A HORSE was rescued from a swimming pool in Rudgwick , UK.

Fire crews from Horsham and Storrington arrived at a house off Guildford Road at around 7.45pm where the animal was unable to get out of the pool.

The water level was reduced by pumps and firefighters lifted the horse out with the use of lines.

A vet checked the animal over and it was returned to a local stable at around 9.20pm.

For comprehensive coverage of all the stories making the local news, read Friday’s edition of the West Sussex County Times newspaper. Website users who wish to purchase a copy of the County Times newspaper but live outside our circulation area can do so by telephoning 01403 751200 and asking for reception. The cost of the newspaper plus postage in England is £1.53 which can be paid for by credit card. Overseas rates are also available, on request.

Two miniature horses. Two very different worlds. The one they call Mini Horse is a TV celebrity. The one they call Wonder Girl toils in anonymity.
Mini Horse lives in California’s Hollywood Hills. Wonder Girl sleeps in a stable.
Mini Horse gets all the laughs. Wonder Girl gets all the tears.

While Mini Horse is busy doing photo shoots for the MTV hit “Rob and Big,” a reality show about the antics of a pro skateboarder, his beefy bodyguard/pal and their pets, Wonder Girl works in the shadows, visiting Orange County, Calif.’s ailing with little fanfare; the Mother Theresa of mini horses.

But here’s the shocking thing: These very different horses have one thing in common (besides being extremely small): Both were raised side by side on the same farm by Kelsey Webber. The Irvine, Calif., teen traded in traditional high school to dedicate her days to breeding miniature horses.

Kelsey found her calling at the age of 8. She returned home one day after lunch with her grandpa with a message for her mom: Grandpa bought me a horse and you have to pay him half.

As expected, this did not go over well with her mom Kelly. But as often happens when moms see their child smile, her vow of revenge faded.

Kelsey couldn’t very well keep an appaloosa in her Irvine backyard. So Shadow went to live with her grandparents, who had recently bought a ranch on an acre and a half of land in Norco, Calif.

Kelsey’s gramma, hounded by debilitating back problems, must ride a cart to get around the ranch. So grandpa bought a miniature horse named Misty that she could tend to while he took care of Shadow. Gramma wasn’t the only one who fell in love.

At Kelsey’s urging, the family bought a few more minis to begin breeding and they renamed the ranch Vandy’s Miniature Horse Farm (after Gramma and Grandpa VanDyke).

When she turned 13, Kelsey began attending Spirit Academy, a prep school in Tustin, Calif., that only required her to show up two days a week, so she could be at
the ranch the rest of the time.

The minis multiplied. And when she turned 14, Kelsey did some soul searching and asked her mom if maybe it was time to share their tiny treasures.

“We felt that we are blessed with a lot and we wanted to give back,” Kelsey says. She turned to Wonder Girl.

At 36 inches, Wonder Girl is the tallest mini on the farm. She is also
the mellowest. A national champion in cart pulling and jumping (she can jump three feet), she is now 10 years old.

Kelsey and Wonder Girl spent months training so that they could visit people in hospitals. To make sure Wonder Girl wouldn’t spook, they argued in front of her, dropped things behind her, trotted dogs up to her, rushed her and put her in elevators. Nothing fazed her.

After getting certified, Kelsey offered Wonder Girl’s services to Hospice Care of the West. Based in Foothill Ranch, Calif., the hospice service puts a lot of heart into finding ways to brighten their patients’ last few months on earth. They have an opera singer, dogs and cats. Wonder Girl, though, is their most requested visitor.

On a recent morning, Kelsey and her mom walk Wonder Girl into Care House, a Santa Ana, Calif., nursing home, where rows of wheelchairs fill an activity room. Men and women, some asleep in their chairs, others holding blankets or baby dolls, are listening to a staff member read current events. They’ve just finished hearing about the Emmys and are about to learn about an earthquake in Indonesia when Wonder Girl walks in, with her giant glassy cartoon eyes and adorably fuzzy ears.

“Oh, look at that,” shouts Carma Wallace, 85. “Let her sit by me, will ya?”

Wonder walks patiently from one wheelchair to the next, stopping to let
each person to nuzzle her, kiss her, pat her and ask her questions. Many of the folks in the room speak different languages. But it seems everyone speaks miniature horse.

“Will it cost me much?” a woman in a pink striped housecoat wants to know.

“No, it’s not gonna cost you anything. She just wants to make you smile,” says Donna Miller, volunteer coordinator for Hospice of the West.

“Oh, bless your heart,” the woman says, kissing Miller’s hand.

A few wheelchairs away, a woman with a white puff of hair and rosy cheeks begins to sob. Her one hand is frozen in a sling. Wonder Girl inches up to her and gently rests her head in the woman’s lap until Kelsey leads her to the next wheelchair where Virginia Knudson is waiting.

“He’s not a dog? He’s a horse?” asks Knudson, 89. “Oh boy!”

