The Hardin Way

Jimmie Hardin Quarter Horses in Aubrey, Texas

Shiners Fannin Pepto, my one-year-old colt, is being ground trained and fit for the Summer Sale at Triangle Sales, Shawnee, Oklahoma, on June 5, 2010.

I took him as far as I could in ground training, but it was time to send him to Jimmie Hardin Quarter Horses in Aubrey, Texas, for training and conditioning for sale.

Jimmie Hardin in Show

I went up to Aubrey, Texas, yesterday, to see Jimmie and Shiney.

I hardly recognized him since he has a month’s growth since I last saw him.  But, that’s not all.  He has been groomed and taught manners.  He stands on his four feet in a show pose and is learning to trot with Peppy, his trainer, and Jimmie.

Jimmie Hardin has been Aubrey, Texas, for several decades, building upon the horse business of her father.  The little town of Aubrey has grown up around her.  Jimmie’s corrals border the Aubrey High School and a Sonic drive-in is just down the street.  She says that nowadays land is selling by the square foot.

Jimmie told me to go up to Shawnee on the third of June, settle Shiney into his stall and have him presented for passers-by when they come and look on Friday, the day before the Saturday sale.  She is going to purchase a leather halter and stud chain for Shiney to look his best.  There will be a bit of silver on the halter to sparkle.  I want him to look his best and that means leather halter.

Equine Body History

Horsewoman Hardin said that Shiney has taken a real liking to Peppy, the handler with whom you see in the photograph.  Peppy grooms and trots Shiney.  They have a bond together.  The treatment that Jimmie and Peppy give to my colt will engender confidence in him to trust humans and know that their touch will be kind and never hurtful.  With older horses, like my Star (levitating horse in winter), you can discern the history of treatment to them.  Ears, feet and flanks of the equine body embed the treatment of years past and one can see kind firmness, but also mistreatment and mistakes.  Experienced horsemen and horsewomen can pick up the history.  Monty Roberts, a famous horse trainer, can discern the equine-body history rapidly in the round pen and corral.

The Handler Peppy with Shiners Fannin Pepto

Peppy the Handler Alerting Shiney to Pick those Ears Up

The Hardin Way

It is important for humans and horses alike to respect the other.  It will insure a long and happy life for both.  The Hardin Way develops the horse and provides the human with a well-mannered companion.

Jimmie Hardin with Shiners Fannin Pepto

Field Log 5/15/2010 (Wildlife Migration and High Field Fence)

North Erath County, Texas, Lat 32.43 N, Long -98.36 W, elev. 1,086 ft.  Turkey Creek Quad.

Talked by phone with Jimmie Hardin in Aubrey, Texas.  Shiney the colt is progressing along very well.  “He’s a boy and doing just fine,” she said.

Sweet Hija was inseminated on Thursday.  Will pick her up today.

Rain yesterday: 0.9 inches.

This morning at 5:10 a.m. I heard owl and turkey.  Scissor-tailed flycatchers call out vigorously just before daybreak.

Weather pattern unusual.  Finfrock at NBC-DFW says the dynamic is a cold front semi-stalled over Texas with jet stream winds blowing one way, surface winds the other.  Pattern has been with us for three days–since Wednesday.

Question the high fencing built by ranches.  What does this do to migratory patterns?  Celebrity Ranch has high fencing.  Factor this in for disturbance of wildlife migration.

High Field Fence by LE Fence Company, Waco, Texas

High field fence as pictured above can prevent migratory wildlife from crossing dangerous roads.  Use it to alter, without completely destroying, trails.  But, how?  Consult the corridor crew over in New Mexico.

In the nineteenth century, Glidden sold fence in San Antonio, Texas, with the advertisement for barbed wire: “Lighter than air, stronger than whiskey and cheaper than dirt!”  Cattle could be micro-managed within the barbed-wire pastures.

Do we have any significant corridors for wildlife migration in Texas that are specially designated?

Field Log 5/7/2010 (Shiney’s Little Stud Moments)

North Erath County, Texas, 32.43 lat., -98.36 long. Elev. 1,086 ft.  Turkey Creek Quad.

