Volunteers Who Put Their Hearts Into Our Program

People often wonder how we can run all of the programs that we do, for all of the people that we do and care for as many horses as we do---all with no paid staff. It is because we have many volunteers who are as enthusiastic about this program as the participants are. Lydia was eleven years old when she learned to ride in our program. That was over a decade ago. Now she is an integral part of everything we do. Her is what she wrote about our program three years ago.

"My name is Lydia Barr. I ride,volunteer, and train horses, as well as keep my horse out at Mill Swamp Indian Horses.

I started riding and working with horses out there when I was 11yrs old. I was home schooled and my parents were looking for a way to include outdoor work and activities into my schooling as well as an outlet for my delight and curiosity about animals. The freedom to have a whole day of being challenged in an outdoor class room is a rare opportunity and Mill Swamp Indian Horses was the perfect match for me. I am the 5th out of 7 children so it was always a tricky thing for my Mom to work out the schedule for all of us each year. But Mill Swamp was the perfect fit. I was able to count my involvement as extra credits in physical education, community service, and leadership skills. While also gaining confidence, self control and emotional awareness that comes from learning to communicate with horses, other animals, and all the other people who ride and work out there. 

I am now 22 yrs old and my job is professionally training horses several days a week. Because of the rare and incredible opportunity to learn and gain experience training wild horses with Steve, I was able to push myself and develop my natural talent with animals. But through all the different programs at the horselot that focus on using horses for healing and better relationships with people, I have learned and grown up with a deep desire to use my skills and strengths to meet and build up everyone I come in contact with. 

The power of the horse lot comes from it's simplicity and honesty. It doesn't have straight fences and rolling green pastures. There is mud and baling twine fixes. But there is no pretense. We offer what we have to anyone who can come. People from all different backgrounds and stories are able to come and find community because the horses offer comfort and peace.Through the horses I have learned patience, gentleness, courage, compassion, and how to reach out and connect with other people. But it has also been through the people who have opened themselves up to the revealing vulnerability of working with the horses that have taught me some of the most important things about what I want to be, who I want to look like, and where I want to go. 

Steve Edwards, Mill Swamp Indian Horses, and the Gwaltney Frontier Farm have changed my life. Not from something damaged into something healed, or from darkness into light, but simply a deeper understanding, a wider perspective, a more gracious standard, and solid self awareness."

. You can help us keep this program going and growing throughout the pandemic. Make a contribution. Gwaltney Frontier Farm, Inc, is a 501 (c)5 breed conservation program that administers all of the programs at Mill Swamp Indian Horses. Contributions to a 501 (c) 5 breed conservation program are not tax deductible. However, the Gwaltney Frontier Farm Educational Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 educational foundation that helps fund our educational programs and helps pay for the physical infrastructure where we conduct our educational and instructional programs. Contributions to Gwaltney Frontier Farm Educational Foundation may be made by check mailed to 16 Dashiel Drive, Smithfield Virginia, 23430.

Doing Our Part In September

The strangest summer of my lifetime is coming to an end. The pandemic has cost our nation over 180,000 lives. Millions of Americans are unemployed. Educational opportunities across the nation have been turned upside down. Our non-profit program has suffered no deaths. We never had employees. Everything that we do is done by volunteers. However, our educational opportunities have been severely limited by the virus.

I recognize that many individuals and organizations have lost much more than we have, but we have lost enough to put us in a serious financial shortfall. for the month of September I am going to try to use this blog and social media to help us catch up and continue to grow.

I will be explaining different aspects of our program in these posts and will discuss how much it costs to keep different parts of the program going. Here is how you can help:

1. Share each post as they come out on our group facebook page.

2. For program members who do not use facebook I will be emailing each post directly to you. Send them on to friends, family and acquaintances along with a personal note letting them know how helpful a contribution would be during the month of September.

3. Make a contribution. Gwaltney Frontier Farm, Inc, is a 501 (c)5 breed conservation program that administers all of the programs at Mill Swamp Indian Horses. Contributions to a 501 (c) 5 breed conservation program are not tax deductible. However, the Gwaltney Frontier Farm Educational Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 educational foundation that helps fund our educational programs and helps pay for the physical infrastructure where we conduct our educational and instructional programs. Contributions to Gwaltney Frontier Farm Educational Foundation may be made by check mailed to 16 Dashiel Drive, Smithfield Virginia, 23430.

Be prepared to help out on this. Our programming is innovative and its breadth is unique. We touch lives. We save horses, history, and humans, all the while working to conserve and enhance the environment around us. And we have never turned anyone away for inability to pay program fees.

