Be Patient, Conservation Help Can Come From Unanticipated Sources

We work hard to conserve and promote nearly extinct strains of Colonial Spanish horses along with several other Heritage livestock breeds. We work even harder to promote soil and water conservation. This is a winter picture of a portion of a pasture created from acres of brush, trees, and brambles. Thousands of small trees were removed by hand--no heavy equipment to scar and compact the soil. Trees were converted into fences and  brush piles for wild life. No chemical herbicides, fertilizers or pesticides are applied to the land. The soil is being rebuilt by multi species grazing and microbial farming techniques.

One never knows where help will be coming from and that is one of the reasons to never give up on a project worth doing. Wendell purchased a brush buster and walked behind it for countless hours in the early stages of converting the land to usable pasture.  Scouts and volunteers from Dominion  Power helped clear land. A grant from the Livestock Conservancy has allowed us to divide the parcel into five paddocks. Jack  dug out another water hole to go along with the larger ones that my brother dug out. Matt tirelessly cut stumps and built brush piles.

When I purchased a chainsaw to begin this project I had no reason to hope for any of the help that we have received from volunteers and outside organizations.

I see a strange parallel going on in the miles of ditches near the horse lot. About a decade ago I saw something in one of the ditches that I had not seen in nearly forty years--a spotted turtle. These endangered turtles cannot live in the kinds of degraded water ways that modern agriculture often produces. Slowly their numbers increased. In the past few years the spotted turtle population has seemed to skyrocket.

Why could that be? I have a pretty strong hunch.

Raccoons feast on not only the eggs of ground nesting birds, but also on turtle eggs. Since the 90's our raccoon population has been steadily dwindling. Our skunk population is dwindling but  not as fast as the raccoon population.

Ground Hogs have all but disappeared. The once booming fox population seems to have leveled off. Dead possums do not litter the roadways in nearly the numbers that they did a score of years ago. Feral cats, once one of the most commonly seen non-rodent mammals in our woods are now seen only a few times a year by those who observe the woods with the most careful of eyes.

The change has been the explosion of coyotes in our region. Coyotes, who mate freely with dogs, and whose offspring with dogs are fertile, hunt in packs here in Tidewater. By hunting in packs instead of singles or pairs they are more efficient predators and the resulting Coy-Dog has brought a big change to our wild life profile.

The spotted turtles have been unforeseen benefactors of this change in predation. Without so many feral cats, raccoons, and possums out there to dig up and consume their eggs their numbers have taken off.

I cannot imagine that any wild life biologist would have expected this outcome, just as I never expected all of the hard work of volunteers and financial contributions that have kept our program growing.

The spotted turtle provides another lesson for us. They have life spans of 60-110 years of age. They are in it for the long haul.

So are we. Working steady--plodding forward--planting seeds and breeding for the future. 

Check out this great article on these beautiful turtles.

 https://www.chesapeakebay.net/S=0/fieldguide/critter/spotted_turtle?fbclid=IwAR09nG2ymatIR358rXaCFpB2nxzgghsOENEtTHGyANlCvdB119lq9biboAM

Three Beliefs That Limit One's Horsemanship ...and One's Happiness

Few of us are  lucky enough to have none of these beliefs. Although they are contradictory, some of us are trapped holding all three beliefs at the same time. The beliefs all relate to power and control. Some of the beliefs change on their own as we age. Others might require years of counselling and hard work to over come.

The first of these toxic beliefs  is that one can control the events around them. This is a vanity for little boys who control their environments by pressing buttons on videos. Doing so creates the false perception that life follows the model of  power and competition embodied in these games. But this flawed belief existed ages before video games.  It is embodied in the belief that training problems are solved by showing the horse "who is boss."

Years ago I noticed that, nearly to a uniform degree, little boys described their problems with horses by saying, "That horse is not doing what I said!", while little girls framed the problem in starkly different terms, "That horse is not listening to me!"

In short order, a rider learns that his ability to control the horse is limited. The rider must be confident enough to humble himself into learning how to communicate with the horse. Many people cannot do so. All they can do is seek to prove to themselves and others that the problem lies entirely with the horse. The reality is that one can learn to communicate effectively with the horse in order to increase the degree of control that one has over the horse...but there  never is complete control over the horse.

And there never is complete control in any other aspect of our lives. We live in an uncertain world and those who refuse to accept that will learn that brick walls cannot be broken with human heads.

The second of these toxic beliefs is that one should be able to control the events around them. This belief causes us to analyze all problems with horses with one measure--"What did I do wrong to cause this problem with the horse?" If one should  be in control and a problem arises then the problem is the result of the failure of the person to do what they should  have done.This belief causes people to wrack their minds trying to come up with a  reason that they fell from the horse.

Self loathing is not a productive source of motivation.

The saddest of these three beliefs is that one has no control over the events around them. It is often a product of years of abuse and perhaps full blown PTSD.  This belief is trauma's child. Powerlessness breeds anxiety and depression. The best news is that learning natural horsemanship can reverse this belief. I have seen it happen too often to even question its effectiveness. When one learns to train a horse with 51% control and 49% affection one learns how truly powerful one can become.