It was in 2006, a year after Kelsey and Wonder began visiting hospice
patients, that Vandy’s farm got a call from pro skateboarder Rob Dyrdek’s camp.

He and his oversized bodyguard/pal are the stars of the comedy reality show “Rob and Big.” Their bulldog Meaty had started peeing in the house, convincing the boys he was feeling neglected and in need of a friend.

Rob turned to the Internet where he stumbled onto vandysminihorses.com. The show, which was then in season 2, follows Rob and Big as they visit Vandy’s farm where Kelsey shows them around. Rob falls for a 20-inch foal named Sky and renames him Mini Horse.

“We’re about to go on a long journey together, Mini Horse,” Rob tells his new pet after learning it could live 35 years.

Mini Horse has since made it into all but one episode of the show, which has just been picked up for a third season, and the pet’s naughty antics are a favorite subject of “Rob and Big” fan bloggers.

“Mini Horse … should have his own publicist,” says Jeff Abraham, publicist for the show. “When we do a photo shoot they say, ‘Oh, and by the way, we want Mini Horse in the shoot.’ He’s as much a part of the show as Big or Rob.”

The Webbers have gotten a few hate emails from people in the horse community who think they shouldn’t have sold to Rob and Big (Mini Horse spends a lot of time in the house and the backseat of the car, unlike your average horse), but they say they are confident he is well taken care of.

Kelsey and her mom watch the show every week and give advice over the phone. When Rob wanted to know how to get Mini Horse up and down the three flights of stairs to the front door, the Webbers told them: you don’t. So Rob had switchbacks carved into his hillside.

This year, the minis at Vandy’s farm gave birth to 10 foals, most delivered by Kelsey, who trains with an equine vet. The farm has 41 mini horses now and 14 more on the way this spring.

The question is: Is this town big enough for another mini horse?

The dreams of many young girls have been granted as D3Publisher of America, Inc. (D3PA) today announced that Horse Life™, an original game exclusively for the Nintendo DS™, has shipped to retail. Horse Life immerses players in the equestrian world by putting a horse right inside of their DS. Available for $29.95 MSRP, players must use the touch screen and microphone to keep their horse happy and fit by feeding them, cleaning their stall and riding them. Most importantly, players will put their training to the test by participating in national and international competitions to earn prestige and money to become a great champion.

“We are very pleased to be able to bring the joy of owning a horse to the Nintendo DS gamer with Horse Life. The game recreates the experience of owning a horse with exciting game play and the best graphics of any horse game available,” said Kim Motika, vice president of sales and operations, D3PA. “We know players will fall in love with Horse Life as soon as they pick it up, and we hope to fulfill many wishes this holiday season by offering the horse that so many have wanted but never gotten.”

Players will have the ability to choose from three horse breeds, French Saddle, English Thoroughbred and Thoroughbred Arabian that they can customize by choosing the name and coat color. Once players begin their training they can visit the Gear Shop to purchase over 80 different items such as clothing, saddles or food and treats for their horse. As players complete levels of competition, they will unlock the ultimate prize, a secret horse breed!

Horse Life is developed by Neko Entertainment and is rated “E” (Everyone) by the ESRB.

In retirement, Ballard’s been able to fulfill the dream he’s had since childhood of working full-time with horses, training them to be the best horse they can be.

He does it with his voice and through a gentle touch and kind, but firm direction. The trusting eyes that follow his every move and the ears that flick in his direction are indicative of the bond between Ballard and the horses.

As he saddles up a mare for a demonstration of his techniques, Ballard continues to talk about his passion for horses and how he came to a second career of training horses for himself and his clients at his Southern Cross Horse Ranch near Forreston.

“I guess I was born loving horses,” said Ballard, who grew up on a farm in rural Georgia, where his family raised everything from cows to chickens alongside the crops.

“We had working horses, large draft horses and regular riding horses,” he said, recalling his first horse as a “little red mare.”

Growing up, he and his brothers would slip away and race some of the horses up and down the country lanes near their home, but, somehow, “Dad always knew,” Ballard said with a smile.

Texas always beckoned and Ballard, a genealogy enthusiast who has traced his lineage to relatives arriving in deep East Texas in 1821, himself moved to the Lone Star State at age 17.

“I was born a Texan,” said Ballard, who visited relatives often as a child, telling his family in Georgia he was “going to Texas” before doing so at the earliest opportunity.

Ballard completed college and embarked on an engineering career while starting a family, finding time as he could to work with horses.

“During as much of my spare time away as I had from my career and when I wasn’t needed by my family, I’d spend that time with horses, renewing my training techniques and developing my abilities to do more,” Ballard said.

Retiring about 11 years ago, Ballard has since filled his time with horses, bringing along his own as well as training for others.

He’ll have from two to five horses at any given time at his 45-acre place, where Ballard has set up his residence, a barn, a round pen and pastures.

“It’s comfortable. I get to do what I like to do most of the time,” said Ballard, a facilities operations manager for the SSC project before joining Northern Telecom in Richardson. “I had an opportunity for early retirement and jumped on it.”

