Monthly Archives: June 2016

On My Shoulders 

Philosophy, Training Horses

They’re always on my shoulders. Every day when I’m schooling horses, whether I’m starting a new recruit or doing routine rides on the older, well trained, horses, I have “souls” perched upon my shoulders. They come and go, and some have been long dead while some are’s still living. I know I don’t have all the answers. I am frequently perplexed by the equine mind! So when I get stuck I resort to questioning these mentors past and present for answers to training problems. Words come to me, either words that I’ve heard or words that I have read, words of wisdom. One minute Jesse Beery might speak up, then Ray hunt. Moments later I’m hearing the words of Steinbrecht, or Baucher, or de la Gueriniere. Instead of becoming flustered at a stubborn pupils responses, I refer to the wisdom of Tom Dorrance on my right shoulder or the Reiner Klimke on my left shoulder. Often the words of John Lyons or John Claude Racinet or others come to me, like “ask often, expect little, reward the slightest try,” or “give him a better deal,” or “fix it up and let him find it,” or “help him achieve balance, then teach him a signal.”

The old saying “where knowledge ends, anger begins,”

is never truer than when you are in a tight spot with a half ton of instinct driven equine adversary with the reaction time of the speed of dark! The anger management tool and the equalizer is to expand that knowledge. Pick up a book, watch a video, dial your phone, attend clinics, take lessons, these are things horses can’t do, but we can. Then you’ll load your shoulders with mentors!

A Welcome Return to Zane Grey

Stories

Been going back and reading my dad’s collection of Zane Grey books. It’s been a lot of fun, especially as I am now looking at them from a whole different perspective than when I read them as a teenager. The writing style of the turn of the century from 1899 to 1900 was quite different from the way we express ourselves today. I was quite astonished, also, to find that he had written a number of nonfiction works. Some of these were accounts of his trips to northern Arizona roping cougars in the Grand Canyon with a hunter who was older, and had experience the great buffalo slaughter of the 70s. The same wonderful narrative, and realistic dialogue, to say nothing of his colorful descriptive passages, are there in these exciting, dramatic, and often funny stories. The way he exposes you to the discomforts of days ago does her travel with intense heat and sand blowing in your eyes, then the cold and windy mountains, in the rain and lightning while trying to sleep in a tarp out on the open plains, makes you feel as though you’ve actually experienced those discomforts. Then he treats you to sunsets and spellbinding vistas of mountains , Forests and canyons, where Clearstream’s team with trout and deer and bears abound while they are people with both rugged Westerners and intruders from the civilized eastern culture. He characters are realistic and multi dimensional, with bad guys tinged with vulnerabilities and good guys who are slightly flawed, that make them more believable than their Hollywood counterparts. He deals with women in more depth even then some 21st-century authors, looking into their lives with understanding and sympathy. If you’re looking for a way to spend a rainy day (and brother we’re having them) I heartily recommend a good Zane Grey book.

Roasting in Texas

Chuck Wagon Cooking

Some meats need a little special treatment. Today we make a rump roast in the Dutch oven that rivals a tenderloin! The trick is the old Texas saying “cook’em low and slow.” We first washed up a 3 pound rump roast with fresh water, then Apple cider vinegar. Next we patted a dry rub, with chili powder, pepper and salt among other things onto the surfaces of the roast and let it sit wrapped in plastic for a few hours in the fridge. When we are ready to start cooking we brown the roast on all six sides in oil in the oven pot, then put the lid on it and set it at a temperature of close to 200 to 250°F.  We went about our afternoon horsin’ Around, and when we came back in just before dark, pulled out the roast to sit on a board for a few minutes. While we waited we sliced up some fresh homegrown tomatoes and put them on a platter drizzling some garlic salt, lemon olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar on them. I had cut some nice dark green leaves of Swiss chard that we boiled in a salted water, and we had some skillet bread made up from the morning. After I sliced the roast with a sharp knife, I boiled down the juice in the pot, added some cornstarch to thicken it, and served the slices of meat with the sauce on top, a tomato and a pile of chard. Like they say, “it don’t get no better than that!” 

It helps to have all afternoon to cook a roast low and slow!

How to Keep Learning About Horses

Equitation, Philosophy

Once upon a time it was the Germans in the French who fought and argued about equitation. Now, it’s East versus West, with Texas slap dab in the middle. The good news is that nowadays Texas as a veritable smorgasbord of teachers and clinicians coming from everywhere to us! On any given weekend you have the choice to attend demonstrations, lectures, clinics given by famous German dressage trainers, cutting horse professionals, Trail class gurus, reiners, hunters, jumpers, and polo coaches. Seemingly every kind of equitation and carriage driving, draft horse pulling and mule training is covered. Then, the really good news is that in most areas of Texas, there are well-qualified riding instructors to whom you can go and learn proper riding techniques and maintain the skills learned in weekend clinics. To top it all off, the prices are even reasonable, such a deal! Now the only problem is sorting through what appears to be differences of opinion amongst these “Pros from Dover.” Even that may not be such an insurmountable obstacle. The reason is that there are shelves and mountains of books, and Kindles of literature to help explain the theory and bio-mechanics behind the schooling of horses. All you have to do is to decide just what kind of schooling fits the type of riding you are passionate about. So, read, attend clinics, and take those weekly lessons. I do, and I’ve been a student for almost 50 years! I know… some people learn slower than others! Right?