 Q. "That horse must be crazy! Why did that horse throw me?'
A.  "He didn't throw you. You fell off."
Q. "So you are saying that it is my fault?"
A. "Nope, I'm saying that if you lengthen your stirrups a notch or two and get a bit more power in your legs you can handle a minor spooking like that."
Q. "I don't think that there is anything that will ever keep me from falling from a horse that spooks like that. You don't really think that I can learn to stay on when that happens, do you?
A. "Yep. And I can show you how. And you can learn to do things that you never thought possible."

And when one internalizes the last statement above--real horsemanship...and real happiness is possible.

Now Listen Very Closely While I Scream Something At You

I am not in pain this morning. I am sixty years old, arthritic, and by any measure at least forty pounds over weight.

And yesterday I rode the easiest, most comfortable thirty miles of primarily trotting and cantering  that I have ever spent on a horse at that distance.

I have only lost eight pounds in the last month so the weight loss does not account for the improvement. For several weeks now I have incorporated light weight training into a tabata protocol work out that has radically improved my level of fitness and strength. 

And it takes about 7 minutes a day.

A horse can carry a fit rider much easier than one who is weak and unsteady. A rider who is fit can flow with the horse's movement in a way that makes riding much easier than can be done otherwise.

If you want to do something great for yourself and your horse, check with your doctor first and research tabata protocol and see if it is right for you.

Preserving Great Colonial Spanish Equine Genetics

Years ago, I stood on the beach at Corrova and saw my first wild Corolla horses. I was on the inspection tour of the wild herds of Shacklford and Corolla with representatives of the Livestock Breeds Conservancy, and the Horse of The Americas Registry, and the American Indian Horse Registry,  including two of the nations premier Colonial Spanish horse preservationist, Vickie Ives and Tom Norush.

At the time I had never heard of a Grand Canyon horse. It seemed that every time we saw a beautiful stallion, Vickie would same something about how important it would be to cross a Corolla stallion with a Grand Canyon mare.

Look at these pictures above. Manteo, the black stallion is a formerly wild horse from Corolla. Bella Note is 12.5% Grand Canyon. That might not seem like much, but to my knowledge, she is the last surviving mare to have such a high percentage of Grand Canyon lineage. The remainder of her lineage is Book Cliff, Choctaw, Brislawn Foundation, Sulfur, Crow and Shoshoni. (For those unfamiliar with the breed, this does not make her a "cross breed." The breed is Colonial Spanish which is composed of many strains, all going back to the horses brought by the Spanish during the earliest years of the colonization  of North and Central America. Some like to argue that this not correct and that each strain must be considered a breed unto itself. Such people could more productively spend their time counting the number of angels that can dance on the tip of a needle)

We now have a son of Rowdy Yates who is 12.5% Grand Canyon (the father of Bella Note), two mares that are 6.25% Grand Canyon, and two other mares at the horse lot owned by program participants who are 6.25% Grand Canyon. Insuring that this remnant does not perish from the earth is an important additional goal for our program.

Spring is A Time For Growth...Even This Spring

Around the world people are finding themselves on lock down or even quarantine. Even for those of us not facing those restrictions it can feel as if life is on hold. Horse shows, parades and equestrian events are being cancelled all around the world. We should not wait until life is "normal" again to improve our knowledge and horsemanship.

We can still grow this spring.  In fact, this is a great time to do that.

Some of us are lucky enough to be able to get out and spend time alone with a horse. There is no better way to build a relationship with a horse than to invest undistracted time in that horse

This is a great time to work on training your equine to be light and responsive to cues. This young rider spends hours each week training a pair of donkeys to make perfect partners for him.

Great equine photographers find that their knowledge of horses grows with the time spent waiting for that perfect shot. Even if you cannot get out and practice your photography this is a great time to research and study the technical aspects of photography. This great picture from Everyday Photography shows the result that such study can produce.

You can also use this time to learn entirely new equine skills. When one considers the cost of horse ownership people rarely think about the cost of good hoof care. Young people who learn natural hoof care not only can make owning their own horse more affordable, they often can earn money by trimming hooves for others. It takes years of study and experience to do so, but Pete Ramey's book on natural horse care is a great place to start.


If horses could tell people what they need for people to do in this time of uncertainty and confusion I am pretty sure that what they would want each of us to do is to grow. We all need to grow in our knowledge of natural horsemanship, natural horse care, and natural hoof care. We all need to grow in our knowledge of riding. But there is one last thing that horses need for people to do.

They need for us to grow in our level of physical fitness. A strong, balanced rider is much easier for a horse to carry.  An aerobically fit rider whose stamina allows for longer riding sessions is much easier for a horse to carry.

One does not need a gym membership to grow in strength, balance, and endurance. One does need dedication and discipline to do so.

Make this spring the time that you grow in knowledge, understanding, and physical fitness.

And by next spring you will see that your enjoyment of horses has grown like a weed.