Now, his days are filled with the horses he so cherishes. A firm believer in putting in the time and miles on a horse, he works with each about two hours a day, five days a week. He’ll have a good foundation on one of his client’s horses in from 30 to 90 days’ time, working with the owner to carry on with what he’s put into place after the animal goes home.

With his own horses, Ballard continues to work and refine beyond that foundation, estimating it takes him about a year to get one where he wants it to be.

Ballard’s not a horse trader. He buys horses to train for himself, but time and time again, someone sees him on the trail or in competition and makes an offer.

“They’ll finally reach a price where I want them to have that horse,” Ballard said with a smile, noting that horses he’s trained can be found from Washington to New Mexico to Texas. “When people find out I have one, they’re interested enough to pay me a good price.”

He’s sold a few horses in his day, all quiet, well-mannered mounts that know how to put in a good day’s work while keeping their riders safe and sound. For Ballard, it’s all about putting a solid foundation on a horse by breaking down whatever he’s trying to teach it into simple steps - a similar feat to what he did as an engineer.

“As an engineer, you think in the minutest of details, way down to molecule stuff,” said Ballard, who’s never had any formal lessons in horse training. “With horses, you do the same. You learn to watch them and observe - and horses will talk to you and tell you if they’re tight, upset, spooky, scared or just not comfortable doing what you’re asking them to do.

“A horse will tell you, ‘Look, fella, I have no idea what you’re wanting. Why don’t you stop and show me?’ and you show them what you want them to do in bits and pieces,” said Ballard, demonstrating with the mare how he teaches a horse - step by step - to pivot on its hindquarters. “You teach by going through the process. … It’s a cue you build on.”

Everything centers on a good foundation - just like with people and their education, Ballard said, explaining, “If you have a 6-year-old starting school, you’ll start him in the first grade. It wouldn’t be a good idea to start him at the university level. You start easy and work through the process so he comes out successful on the other side.”

With a good foundation, Ballard said, “A horse knows how to do everything he needs to do to be a good horse.”

The work starts on the ground, with Ballard teaching a horse to respond to cues and pressure to move forward, backward, to the left and to the right.

“I won’t do anything on a horse’s back until I can do it on the ground,” he said, noting that, at the same time he’s putting in the foundation, he’s also building a trust between horse and his handler - a trust that ultimately transfers to a rider. “Horses are claustrophobic. The training process teaches them that they can trust their rider to not let them get hurt. You ask them to do something and they’ll trust their rider to cross that stream or bridge, as an example.”

Ballard describes a good training session as “tremendously rewarding,” especially when “you get on that horse today and it’s going well when yesterday he might have been fighting you. … It’s just something to see them mature and see them develop.”

In combination with the physical training, Ballard is continually talking with the horses.

“I talk to them all the time, just like they’re another person,” he said. “They might not understand the words, but they understand your tone, volume and expression. Your tone tells them a lot of what you want them to do.”

He mostly works with quarterhorses, although he’s handled other breeds, including Tennessee walkers and Arabians. Regardless of the breed, the goal is a well-rounded horse that’s as comfortable in the show ring as on a mountain path or in a parade.

“I like to ride in different events,” said Ballard, who, along with his granddaughter Gail, can be found at a jackpot one night, back home training the next day and then participating in a cattle-sorting competition the next.

One of the biggest blessings for Ballard has been finding the same love for horses in his teen-age granddaughter. He babysat Gail as a child - and from the start, she was fascinated with his horses.

“She’d point and look. She’d watch them,” he said. “It was obvious she had the gene I had about truly loving horses. … She’s got a great love for them, just like me.”

The two pleasure ride, train and compete together. Their main competition horse at this time is Dusty Joe Moon, an 11-year-old gelding Ballard jokingly describes as “too big, too long, too heavy and too lazy.”

Kidding aside, the two have been successful with the horse in a variety of competitions, with Ballard saying, “He’s got a lot of things he can do well. He’s a pleasure to ride.”

Looking to the future, Ballard’s already purchased a couple of young colts - one for Gail, one for him - that he believes will form the foundation for a breeding and training operation the two are planning together.

“The game plan is to help Gail so she’s in a position to have her stable of horses, so she’s happy doing what she loves to do,” he said.

Elizabete Gouveia has cerebral palsy, cannot stand or sit up by herself and needs regular physiotherapy.

But for the last few months she has been enjoying horse riding as part of her treatment regime.

Her father Manuel, from Torres Vedras, Portugal, says the treatment - known as hippotherapy - is proving very beneficial to three-year-old Elizabete.

“She is not afraid of the horse and we have found she is more relaxed after the treatment.

“Her legs particularly are more relaxed and we have seen a big difference since she started the therapy.

“Now she even looks forward to having her therapy,” he said.

The therapy, which is also available in the UK, is used to help people of all ages with different physical or psychological difficulties.

Treatment involves putting patients on horseback in a variety of positions and adapting to the horse’s movements and working on co-ordination and posture.

