Jingles needed for a dear Friend.

I dont remember making a plan to raise them this way, but their Dad and I were both raised by Horse people, and even on a big dairy Farm, there were always Drafts and saddle horses as well, my husband's family were part of the up-rooted airport expropriation program in the 60's in Stouffville Ont. so they had to leave their Dairy operation there and settled here in Hastings County to a big 300 acre farm that had very little of the acerage cleared to cropping land, with 8 children and some good strong boys , after arriving here they paid for that big farm entirely with the logging they clearded off that land by horse and hand, took them 5 years, and even though my husband was only 7 when they arrived, if you were old enough to walk, you were old enough to drive horses or cut. My Family were strickly horses and catttle, and again came from folks that loved not having to pay for tractor fuel if it could be done by horse power and hay !!! we were 13 in the household, so were very diverse in what we could do to keep everyone feed, warm and clothed, and horses were such a huge part of daily life, and thats what I mean by the losely used term Horsemanship today !!!

I received an email asking me what I meant by " Horsemanship today "

In our home growing up, if you werent looking after the horses properly, it effected us immediatly, if you didnt watch the mares and their foal's and the rest herd in the way that they communcated with one and another, then you didnt understand how to work shoulder to shoulder with them, ill trained horses were a dangerous risk to everyone in close confines with them. And our biggest theory that we lived by daily was my Grandfather used to tell us and make us live by was that anytime a horse goes willing to harness for you, or willingly stands to allow on their backs, he better by rewarded with kind hand, touch on thier body that simulated a acceptance touch of his/her mother or herd members thats been imprinted familar to them from birth, and a change of scenery !!!! if we were barrel racing at fairs one day, we had to trail ride them to a swim in the river the next, if they were logging the bush that week, on weekends they were allowed to forage in the back freely, with kids on their backs, they went from wild apple tree to open sap buckets as they pleased, again they got bathed in the river, rode to neighbours, and played with. even when the Drafts went on the trailer, they werent sure whether they were going to work off property or to be rode like a good cutting horse to get summer wild pasture cattle !!!! Dont expect an animal as smart as a horse to do the same thing for you for 20 years and be happy about it.

We had more horses than I could ever remember come and go , being broke and trained for other people, Grampy was a great ole horse dealer !!! he wasnt formally educated , and his whole theory was that when you "break" train a horse, big or small , you will never out power, out muscle or out temper horse,
he'll be standing long after your exhausted and laying on the ground. But you watch how his Mother and senior herd memebers in a natural setting discipline him when he's being a bully or bad with them and use some of those pressure spots on his body to inforce descipline and manipulate his body movement, and then how they touch them with forgivness in seconds, I can rememeber in 45 years ,ever seeing a Mother mare reach out and open hand slap her foal in the side of the head, or run over and pick up a stick off the ground and flail it on his back, but I certainly have watched her get mad at that baby for his rude pushy behaviour and grab him by the mane bed and give him a good shake, or swing her head hard into to his chest to make him step back, and give him a bunny kick above his cornet band when he;s striking out at her in spoiled anger. you will go a long way in training a horse to have respect and a desire to live amongst us, to train a horse and send him off to a new home that has no repect, understanding or fear of consequece and his lower rank with you , is to send a horse that is MAD, and could possibly hurt to bread earner man of that family or worse even, his child.

So these guy's have been raised the same way, versatility with horse's is everything here, they all have to be given a job, made to meet the humans daily for feed and close contact in stables, and work as hard as the horses they ask to do it. People stop here when they see the road gates closed and walk in because the know that it means the horses are all down here at the house with us, doing regular lawn maitenance, milling around the picnic table as we eat, and on some occassions, the mares decided to give birth down here at the house , so when we get up in the morning you swing the door open to a new baby on the ground at the porch, with a pleased as punch Mamma. During foaling season, we locked the road off, open the barnyard gates and allow them all to roam the whole property, its a good feeling to know that mare's choose to come down to the house and foal here with us as thats their saftey, and Uncle Jimmy is standing close over his newest herd memeber, inspecting it closely !!! I realize not all horse owners are in a position to be able to live that way with their horses, but if we could just all give horse a sense of duty and responsibilty to the living creatures around them, we'd have a lot happier horses and owners.

Wednesday night here is another Township open meeting and one of the matters on the table again is the Wolf Bounty, a handful of us are going , this time expecting a big turn out again from the " Save The Wolves Group " I will be bringing pictures of the night Thunder was hit, and the repair shots , as well asking the Save The Wolves Club if they are very serious and dedicated to the saving of these preditors, if they would like to start an account of their private funds to help the farmer replace or repair their livestock in lew of the Bounty !!!!! Bet you that floats like a turd in a punch bowl !!!