Carron
Nov 13, 2008, 9:24 AM
Post #11 of 12
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Another horse-related program we have here in Cd. Acuna is gentle horses and ponies for riding by handicapped children. My 23-yr old daughter, a real horse nut, sometimes volunteers there and loves the experience. She, too, is handicapped after a serious automobile accident that virtually destroyed her left ankle. Her best therapy was riding our quarter horse gelding, Copper. She makes him dance, back up, bend around barrels, participate in rodeos, where he is a local hero.
When we bought him, he was everything we did not want. We were relatively inexperienced horse people (my husband and I still don't ride, but have 4 very spoiled caballos we now adore). We told our daughter we would buy her a horse for the ranch. It needed to be older, calm, well-ridden, preferably small in stature.
As we are accustomed to do, living close to a village, we asked the head elder of the ejido to broker a deal for us. He brought in several different horses for her to try out. All were "mancito", the word used here to indicate a very well-trained horse, but most were large cutting horses that intimidated her. Then she decided on a 3-yr old chestnut gelding, short, skinny, with a rough coat, although very well-mannered. She fell in love and borrowed a saddle to ride him home to our ranch. He cost me 4000 pesos.
I was disappointed in her choice. But the elder assured me that with some sweet grain feed and 30 days in our specially planted pasture he would be shiny and healthy. It took 30 days for me to believe. We now own a 7-yr old horse who is over 15 hands, bright as a new penny, spoiled rotten yet beautifully obedient when saddled and tacked. Villagers tell us that if we had not bought Copper, he would have been sold to "The Salchicha Man", a guy who comes by with a truck a couple of times a month and buys unwanted horses which are then made into chorizo. We shudder at the thought of what we might have missed.
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