Catia Roche, Elizabete’s physical therapist at CampoReal, in Portugal, said she had noticed that using hippotherapy increased mobility and muscle relaxation, improved tone and decreased involuntary movement as well as boosting the rider’s self-esteem.

“The temperature of the horse is about 38 degrees, so their warmth helps make the patients’ limbs easier to work with.”

She added that the three-dimensional movement of the horse’s pelvis also leads to a movement response in the patient’s pelvis, which is similar to the pattern of walking - something some of her patients cannot do.

“We have been using the hippotherapy here since January, but I have been training in it for two years,” she said.

“I have really found it helps with the co-ordination and after hippotherapy they stay relaxed for longer.

“After physical therapy I have found that they are relaxed for one to two hours, but after hippotherapy the benefits can last for up to five hours.

“I find that people are also calmer and less stressed out, following their 30 minute sessions.”

She said she was currently using hippotherapy for people with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, multiple sclerosis, people who have suffered trauma and those with neurological problem.

Lesley Furnell, a physiotherapist for Revive Scotland, which works with MS patients, said hippotherapy is very different from riding for the disabled, which has been around for over thirty years.

She said that hippotherapy, which was first used in the 90s, is growing in popularity now in the UK and she has waiting lists of people with MS wanting to use it.

“The courses have become so popular I have had to limit them to 10 weeks each, otherwise it would not be fair on the others. Everyone who does it seems to enjoy it.

“It uses the three dimensional movement of the horse’s hips, pelvis and shoulders at the walk to provide a movement challenge to the rider and I consider it to have been a success when the rider can replicate what they feel when they are on the horse to what they feel when walking.

“Hippotherapy is a unique treatment, which cannot be rivalled or reproduced by any other therapeutic method or piece of equipment,” she added.

But a spokesperson for Scope, the charity for those with cerebral palsy said that although they are aware of the benefits of hippotherapy it should not be thought of as a cure.

“As with all treatments and therapies, Scope would recommend caution and consultation.

“There are no cures for cerebral palsy; rather it is important to promote independence and equality for disabled people.

“Some people will find relaxation in horse riding, and there are benefits in the warmth and movements of the horse in improving circulation. And it can be fun and exciting for children with CP, the same as it is for non-disabled children”

A horse speaks its mind loud and clear to Jay Mele.

With body language.

The flick of an ear, a switching tail.

The shiver of muscles under a buckskin Quarter Horse’s taut, glossy hide.

“He’s either been kicked or spurred,” the Wilmington trainer said, scratching the flank of Poco Dandy Blue. “Or,” he added, “he just doesn’t like this.”

PREFERS PLAY

Horses are like people, Mele says, each an individual, with quirks that come built-in or shaped by circumstance.

Patti Beebie had ridden Blue just once, before she bought the 13-year-old gelding. Then, he was too thin by far.

“He had no life in him at all,” the Champlain woman said. “When I got on, he barely moved around.”

As he gained weight, Blue revealed a saucy energy that prompted Beebie to ask Mele to work with him a bit, to see just what to expect from him.

“He’s a buckskin,” the trainer chuckled. “He’d rather be playing than working.”

Mele fitted a green rope halter on the horse’s head, then, swinging the end of the attached lead rope, set him trotting in tight circles, first clockwise then in the other direction.

Stopping Blue, the trainer backed him a few paces. He rubbed a loosely coiled lasso over the horse’s back, his neck, concentrated for several seconds around the ears.

Blue accepted the process without complaint.

As Mele tapped the horse’s legs, one by one, with the rope, the horse skittered away. He reared when the trainer swung the open loop at him.

The behavior didn’t faze the man.

“Just trying to find his hot spots,” Mele said. “He doesn’t have too many. (But) he doesn’t like things around his back legs.”

SADDLE UP

Get to know the horse — that’s primary, Mele says.

“The worst thing I can do is assume we’re good old buddies,” he said. “There’s got to be that introduction made.”

The groundwork with Blue acquainted the two.

Now, Mele hefted his heavy Western saddle onto the horse’s back, adjusted it carefully over the thick pad and cinched the girth.

“I think he’s going to be OK,” he said, fitting a boot-clad foot into the stirrup. “We’ll find out in a second.”

COOPERATION

Mele, a Connecticut native, served in Vietnam then moved out to western Canada.

“I wanted to get away from life, I guess.”

But it was there that he found his life’s meaning. A childhood love of horses matured as he mastered ranch life, riding, roping, topping off bucking horses and corkscrewing bulls at rodeos.

But breaking a horse the old-fashioned way made no sense to Mele.

“It took 25 years to train a horse (that way). They’d ride em until they gave up — then you didn’t have anything.”

In Colorado, he learned under renowned trainer Ray Hunt, whose style is based on cooperation and respect between horse and rider.

“I started training this horse that was supposed to be incorrigible,” Mele said, “that put people in the hospital.”

He worked his magic on Willie Alvin.

“I understood what it would take: time.”