Shiners Fannin Pepto (Shiney) Winter 2009-2010

Shiney at Jimmie Hardin’s

Talked with Jimmie Hardin in Aubrey about Shiners Fannin Pepto’s (Shiney) training for manners on the ground and around mares and people.  She said that “Shiney is doing really great, settling down, but he does have his little stud moments.”  What a world I thought, “Little stud moments.”  I asked Brenda, my wife, the female equivalent of “little stud moment,” and she said, maybe for women, “It’s a meltdown.”

The first time at Jimmie Hardin’s, when we put Shiney in a corral, he was between two mares and they teased him over the fence.  He was really an excited colt with two mares on either side of him.  The mares pranced in front of him and he ran around in a prancing gait, light on his feet, even though he probably didn’t know what was going on.  He became lathered up and I fretted he was over-doing his excitement, but Jimmie said he would settle down once we left with his travel buddy, Star, the paint from our place that we put in the trailer to help ease Shiney’s trip to Aubrey, north of Denton.  Star munched on his alfalfa while watching his little friend, Shiney.

In conclusion, he is doing just fine despite his little stud moments.

Called up to Triangle Sales in Shawnee, Oklahoma.  They will have handlers to help me show him through the ring.  And, knowing he is a stud, they will not put him between two mares in the stall area.

Pecan Tree Pasture Mesquite Trimming

Indian Blanket flowers are blooming over in Pecan Tree Pasture.

Went over to Pecan Tree Pasture to lob off mesquites that were growing in the field.  The grass is up to my chest in places and I can detect large animals–deer or wild boar–that have lain in the grass.

Yahoo Runs Amuck

While cutting mesquite, some yahoo drove through my gate, wanting to inquire about the trailer my neighbors have for sale.  The yahoo immediately drove off the pasture road and started coming toward me in his grey, F-250 pickup, trampling grass I wanted to let seed and grow higher.  I was a hundred-yards away and frantically waved him to stop.  What the dickens was this yahoo doing coming into a native grass field in his pickup?

I walked briskly over to where he had stopped after coming some fifty yards into the native grass field, scattering birds.  I had my pruning shears in my hand, but my pistol (.45 cal.) was in the pickup some seventy-yards away.  I did not know what to say, but this is what happened.

Yahoos Fighting by Dudley Fitts (Illustrator)

“Yew goin’ git chiggers,” he squawked, referring to the high grass I had come through to stop his onslaught into the field.  An entirely inappropriate opening of discourse after entering posted property (Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association blue sign).  Was there some chigger alert I had missed on the morning news from Stooperville’s Fox News?

Holding my anger, I said, “You don’t need to be rolling into my field crushing the grasses.  It’ll take two months for the grass to come back up.  The trailer belongs to those people,” I nodded in the direction of the Hall Place.

He looked at me, put the truck in reverse, made an abrupt turn around and sped off, then hit high speed next to my water tank and out the gate and on down the highway towards Stephenville.  I paced off how many feet he had knocked down by coming into grassland that was two to four feet high, native species I had planted six-years ago: a total of one-hundred and twenty-five feet of off-road grass crushing.  It’ll rise up again in a few months with the rains.

I’ll close the gate next time to avoid a confrontation.  I was born and reared in Texas, but I am seeing more arrogant and ill-mannered  people than ever before.  I know yahoos are all around us, but jeez!, wouldn’t you think they could all hang out at another cracker barrel in a county over?

The field log is rather caustic today.  Sorry.

Field Log 4/21/2010 (Scissor-Tails, Gyp Indian Blanket)

North Erath County, Texas, 32.43 lat., -98.36 long. Elev. 1,086 ft.  Turkey Creek Quad.