The Picture From Life's Other Side: What's Keeping Our Program Growing During the Pandemic

Everything that we do is done by volunteers and the work of every volunteer is vitally important. Many of us have particular talents that our program can put to use. The needs of our program change from season to season.

During the pandemic, we have less going on than we ever have, yet the number of program participants continues to grow. That is entirely the result of Sherry Brickhouse Leonard's spectacular photography with Everydaylife Photography.  Sherry's pictures bring to life everything that we do at the horse lot. Sherry's pictures serve as compelling invitations to come out and join us--to work--to-learn- to ride and to grow.

Could you imagine being a photographer and being assigned to take pictures that show why the horse lot is a great place to raise one's family?  Pretty big task. I never asked Sherry to do that, but that is exactly what her pictures  have done over the years.

They really are worth a thousand words--even a thousand of my very best words.

The Second Best Way To Preserve And Promote Colonial Spanish Horses

The horses that this nation was built on are entirely too close to extinction for comfort. Comparatively speaking few people have even seen one, much less ridden one. They are easy keepers with great hooves, smooth gaits, gentle temperaments--in short, the perfect family horse. Though one might never guess from looking at equine magazines the largest horse market is not for show horses, it is for family weekend and trial horses and we have the horse that fits that bill.

The second best way to preserve and promote these horses is to give people who used to ride a chance to ride them. Empty nesters, with kids all grown are looking for something special to put back in their lives. Those who once rode as young people have a thousand unspoken thoughts that keep them out of the saddle today. Thoughts like, " I'm too old", "I am too over weight", "I could not even get up there by myself", " I'll get hurt", "I don't have time to ride".....

Our smaller horses are easier to mount, less likely to cause injury from a fall than tall horses, have smooth gaits and can carry much more weight than the silly 20% rule that gives one more excuse to stay out of the saddle.

And here is the best part. You will be in significant pain for your first few rides, but it will come back to you.Your body will begin to flow with the horse the way that it once did. Your balance will renew itself. Your core muscles will strengthen.

Just because you have not been in a saddle for the last twenty does not mean that you cannot be happy in a saddle for the next twenty years.

Don't Let The Virus Ruin Your Life With Horses

"We see our friends are weeping with the badges on their door
We see their homes in mourning for the loved ones come no more
You can say just what you please, death rides on every breeze
Look how this world has made us change

Just look how this world has made a change (made a change)
Just look how this world has made a change (made a change)
You can see every day how the people pass away
Look how this world has made us  change"   
                                                                    This World Has Made A Change
                                                                     A.P. Carter

The isolation, the fear, the loss of routine, the confusion generated by contradictory information, and the weaponizing of  social media by those who seek to divide our nation now has us all walking in a world of emotions that none of us are prepared for.

So many of the impacts are obvious. Fear makes one more accepting of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories generate more fear. Social media guides the fearful towards more conspiracy theories.

Physical health declines as stress reduces sleep, results in binge eating, and makes it that much harder get exercise. The new twenty pounds that so many of us have put on are obvious.

But other impacts are not so obvious. We worry about our loved ones--sometimes the worry is acute--more often chronic, until it becomes the back ground noise of our life.

And that is where the most insidious threat creeps in.  We have always associated affection with love, too many of us have come to associate worrying with loving. 

"Be careful--I'm worried about you!" has all too often replaced, "Have fun--I love you!"

This horrible conflation of of worry and love can disrupt, if not entirely derail, one's relationship with one's horses. It seems that kids are every bit as susceptible to this problem as adults.

Do you eagerly check out your horse to immediately see if he is "ok" when you get to the pasture? Do you start tensing up as you approach the pasture and do you get a jolt of momentary,  satisfying relief when you don't see a health problem?  Does your horse seem to have more health problems, especially small ones that are difficult to diagnose, than he did last year? Are you riding less because you just  "don't want to push him right now"? Are you spending more time researching equine health issues than you did last year? Are you feeding your horse more than you did last year? Have both you and your horse put on significant weight since the virus hit?

Last year when I arrived at the horse lot I was swarmed by kids asking what horse they should ride. Now as soon as I get out of the vehicle I am swarmed by kids who tell me that a horse or two has a kick mark or a bite mark and maybe we should not ride him for a week.

Worry is not love. Worry is not an effective tool in equine health care.

I have never "worried" a horse well. I have "worried" myself sick.

And nothing good ever came of it.