Willie died at the ripe-old age of 29 after years as the top Paint horse in New England.

“Probably taught 100 people how to ride.”

VISIBLE BOND

A soft clucking put Blue into a trot, Mele on his back.

“Good boy,” he murmured.

The horse moved in a circle, obedient to reins and leg.

“Whenever I watch him work with a horse, it’s almost a spiritual experience,” said Beebie, who has been a riding student of Mele’s. “You know he loves them — you can tell by the way he works with them.”

“I would long-trot him, short-trot him,” Mele told her from Blue’s back. “Lope him 20 feet and stop.

“He’s really not in balance — that’s why he’s having trouble picking his feet up.”

MUTUAL TRUST

It was Beebie’s turn to ride; Blue balked.

“OK,” she said, “what am I doing wrong?”

“Put some leg on him,” Mele told Beebie. “Don’t be afraid to move him.”

Horse and rider need to connect, he says.

“The horse has to trust you. That’s number one.

“Number two is you have to trust the horse.”

Like electric lines, the reins telegraph the rider’s state of mind.

“If I’m hanging on to him for dear life,” Mele said, “he’s never going to trust me.”

Now Blue was stepping out, circling the small paddock as Beebie directed.

“You see that softness in his eye?” Mele said. “He’s taking care of her.”

“The ears will tell you where and when; the eyes will tell you what’s on their mind.”

MOVIE HORSES

Mele, 64, has six horses of his own and is training five others on his Wilmington spread, Jay Mele Training Stables. He gives riding instruction, clinics and offers all-day, individual sessions with concentration on problem solving, performance critique or lessons in disciplines from western reining to showmanship.

He trained a horse that appeared in the 1988 movie Young Guns, and another, Rain, for Young Guns II.

Mele’s not done learning yet, himself.

“There are so many complexities to a horse,” he said. “No way in hell I know it all yet — in fact, I know I never will.”

During a reining competition at a recent show, Mele’s mount had bolted.

“It was my fault,” the trainer told Beebie. “I knew he was in a rotten damn mood.”

“So even somebody like you has bad days,” Beebie said.

Mele said, “It’s a process.”

PROBLEM SOLVING

It’s one he’s followed with more than 1,000 horses, a good number of them “problem” equines.

Sometimes, misuse creates those issues.

“Or the horse is meant to do something different than what we want them to do.”

Today’s society wants what it wants when it wants it, Mele said. And that’s at odds with the time and patience it takes to train a horse.

“It takes 200 or 300 times of doing the same thing before a horse understands what you want.”

Blue, the trainer told Beebie, should prove a good mount for her.

“I’d spend some time with him,” he recommended.

Again, it’s about creating respect. That’s what a successful partnership between human and horse is all about, Mele says.

That’s his basic mantra.

“I wouldn’t do anything to them that I wouldn’t want done to me.”

Rob Crater stands in the center of a sandy corral as a dark brown and white stallion trots wide circles around him.

The 6-year-old stallion shakes its head and gives a sharp whinny, his nostrils flaring and vibrating with the call to his mares penned up just a few yards away. His hooves pound on the dirt in a quick staccato and his dark head is tucked to his chest.

The small Shetland pony stallion, Reflected Image, has to reach to grab the green leaves off the bottom branches of the tree. He may be small but he is the biggest champion on this little plot of land behind a double-wide manufactured home in Burbank.

“He’s the best of the best,” said Crater, the owner of CLC Stables.

Crater, 26, and his fiancee, Nikeela Black, raise miniature horses and Shetland ponies and miniature Australian Shepherds in Burbank.

Crater bought Reflected Image, the 2002 National Grand Champion Classic Shetland, last year. It’s all part of his plan to breed the champion ponies and miniature horses.

“I liked him when I first saw him as a yearling but I didn’t ever think he would come up for sale,” he said.

Crater’s a horseman, but unlike Black, one of the top jockeys riding the Blue Mountain racing circuit, he’d rather be steering from a sulky or cart behind the horse.

“Riding doesn’t appeal to me,” he said.

Black spends her summers hopping on the backs of equine athletes that reach more than 5 feet tall at the withers. She’s on them when they jump out of the starting gate with a handful of other contenders, and she tries to steer her 1,000-pound ward to the front of the herd and fights to stay there.

Crater’s world is less frantic. He’s more comfortable driving his ponies, which can’t be more than 38-inches tall, in the show ring — never breaking a trot — but definitely breaking a sweat.

“I get nervous,” he said.

The worlds may be different but the desire is the same. They both want to win.

Crater, who graduated from Washington State University with a degree in animal science, keeps cow records at a local dairy. After work, a small menagerie waits for him at home.

Growing up in the rural outskirts of the Tri-Cities, Crater grew up on 4-H and farm animals, showing sheep and chicken at the Benton County Fair & Rodeo.

He was 16 when he bought his first miniature horse — a little gelding that he taught to drive under harness.