Sweet Hija has been inseminated at Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery (ESMS) on the Brazos.  She’ll be held for a couple of days, says Dr. Semira Mancill, to check on an edema problem.  Then Sweet Hija can be released to come back for two weeks before her next checkup.  Hija has a paddock and is comfortable at ESMS.  But, she prefers to be back here to gallop full-speed from one end of the pasture to the other.  Last year, I was at the east gate in the pasture and for no apparent reason, she reared up and stood for six seconds on her hind legs, cocked her eye towards me–I was about five feet away–and held my gaze.  Powerful girl!  Then, abruptly, with a snort and a turn, galloped to the other end of the pasture, a quarter-mile away.  Did not slow down until she reached the end of the lane.  Gasp.

Shiney (Shiners Fannin Pepto) is doing well at Jimmie Hardin’s in Aubrey.  He’s slightly off his feed.  The farrier came to trim him yesterday.  Jimmie said that they had worked him out, groomed him and tied him for training purposes and he did just fine.  I worry about the little guy since he is so exuberant and eager to please, it seems.  Am still undecided about whether I will lead him at the sales ring in Shawnee or have someone else lead him.

I put out more corn today near the deer salt lick.  I saw hoof prints of at least one deer.  Track put down after the last rain of 2.0 inches.  I’ve still not sighted deer.

I’ve seen hummingbirds.  (Taosmesa tweets that she has “heard” hummingbirds at her home, but not seen any.)  Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers  (Muscivora forficata) abound about the fields.  From Peterson, they breed here in w. and s. Texas, e. New Mexico, se. Colorado and s. Nebraska.  He writes that their call is a repeated ka-leep with some stuttering.  I concur (course, who be me?) with the ka-leep, although I might add that the refrain-call is like this: keck, keck, …ka-leep. (Peterson mentions the keck.)  I have a rich and full life, and trying to replicate bird calls is good for me.

When I grew up in Brownwood, Texas, in the 1940s and 1950s, I remember the Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers sitting on power lines in front of our home, down towards Fourth Street and Brady Avenue.  The Scissor-Tails had the same refrain-call back then as they do now.  They would fly upwards in an arc when they called and then settle back down on the power line: keck, keck, …ka-leep, arcing, settling.  I can see it now in my mind and hear it, too.

Here on Flying Hat, over in the Pecan Tree Pasture, several Red-Winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) will take up temporary residence sometime in the spring and summer.  I do not shred the tall Johnson grass so that they can perch on the high stems and be spring-tossed by the wind.  That touch of red on their wings is so bright, so colorful.  I’ve not seen them yet, but I will, I know.

Dense Stand of Gyp Indian Blanket, April 21, 2010

There are several stands of this plant, Gyp Indian Blanket (Gaillardia multiceps).  It may also be (I am unsure) a Pincushion Daisy (Gaillardia suavis).  It loses its petals quickly, but the brownish-red center remains.  The bare flower stems stand 18 inches taller or more.  Looks like those science fiction movies with the scout coming into the basement where Grade B movie actors are hiding.

Gyp Indian Blanket Flower Bases, April 21, 2010

This spring I’ve seen more variety of wild flowers than any spring since we moved here in 2003.  A variety of primrose has emerged today down by the barn.

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Rural Declamation Interscholastic League State Meet 1938, Gywn Parks, Front Row, First Person, Left to Right

My mother, Gywn, always had plants and birds.  Her backyard looked like a wonderland in the summer and her bird room held finches she had purchased as far away as Australia as well as canaries and types I can’t remember.  She even had a red hen that scratched through the debris on the floor.

In the photograph to the left, she is the first woman on the first row, left to right.  She was representing Bend, Texas, in the state Declamation contest in 1938.  She placed first and received The University Interscholastic League Award.  Gywn wrote letters and sent cards to her friends as a habit pattern throughout her years (1920-2003).  I have many of the letters from her friends.  Careful in her speech and prose, she was my first teacher at home.  She was small, but she was fierce, I have said about her.  The Irish in her would bring her to a quickening: I’ll get me a shallelagh if you don’t settle down, Jackson!

She died seven-years-ago today, April 21, 2003.  Her last words of advice were for me to have good friends and talk to them everyday.  R.I.P., Mom.  I’m taking good care of the land and plants and birds and wildlife:  a steward, like you taught me.  And, I have friends.