Where it all Began---

'HorseMaster' working with a Yearling Morgan Colt
In the background is "Tecumseh" , my Appy Colt

    It was a lot of years ago---I was around 3 years old when Grandpa lifted me up on the back of our huge Percheron plow horse,
"Coyote", and began to lead us out of the farm yard and down the  two ruts and a ridge that the BLM insisted was a public road.  My first time on horseback. Like all "First Times", the Memory is written into the Mind with indelible ink, such that, not only can it be re-membered, but re-lived and re-felt. Cool, early fall, air--- trees just beginning to color-- the smell of 'farm' mixed in with suppers being cooked and the distinct crispness of Smokey Mountain Air--- the emotional state of a 3-year-old-- not knowing whether to laugh or cry, or feel Joy, or Fright, --so, feeling and doing all of those things simultaniously. Then there was "Coyote" --Dapple Gray, 17+hh, and close to a ton of pure muscle-- head bobbing up and down slightly and his peck-basket hooves making a soft clopping sound, all in rhythm with Grandpa's Oklahoma-accented, distinct, but softly spoken Kituah Dialect words--- "Hold on with your knees !"
WHAT !!?? Ummm--have you ever ridden a Draft Horse ? "Coyote's"
back was like a Pool Table to my 3-year-old stature. 'Knees' being totally irrelevant to the case at hand, I grabed two handfulls of mane and held on for dear life.

     So it was--my beginning with Horses. As the years rolled slowly by--as they did on the Reservation--and all of Appalachia--Old "Coyote" would became my, nearly constant, passtime companion, and, as with our Coyote Stories in the Oral Traditions, my Ultimate Teacher. I learned my first "horse-Don't" from "Coyote", and that was, and is, "NEVER trot a work-horse bareback". Its sort of akin to riding a motorcycle down railroad ties-----. Another was, " Never dive into the Little Pigeon River from the back of a 17hh horse." (I don't need to explain that one any further ----:) The List is endless----.

     I could go on and on--as my adventures, (and mis-adventures), with "Coyote" over the years could be a book of its own. In writing these pages, I have done a good deal of reflecting myself in the Mirror that "Coyote" was--and re-understanding, from the distance of years and knowledge gained, just how incredibly Intelligent, Tolerant, and Forgiving, that big gelding was ! Oh, yea --he took far better care of me than I, him---in my non-knowledge. Though I had to wait years for it---the opportunities to compare those experiences with others-- to learn more--- the Wisdom of Coyote's Teachings finally became clear.  He, like all Horses, had Lessons to teach Humans. Coyote was my first Equine Instructor, and there have been many more since. All of them, in their own Ways, have Communicated with me-- and I, them. This is what this site is about--Communicating with Horses--not just with a Longe Whip, or Reins, or the Aids of Riding,---but with the Heart.

    This is where it all began for me--many, many, years ago---and I hope it can begin for you, here. Thanks, again, for stopping by

-HorseMaster

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