Here's a September '99 picture of my first horse, Taylor taken by my daughter Elizabeth, the best rider in the family.
His full name is Triton WW Taylor. I got a note from Bob Morgan to tell me where the name "Taylor" comes from:
In case you are curious about his name, here is the story: (italics mine - MPT)
My dad (W.Robert Morgan), who recently passed away, was born in 1924. When his parents separated while he was still young (age 6), it was during the great depression. He spent a lot of time while he was growing up in Arkansas City, Kansas with the Taylor family, who helped raise him for several years, before his mother re-married John Linn, an orchardist and owner of Morgan horses in Gettysburg, PA. W.W. ("Will") Taylor was a father figure for my dad and the name was a high compliment to the horse.
Taylor is a Morgan horse from Red Fox Stables in Gilroy. If you're interested, you can learn more about his breeding.
Taylor was 7 "going on 3" when I got him. Since Taylor was a true "juvenile delinquent," I really get a kick out of the ad that I saw for him on bayequest.com.
Liver Chestnut Morgan Gelding... foaled 1992, 15'1 1/2 hands. Currently in professional training for english pleasure. Will make great show and family horse. NO Vices, very sweet and friendly. Gilroy. 5/11
8 September,1999
Another
ad described Taylor as an "in your pockets gelding." In other words, he really
liked to try and intimidate you. At first he'd do this by "mugging" i.e.
trying to run you over. That's pretty much fixed but he still likes to head butt and
nip (but never bite!).
To balance this juvenile delinquent behavior, the manager of Marin Stables, Jimbo McDermott, showed me an old cowboy trick - reach in
and pull out his tongue. Jimbo adds a "put your hand on the radio"
technique where you talk quietly to him at the same time to keep him calm during and
after. I don't know if this qualifies as "natural" horsemanship, but it
works very well.
26 November, 1999 at Marin Stables
Taylor was originally trained by Corinne Burt at Marin Stables in Fairfax. So was I. One of the cool parts of Corinne's training comes from Universal Horsemanship that Dennis Reis teaches. The training uses a round pen to develop a connection and a feel between you and your horse. Before we go in the ring or before we go on trail rides, Taylor and I spend 20 minutes in the round pen doing walk, trot and canter transitions. And from the walk, you can ask your pony to come in and rest. All of this is done with no connection to the horse. And no whip. Just body language. At the Kay El Bar Ranch in Arizona, one person referred to this as "riding by remote control." Corinne turned me on to a magazine on horsemanship called The Trail Less Traveled. It points to a list of Internet addresses on horsemanship.
In addition to developing this kind of feel, another use of the round pen is helping you ride without reins. And just using a "progress string" instead. I first saw this with the girls from Foxfield who ride bareback "on a wire." Corrine starts you off with a saddle in the round pen, and asks that you use the progress string only for "backing up with feel."
In
the picture on the right you can see that by 2002 we've done enough horsemanship
classes to be riding with seat and legs and using sticks instead of halter and
lead rope or bridle.
I used to think that riding was sticks was just for show. But Taylor really digs it. He's never been happier. And being able to ride mostly off your seat and legs, not hanging on his face, with just a gentle guiding through walk, trot, canter, sliding stops, jumps and even flying lead changes is totally exhilarating! I'm told that after a while it translate to significant improvements in riding in a snaffle bit. Can't wait!
26 October, 2002 at Reis Ranch with Brian and Tara - Los Tres Amigos
With Dennis Reis after completing Reis Ranch 30 day Universal Horsemanship class.
The normal 30 class builds skills in round penning, ground school with halter and lead rope, ground driving with 22' reins and mounted activities. Many of these activities were teaching horse and ride to deal with adversity - scary tarps, bridges, barrels, flags, whips, etc.
Dennis used our class to take his 30 day class to the next level, teaching many topics normally covered in more advanced activities - working "at liberty" with no halter and lead rope on the ground. Probably the coolest part was learning to get the horse to do a leg yield to the rider. Some of us rode without reins or halter, with just sticks.
And one of us even did some vaulting. Showoff!
My friend Linda Rubio who runs Miwok Livery Stables has a camera just like Ben's and took a picture of my bride Trudy. She's riding Linda's favorite endurance horse, Khalid.
The picture on the left is from Aug 99 when Taylor first showed up. His tail was very short because the horse next door had chewed it off! The picture on the right is three months later. He's filled in a bit, his tail has returned, but he's only got one stocking left out of three. But he looks a little less like a colt and more like a real pony! Thks to Ben for taking each picture.
August, 1999
November, 1999
April, 2000 July, 2000With all the trail rides I'm doing, Taylor is getting a little skinny. (Take a peek at the ribs in the July version). As a result my new trainer Becky has put him on a mixture of dry cob and Natual Glo. We'll see what he looks like by end of summer! Looking at the October 2000, below, it's clear I'm not enough of a horse person to see the difference! (But I can't see his ribs any more!).
October, 2000 April, 2002
Just recently we've taken our training wheels off and we're going out on some trail rides.
Take a peek at a few more pix that son Ben took on 29Dec99.
And here are few more from Easter
2000. And now Taylor has a new buddy - Josephine!
I'm using pix from my new Kodak DC215 digital camera. Unfortunately I don't have the
skill of son Ben. And it shows up even more in the 
Labor Day 2000 pix.
Most recent edition is a picture of Jimbo and Trudy with Trudy's
Mom.
