January 1, 2024 Mill Swamp Indian Horses Is On the Move!

Some people in our program are waking up a bit conflicted. There might even be a few that did not sleep very well. Some people might not have slept well for the past several days. They are struggling. They are struggling to decide whether or not they trust themselves. 

Tomorrow morning many of us are going to bring in the new year with a ten-mile hike in the Dismal Swamp. 

Most of the people in our program have never walked ten miles at a time. Therefore, they do not know if they can do it. And for some, if they do not know that they can do it then they certainly cannot risk finding out. Some might even feel that in this entire world there is nothing worse than failing in front of others.

 But there are things much worse. It is much worse to live in fear of failure than it is to take on a hard challenge. It is much worse to worry about a challenge than it is to learn to push through challenges. Some young people and way too many parents do not understand the import of doing things that are difficult. It is not to prepare one's body to win a trophy. The stakes are much higher than that. It is to prepare oneself for every drop of rain that will fall into everyone's life. 

  Here is the core truth that most people never understand. Doing hard things does not make you stronger. Doing hard things simply allows you to understand how truly strong you are.

Doing hard things prepares you to fight. Doing hard things teaches you that you can fight. Doing hard things does not guarantee that you will win every fight but avoiding doing hard things does guarantee that every fight that you are forced into will be much more difficult if your only preparation for life has been to hide and avoid.

 We leave the tack shed at 9:00 am Monday to drive to the Dismal Swamp for this wonderful hike.

"Pain that never sleeps falls drop by Drop on Our Hearts Until, Through the Awesome Grace of God, comes Wisdom"--Aeschylus

She was upset. She was wrong. She told me that I must never let the kids see pain in me. She did not want me to talk about Lido. 

 It is a damn sorry role model that teaches kids that lying to the world is fine as long as you lie to yourself with equal vehemence. 

 On December 29, 2008 my little brother who was 17 years old reached into the truck to take his gun out to kill another deer. He was there hunting with his best friend on what is now the New Land. Cerebral Palsy made it so that he only had one arm to use for the removal. The gun accidentally discharged, and I lost my best friend and my role model of perseverance and resilience. 

 And each fall since then I have careened though life as I moved back towards the date of his re-death. I fight though the calendar as if I were running a marathon. I constantly remind myself that January is coming. 

I stumble though the holidays not as a wounded person, but as a wound. Every slight, every new responsibility dropped on me, every insult, no matter how minor rubs the open wound that is my existence for about the last quarter of the year.

 Over the years the pain has become utterly manageable. But the fear has not. I was sitting at my office when the phone rang --the damn phone--the sound that I hate to hear the most --the most disruptive sound in my existence--the phone that still cuts thorough me every time I hear one ring--to be told that Lido was dead.

 And if Lido could die like that every single soul in my life could leave with equal ease. Never could I be safe in feeling that the person that I love today will be with me ten minutes from now. This time of year, I find myself urging those around me to be careful. This creates friction with some teens. They don't like being asked to make sure that they are riding in a safe, responsible manner. Some of them truly resent it. They don't have the life experiences that allow them to understand.

 But that mother was so wrong when she told me that talking about Lido upset the kids and that I should not do so. She was wrong not because she hurt me, but because she sought to deprive me of the chance to teach the children a very important lesson.

 And that lesson is both this simple and this difficult. The lesson is that, like Lido, I did not give up. I fight back every single year and every single year I make it to January. And it is the hardest thing that I ever do. And I do it. 

 And they can do it too--whatever "it" is. After Lido died Chaz Hornbaker's Eagle Scout project was the building a bridge over the swamp behind the Little House that is dedicated to Lido which is inscribed with his constantly encouraging words, 'If I can do it then why can't you?" 

 The message on that bridge speaks louder and clearer than any noise that will ever be made on a telephone.

(This is a picture of Lido on Sand Creek in one of our clinic's that he and I used to do on natural horsemanship in the years before we had our current program)

The War On Wiftiness--Why Training for Endurance Events Matters to You and Your Horse

Working the horse can be more than just a facet of building strong mental and emotional health. It can be the cornerstone of growth. Whether training the horse's mind or the horse's body, success is dependent on the discipline of the trainer. 

 To be "wifty" is to be a person who bounces from one interest to another without even coming close to developing a pattern, much less a well-set discipline of work towards a goal. A wifty person lives whim to whim.

 A wifty person sees a picture of a horse and "falls in love" with it. A wifty person sees a picture of a show rider with a blue ribbon and is pulled, if only for a few moments, perhaps a few minutes, or maybe even a few months towards the show ring. A wifty person is perfectly enthusiastic about the moment's whim and remains steadfast in that enthusiasm until confronted with a need to work, a need to develop a schedule, or a need to prioritize life's demands. 

At that point the wifty person quits. Every single time the wifty person quits they take home one strong message--"I failed." 

Wiftiness allows one to imagine pleasure but to only realize pain. Wiftiness creates slow burning misery.

 Discipline allows one to imagine pleasure and provides a pathway to realize that pleasure. The effective practice of natural horsemanship transforms the imagination of pleasure into its realization. The discipline required to condition one's horse and one's body for endurance riding takes one's equine experience to a different level. The reward that one gets from knowing that one is truly improving the horse's health and happiness by building a strong heart, efficient lungs and a powerful body trumps the fleeting feeling of having someone hand you a blue ribbon or a trophy. 

People often speak of "partnership" with the horse. When the two of you work together to become as strong physically, mentally, and emotionally you two are the closest of partners. 