As long as Shetlands don’t exceed height requirements, they can be registered through the American Shetland Pony Club and the American Miniature Horse Registry, he said.

He started showing the horses after he met Jodi Cook, who owns a miniature horse farm in Palouse, and began driving and showing her horses.

“We met over the Internet,” Cook said. “He had e-mailed me about a horse he had that had been bred by me.”

Later, when Crater was attending WSU, Cook was showing her horses at the Palouse Empire Fair. Crater went to the fair, looked up Cook and introduced himself.

“I had a bunch of horses and handed him one and told him to get into the ring,” Cook said.

Cook said Crater quickly caught on and the two became fast friends.

“I have always liked his enthusiasm and willingness to learn,” she said.

Looking dapper in a top hat and black tuxedo jacket, Crater earned plenty of ribbons and made a lot of great friends.

“I really love the camaraderie of the show circuit — it’s one big family,” he said.

Now he’s hoping to start collecting some of the ribbons and the reputation that goes with them by building a top-quality stable of Shetlands and miniature horses. Right now he has eight — six shetlands and two that are dual-registered. He attends five to six shows featuring shetlands and miniature horses each year.

He said Shetlands ponies have gotten a bad rap in the past.

“I want to get rid of the myth that Shetlands are mean — they are very versatile,” he said.

When trained properly, they make a great first horse for small children, can be driven in front of a cart and they are a great addition to the family.

“Really, they are for everyone,” he said, while he rinsed the corral dirt from Image’s legs.

And he hopes by having Image at his farm and being very selective about breeding the stallion, he can make the line even better.

“My goal is to breed a grand champion,” he said.

On most days, Vikki Amendola’s horse Tarzan likes to stay in the barn and stand in front of the 42-inch fan that keeps him cool and fly-free.

However, on Wednesday, Tarzan probably will prick up his ears and hold his head a mite higher as he marches in Brookston’s Fourth of July Parade. Tarzan is an astonishing 37 years old or more, and it’s not often he gets the chance to strut.

“He likes the showy stuff,” Amendola said of the small, muscular Morgan cross she has owned since she was 10 years old.

Amendola, 46, said Tarzan will stay in the barn if it’s too hot on Wednesday. But she’d really like to get Tarzan in the parade.

Last year, she had planned to enter Tarzan in the parade, but it was too hot. The next day, July 5, Amendola suffered a stroke. Before her husband could take her to the hospital, she said, she dragged herself to the barn and wrapped her arms around Tarzan’s neck.

“I said, ‘I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I’ll be back for you,’ ” Amendola said.

Amendola’s stroke was the latest in Amendola and Tarzan’s extraordinary history together.

Amendola and Tarzan became inseparable as they grew up together — “He wouldn’t let anybody else on his back but me,” Amendola said — and it was Tarzan who carried Amendola to meet her husband-to-be, Jody, at her 2003 outdoor wedding. Tarzan has been attacked by a pit bull, lost a hoof to disease and suffered a potentially fatal bowel trauma that required two trips to the University of Minnesota’s Equine Center in 2006.

“He has a lot of battle scars, but he’s doing well,” Amendola said.

Amendola hasn’t had a much easier time. She had open heart surgery in 2004 and broke her ankle while trying to recover. While applying chemotherapy salve to another of her horses, Amendola accidentally got some on her ungloved hand. It made her hair fall out. And now, Amendola has been ordered to avoid riding so she won’t aggravate her health problems.

“It can be hard when you’ve been riding your whole life to be told you can’t,” Amendola said.

So, with both horse and owner in need of recuperation, Amendola and Tarzan have made walking twice a day a ritual. Amendola leads the bay gelding with the graying face across her pastoral Saginaw farm slowly, scatting chickens and ducks in their path. In spite of their health problems, both horse and owner are doing fine.

“He’s in really great shape,” said Dr. Alex LaPlante, Tarzan’s veterinarian at Twin Ports Equine in Esko. “Morgans tend to be long-lived, but horses getting into their late 30s is pretty uncommon.”

“Vikki’s taking really good care of him,” she said. “A lot of it has been how careful she is in taking care of him. He’s pretty lucky to have an owner like that.”

LaPlante sees many horses, but she’s noticed Amendola and Tarzan have a special bond.

“When he doesn’t feel right, she knows before I could be able to tell,” LaPlante said.

Tarzan is the oldest horse LaPlante sees in her practice.

LaPlante said Tarzan has mellowed with age. Once a horse who actively avoided getting shots, he merely acts like “a grumpy old man” when it’s time for his checkup.

“He doesn’t have, right now, any major health problems,” LaPlante said. “He still bosses other horses around.”

After a 2004 story about Amendola and Tarzan ran in the News Tribune, Bob Lundberg of Duluth gave Amendola a call. It was he who had sold Tarzan — whom he called Rubesh — to Amendola’s parents in 1971 for $50. Amendola and Lundberg had talked once early in Amendola’s ownership of Tarzan, but they had lost touch. Now, things are different.

“We chat and check up on each other frequently,” Amendola said.

