Big Pipe Dream Plan

April 24, 2011Posted inMiscellaneous
The original plan was to magically write a book this past winter, magically get it published and to be paperback bound in time for the Missouri Fox Trotter World Celebration.  It would also hit the shelves and earn me a million dollars, force me to retire,  write more books, build a million dollar indoor arena and to hire Tony and Jenny Vaught to be my personal horse trainers. I told you that the book started taking over and demanding to write its self. Then I learned that it actually takes time…

Powder’s Progress

April 24, 2011Posted inPowder
 Powder is with Tony and Jenny Vaught for her start. (Both Tony and Jenny took two Young Horse Development clinics with Pat Parelli and Ronnie Willis before they had to drop out of the program.) And you know that my horses are gaited. Gait is forever on a gaited horse owner’s mind. Tony said he had been riding Powder about a week or so.  I gulped and thought, here’s the moment to ask…. "How’s her gait?" I said. Tony didn’t answer for a few seconds. I thought he might say…

Screaming with my Reins

March 30, 2011Posted inMiscellaneous
I have a secreat reason which I won't go into right now because its a fault on my part, on why I want to ride with Romal Reins. The public reason to want to ride with Romal Reins is:  Romal reins means you are riding a finished saddle horse.  I like it when Nova and I look like a finished saddle horse!  Romal reins is a sign of being a very accomplished horseman with a finished saddle horse.  Have I said Finished Saddle Horse too many times in this paragraph? A Romal (pronounced…

BFO DOG WALK!

March 16, 2011Posted inNOVA
BFO = Blinding Flash of the Obvious.  We horse people have them every now and then. That's why our foreheads often get dented. Check out  my forehead the next time you see me.  Does it have a dent? Warning:  Non horse people and horse people with non-gaited horses are going to find this exceedingly dull. Gaited horse people are going to hang on every word and probably not breathe until I run out of words. I have an IQ over 100.  I've been understanding why the dog walk is so…

Just What the Heck Is Natural Horsmanship?

February 25, 2011Posted inMiscellaneous
NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP For more than 6000 years, man tried to bridge the chasm between his own species, the ultimate predator, and the horse, the ultimate prey animal.  Man needed the horse to be a servant. The horse was programmed to be anything but a servant.  The man adopted his most efficient tool, brute force.  It was the basis of horsemanship practiced by the common man for millennia. We had early natural horsemen: Simon of Athens (400B.C.), Xenophon (430-355) and Alexander the Great are the names most well-known  by natural horsemanship…

Nova is a Blessing

February 12, 2011Posted inNOVA
Snow in Missouri.  Stacks and stacks of it.  My truck and trailer have been buried.  I forgot how to ride a horse in six weeks. This was a big day.  I got the truck and trailer out of the snow drifts.  Now to get the horse out of the barn.  There's still a foot of snow out there and it's hard to walk thru. I tried to open the barn door. Drat, the cord that hangs on the door was buried in 3" of ice.  I hacked and hacked with…