 Stop being wifty. 

Commit and follow through. 

You deserve better. Your family deserves better. 

Your horse deserves better.

On Finding Meaning: The All Y'All Players

" When we were young we wanted to save the world. Now we are here to help out in the neighborhood," Rick Danko, of The Band once said.

 That was not an admission of failure. It was a recognition of the importance of service to the community.

 Young people often ask me about finding meaning in their future lives. They generally are talking about choices of employment. As important as that decision is, I always remind them that their are many ways to use one's talents off the job to help build a better world. I remind them that service need not be drudgery. The use of one's special interest, and special talents can be fun. The fact that one has fun while being of service to others makes it even better.

 Our program has recently been the beneficiary of an innovative approach to do just that. The "All Y'All Players" are a group of local theater enthusiasts who use their talent to put on murder mystery fun productions with the proceeds going to local charities. I was honored when they offered to make Mill Swamp Indian Horses a beneficiary of their most recent production.

 I loved the invitation to come out and tell the audience a bit about our program before two nights of shows. I loved watching the performances. They have done, and are continuing to do, great work and it is clear from watching that they love their work. 

 Everyone can make a contribution to a better community and when we do that we are making a contribution to a better world. The "All Y'All Players" are doing just that.

                                                         A Home School Mystery

Mill Swamp Indian Horses, in Smithfield, Va is part of a nonprofit breed conservation program that works to prevent the extinction of rare, historic strains of Colonial Spanish Horses along with other heritage livestock. Among its many programs are the weekly Homeschool programs. The program offers unique educational opportunities that promote physical, intellectual and ethical growth for young people (and their parents). Here is a brief description of the events in last week's program. The morning started at 9:00 am with the collection and weighing of organic material that participating families brought in for the program's vermicomposting projects The program, which is a certified wildlife habitat site, uses no chemical herbicides or commercial fertilizers in its pastures. The compostables were added to the 250 gallon container that houses the compost and composting worms. Later in the morning approximately 300 pounds of horse manure was added to the compost. 

 The families then got together on the tack shed porch for a discussion of the impact that the study of philosophy had on the Founding fathers and how Madison's view of the limitations of individual virtue lead to the growth of the two-party system of government in America. The kids then used the boards from an old pallet to paint bits of song lyrics on them to place in and around the pastures. The short lines of lyrics will serve to prompt questions from guests for years to come--e.g. "What song is that from?", "Who wrote that?" "What does that line mean and why is it in this pasture?" 

 With a bit of time on their hands two talented young musicians in the Mill Swamp Indian Horses music program pulled out a guitar and played a handful of songs. 

 As that project was wrapping up the van pulled up from the Hampton Veterans Hospital as it has done weekly, weather permitting, for over eight years. Those who are in the in-patient PTSD program at the Hampton Veterans Hospital come out to learn about trauma's impact on communication, behavior, and trust and to then work a horse in the round pen applying the lessons that are discussed in the beginning of each session. Program participants quickly catch two or three horses and bring them over to the round pen to give our guests an opportunity to meet the horses and brush them down before the program begins. 

 Support from the community is vital to keeping our programs alive and growing. The Smithfield Rotary Club is constructing a wonderful building to serve as a library to house all of our books and educational materials. Beside that construction is a cement pad for the statue of the Hardy Elementary Mustang that we are having restored. The statue has had a long role in our local history and was donated to us by the leadership of the local historical society.

 Tonight, many of our program participants will be attending a lecture by Dr. Helen Roundtree on the Powhatan Indians who lived here before my family first came over in 1635.

 The homeschool program has to remain flexible because we never know exactly what the day might bring us. A tree might have fallen on a fence, and we might have to spend hours dissecting the tree and restoring the fence. We might need to assist the vet who is coming over for shots and dental work on the horses. We might be surprised by the birth of a calf, lambs, or goat kid and need to move some of the livestock around to get the best use out of our pastures. 

 Our last session required a big adjustment in plans and tremendous flexibility. We had been invited by the PTA of Hardy Elementary School, whose mascot is a mustang, to ride a couple of mustangs in the home coming parade. The invitation came about 72 hours before the parade. I was joined by Audrey Teller, mounted and in costume, for the parade. The other program participants helped us get the horses together, tack up, get trailered and then walked along with us on the parade route--keeping an eye out for any potential danger that could come up on the parade. I knew that I could count on them to remain focused and ready to step in in case something spooked a horse or if a child ran out from the sidewalk in uncontained excitement at the sight of two beautiful Colonial Spanish horses--one a former National Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year for his registry, and the other a formerly wild horse from Shackleford Island who recently completed the prestigious Old Dominion 55 Mile Endurance event. Those who walked along with us have used their time in the program to learn to train horses to saddle and have joined in on group rides, including 7:00 am morning rides in the woods before I have to get into the office. These kids, most younger than fifteen years old have already learned principles of natural horsemanship that give them better understanding of the mind of a horse than most lifelong horse owners. 

 And all of these programs (and I have barely scratched the surface of the range of programs that we have) are all carried out with no paid staff. that is why we can offer these programs for only $160.00 per family, per month. 

 Which leaves us with a big mystery. We have room for many more homeschool families in our program. What is holding other homeschool families back from giving their kids one of the most significant opportunities for growth that they will ever have? 

 Perhaps it is because people do not know how to make the initial contact--if so, send me an email at msindianhorses@aol.com and we will arrange a time for you to bring your family out and see how we do things