Now, the Amendolas have 12 of their own horses and board five others. Vikki spends a lot of time with them, but, of course, most of it with one horse in particular.

“Her life revolves around these horses,” Jody Amendola said.

Vikki laughs, but doesn’t deny it.

I’ve been driving for an hour and a half on wide and dusty roads and have barely seen another vehicle. Far behind me are the fumes and frustrations of the traffic jams that snake through Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaator.

Surrounding me now are only the vast empty spaces and dramatic mountain ranges of central Mongolia. And there are horses, too - lots of them. The only place on earth where there are more horses than people.

Mongolia has an unfaltering love affair with the horse that has lasted centuries. And with over three million of them, this is a place where horses really are everywhere.

In the distance I see men, either on their own or in pairs, herding sheep and cattle on horseback. Closer by, tucking into scratchy tufts of grass poking through the sandy ground at the side of the road, large herds of horses form unwieldy lines which spill on to the road in front of me.

Making my way slowly through this horsey gridlock, I am struck by their variety. Like a jumble of breeds brought randomly together on the wayside, they come in all sorts of colours and sizes - from jet black to pale amber, some with rough coats, others with smoother hides - no wonder the Mongolians have more than 500 words to describe the coats of their horses.

But while these horses may all look different, under the skin they are, in fact, all the same. All are domestic horse breeds. Just like America’s famous mustang, these horses may appear to be wild but they aren’t. They have simply become feral - domestic horses originally bred and kept by humans that now happen to be living in the wild.

To find a truly wild horse, I need to drive another half an hour or so to the Hustai National Park, 60 miles south-west of Ulaanbaator, where, under the shadows of the Khentii mountain range, they roam freely.

Known in Mongolian as takhi, these horses predate the evolution of the domestic horse. The only living link between the world’s first horses (the extinct hyracotherium), which galloped the earth some 55 million years ago, and today’s domestic horse, takhi - with a different chromosome count to domestic horses - are the world’s only living genuinely wild horse.

While around 60 million domestic horses are now found around the globe, only a few hundred takhi survive outside captivity. An endangered species, takhi are found only in Mongolia, most of them here in the magnificent steppe landscape of the Hustai National Park. Steppe (arid grassland and salt plains) once made up a quarter of the world’s vegetation but, in its original form, can now only be found in Mongolia.

On the plains of Hustai there are more than 450 plant species, many perfect fodder for takhi. But as well as the grassy steppes, there is mountainous forest here, too. And it’s in the forest that my search for takhi begins.

Accompanied by Serjee Tserenhadmid - a young Mongolian woman who has known the land here since childhood - I pass hundreds of tall, eerily pale birch trees which line the sides of the Hustai’s quiet mountains like a ghost forest.

Branches lay fallen and trampled on the ground; bark reveals the unmistakable indent of horse incisors - both recent signs that takhi have been here snacking here. At night, wolves, foxes and lynx chase through these trees hunting for evening meals of gazelle and red deer.

Dodging the holes of marmots (beaver-like mammals) we head out of the forest and down to the empty plains below. A golden eagle flying above us does the same. As he passes out of sight, we see instead a small herd of horses grouped around a wide river where the last snows of winter are melting.

“Takhi,” says Serjee excitedly. I follow her as she quickly heads off to the river. Just feet away from them, we stop, catch our breath and stare at the takhi in front of us.

Short, chunky and muscular, these horses look very different to their domestic cousins, with huge nostrils and large, rectangular faces. Their handsome heads are supported by thick necks; stubby ears are full of straw-like hair; and manes are upright and stiff like those of zebras. More Popeye than pretty, takhi are strong horses engineered by nature to survive earlier, tougher times.

Made up of one stallion, mares of various ages and some of last year’s foals, this is a harem of 10. During Mongolia’s frozen and snow-filled winters, takhi coats turn cream for camouflage. As summer approaches they darken gradually to a soft brown. Now it is springtime, and they are wearing their “between seasons” coats of butterscotch, caramel and toffee.

While takhi may come in confectionary colours, their nature is not so sweet. During the mating season, stallions will kick each other to death to gain dominance; when wolves threaten to take foals, takhi will rear fiercely to protect their young; and no man - except, if you believe the legend, Genghis Khan - has ever been able to ride one. Unknown to Europeans until 1878, takhi are as wild as the landscape they live in.

Whinnying and neighing, the takhi are becoming restless at our presence. The stallion rises on to his hind legs, snorts noisily and starts to move off. Breaking into a collective canter behind him, unfettered by man or saddle, the harem vanishes quickly into the wilderness. Serjee tells me that in Mongolian takhi means spirit. After what I have seen today, there’s need for her to explain why.

It’s the start of a beautiful friendship. Horseman Jud Carter and 2-year-old stallion Doc meet for their first training session where, inside a circular arena on his 20 acres of land in DeWitt, Carter carefully swings a piece of rope like a lasso and lets it touch the horse ever so slightly.

