root systems.

We are converting twenty acres of over grown land that was pasture about 15 years ago. I have taken on line classes with Simple Soil Solutions and have learned how to advance microbial growth by rolling out round bales and have come to understand the detrimental effect of soil compaction.

Spring is coming soon and we are beginning to plan for production of Indigenous Microbial Organisms to spray on the land. Production and use of IMO's will be another wonderful step towards raising healthier, happier horses in a natural model that helps bring the cost of ownership of horses within the reach of working families.

If you have pasturage or if you simply care about preservation and enhancement of soil, research biological farming, microbial enhancement, and use of IMO's.

Or, if mindless conformity to the p;pronouncements of big agribusiness is more of your style, then continue to spend a fortune on modern chemicals that poison your land and produce lower quality pasture while closely adhering to the dictates of the established horse world.

Enough Wisdom To Get Through The Winter

"Ain't but two kinds of music--the blues and zip-a-day-do-do."
Townes Van Zandt 


"Ain't but two kinds of music--the good music and the bad music. I play the good."
Louis Armstrong


" Horses don't have birthdays. They come in three ages--too young to ride, too old to ride, and alright to ride"
Anonymous 

"Which one the biggest, Steve or the pony?"
Benny Poole, a very old farrier when Daddy asked him how old he thought my yearling pony would need to be before I started riding him (I was age 2 at the time.)

"When you get hung up bad in briers-- accelerate"
Even more Anonymous than the first one

"I have seen the David. Seen the Mona Lisa too
 And I have seen Doc Watson play the 'Columbus Stockade Blues'"
Guy Clark

"Ain't but two kind of men and I ain't neither one of them."
Jason Isbell

"Eugene Parker's a big farmer. He run liquor and grew corn.
 Beat his wife on Saturday. Headed up the Deacon Board."

"When children die they die deader than old people do when they die."
 

Collision:Walking In Two Worlds

The unexamined life is not worth living--Socrates


"Twenty years? No one should do that more than two years." That is what a former prosecutor told me this week when I told him that I have just past my 20th anniversary of prosecuting crimes against children and sexual assaults.

One of my greatest hopes in life is that over the next fifty years programs like ours will pop up all over the country. I often stress how simple it is to do what we do when urging others to merge education, entertainment, public service, livestock conservation, and permaculture and healing into one program.

I have often said that anyone who cares about horses and kids could do what we do.

I am not certain anymore that that is true. My life is limited to prosecution and running the horse lot. If my regular job did not provide such unyielding pain I doubt if I would have the energy or drive to throw the rest of my life into running the horse lot.

And yes, I realize how old I am. And yes, I realize that I have not been getting enough sleep since 1992. And I know that my truck has over a quarter of a million miles on it. And yes, I know that my guitar is only a Sigma because I would feel very selfish if I bought an expensive Martin.

But I know that the New Land must be cleared. And I know that there are hundreds of people in our area that need for our program.

But it is more difficult than some might imagine to spend a wonderful day helping a new rider gain confidence and skill and then have nightmares in which my little riders images are substituted for the victims of crimes that I am prosecuting at the moment.

Agritourism, Horses and Healing

I have been invited to speak to the 2018 Virginia Agritourism Conference in Williamsburg at 10:30 on March 22. I will focus on how we use a variety of programs that attract people to the horse lot. I will show them how many more participants one can get by transforming a riding program into a multifaceted program whose product is "meaning" not just horses.

I will also use the opportunity to encourage more networking, coordination and cross promotion of programs that promote rural culture across this state.

Much of the presentation will have the same theme that our day long series of demonstrations for the annual meeting of the Livestock Breeds Conservancy in November had--that melding education, entertainment, and public service is a solid recipe to attract visitors to a new way of life.