History Keeps Quietly Moving

My husband's aunt happens to be one of my most favorite people. When she invited us to Alabama for an early Thanksgiving lunch, I got barn chores done in record time so the kids could get loaded up and start asking, "Are we there yet?" and "What country are we in now?" an hour in on the trip.

Once we were there I met all sorts of extended family I'd never met before and got my hands on my brand-new sweet baby nephew. After awhile, a man said something about horses.

I probably looked like a dog who just caught sight of a squirrel.

The conversation turned back to stories and relatives I didn't know as I remembered mention at one point about Chris's aunt having a brother-in-law who traded mules, this must be him.

Once everyone started to split off and talk, I hunted him down and tried to act casual.

"What type horses do you have?"

"Tennessee Walkers."

Drat. I don't know much about them. I'd ridden a friend of mine's once on a trail ride and honestly I didn't fall in love with that particular horse. I knew the controversy around them though and I didn't know this man at all or his relationship with horses. So I asked him, "Do you keep yours flat shod?"

"No, most of mine are bare right now. I don't pad. Mine have been natural movers since my Grand-pappy started with them. I've got a horse who can move smooth as water and keep up with yours."

I liked him instantly. He had been in mules awhile, but Walkers and Spotted Saddle Horses (that he had to teach me the distinction between) are what he's always had. He talked about the steeplechases that ran every year by his farm. He mentioned a friend near St Simons also in horses, at this point I'm pretty sure I had stars in my eyes when I asked and he talked about his friends riding on the beach.

I wanted to ask how he felt about the controversial training techniques used in the saddle horses, without offending his breed. He quickly covered the topic himself though, agreeing that while he had some of the best horses there were, they would never be the top winning horses because you can't achieve that without changing them.

He gave me hope. There was no regret in his eyes whatsoever about his choice in his breed his whole life to not win but preserve them. He hadn't ridden a horse himself in awhile, not since his back surgery put rods by his spine. When he said, "I probably won't ever ride again now." I felt sad but he didn't look it, he was clearly comfortable enough with what he had done that more was no longer necessary.

We get so caught up in right now. Who is winning? What is winning? Who will be winning tomorrow? What's wrong with the sport?

That it's easy to forget that there are people out there, on their own farms, doing it the way it's been done for a hundred years. Telling me with pride stories of how the blood that runs in Tennessee Walkers came from the same horses used in the Civil War.

Not a few minutes earlier in a room of relatives he had lamented over there being a lack of people these days who could even sit a horse, with a tired expression on his face like he'd given up on the whole of it. Now lit up, showing me photos of his (they were gorgeous) horses, I could see him spark the same way I do.

If you begin to get tired of the current state of affairs in your particular breed or sport, remember there are people out there, good horse people, quietly continuing on the right road that's been laid for them by generations before them if you are willing to find them.