“I’m just trying to communicate with (him) a little bit,” Carter said.

Carter, 30, doesn’t want to “capture” the horse right away; instead, he wants to get the creature ready to be caught.

The rope helps Carter get Doc to relax and gain some confidence. It is an extension of Carter’s arm and gets Doc used to having something — and eventually somebody — on him.

Carter has worked with horses in some degree for about half of his life and recently had what he called the amazing experience of training for two months in Texas with one of the nation’s top clinicians, Ray Hunt, of “The Horse Whisperer” fame.

He’s ever mindful of Hunt’s philosophy of caring for the horse first and foremost, and teaching rather than forcing, as he works with the animals at his farm.

“Jud works the horse in such a way that as soon as you give that lead rope to Jud, the horse knows this guy is a good guy,” said client Linda Perry of Springfield.

Carter, though, is quick to pass credit back to Hunt when he talks about methods of working with horses.

“I’ve got Ray Hunt on my shoulder now,” Carter said.

“It’s so simple that it’s difficult. That’s what Ray says.”

The main character in the 1990s book and movie “The Horse Whisperer” is modeled after Ray Hunt and two other horsemen, Tom Dorrance and Buck Brannaman.

Hunt, 77, has trained more than 10,000 colts and has shared his techniques and philosophies through clinics in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe for more than three decades.

This past winter, Carter was among six people from across the country who went to Hunt’s Texas ranch to train horses.

“We were hoping to get people a little further along than when we just do a two- or three-day clinic. …” said Ray Hunt’s wife, Carolyn. “(Carter’s) pretty much just getting started.”

Carter had attended Hunt’s two-day clinics before, but the words began to sink in more as he spent more time with the man.

“Just being there and riding in front of him, you really start to realize the little things you hear him talk about,” Carter said.

Training time

Carter demonstrated some of those little things as he worked with his sister-in-law’s young horse.

As he works with Doc and swings the rope at him, he sees Doc has slowed down. The horse shakes his head, licks his lips and moves toward the center of the corral toward Carter.

Those small changes signal what action to take next, Carter said. The biggest thing he learned from Hunt is do less to get more from a horse.

For example, Carter puts a halter and lead rope on the horse and places a little pressure on the reign as he holds it to the side of the horse. He does not tug. He does not pull. He does not force the horse to move.

He waits.

And waits.

Patience is the key.

Carter notices a change — Doc has picked up his right hoof.

He places a slight pressure on the rope again. Pretty soon Doc will move, he said.

Sure enough, Doc takes a couple steps and turns to the right, just as Carter wanted him to do.

“See how I didn’t do anything?” Carter asks.

Teaching a horse to want to do a task instead of forcing it to do something is a key to successfully working with the animals, Carter said. His relationship with a horse is like a kinship or friendship.

“You have to give respect to gain respect,” Carter said. “That’s where they start trusting you.”

Mission accomplished

Carter works part time for Lahoil Inc. Oil Producers in Wapella and spends the rest of his day riding horses for people like Perry.

Perry had a problem with a pony that jumped high and bucked constantly. Within an hour, Carter had the horse walking calmly, and now Perry’s 8-year-old daughter rides it, she said.

Another horse didn’t want to go into its trailer, and Carter showed her what she was doing wrong — she was trying to pull the horse in instead of applying a little pressure, releasing pressure and applying the pressure again to slowly teach the horse to enter the trailer.

“It’s just amazing. He’s like a miracle guy,” Perry said.

Horses just immediately connect with Carter, she said.

Special connection

Despite the impression the name gives, whispering is not a part of the horse whisperer training method. Carter rarely talks to the horse, though he’ll make slight noises as he rides a horse.

Instead the term refers to the quiet exchange between a rider and the animal.

Carter can make such a small action to achieve a small change in the horse that it’s hard for anyone else to notice what’s happened — just like someone who’s a distance away cannot hear two people quietly talking.

“Time, feeling and balance is what it is,” Carter said. “You throw that all together.”

Experience helps with confidence and not being afraid of a horse.

Carter’s had his share of minor bruises and sores here and there from a bucking horse, but only one major injury about three years ago.

While a horse was drinking out of a water trough, Carter walked behind the horse and touched the unsuspecting animal.

The spooked horse kicked Carter in the chest and caused him to flip over backward and fall to the ground. He ended up with a lot of cuts and bruises, a couple fractured ribs and a pulled ligament.

He said his carelessness was the cause for the accident. He should have let the horse finish drinking and make sure it knew he was around it.

“It’s never the horse’s fault,” Carter said.

It was about a year and a half before Carter completely healed from the injury. He couldn’t ride for a couple of months and then it was still difficult to ride and clean stalls for a while.

In the meantime, he was let go from his full-time job in the construction industry.

But the injury was a blessing in disguise as it led Carter to work full time with horses. Now, Carter wants to work with as many horses as he can and spread the word about what he’s learned.

“It’s my life. It’s all I do, all I think about,” Carter said. “Besides my family, it’s all I care about.”