In grand but humble style, Texas County was a focal point of horsemanship on a national scale last week.
From Sunday through Saturday (June 22-28) hundreds of avid horse enthusiasts gathered at Golden Hills Trail Rides and Resort near Raymondville for the inaugural Mustang Family Reunion Ride. The event was organized by Laura Dawson, owner and manager of LoneStar L Ranch, in Lexington, Texas, and produced with the help of her husband Eric Dawson.
Attendees were treated to education and tips from numerous well-known horsemanship experts – or “clinicians” – including headliners Ken McNabb, of Greybull, Wyo., and the internationally renowned Guy McLean, of Australia. Others clinicians who took turns doing their thing in Golden Hills’ arena and various other venues included Lanny Leach (of Dragoon, Ariz.), Mary Miller Jordan (of southeastern North Carolina), Wylene Wilson-Davis (of Queen Creek, Ariz.), Mary Kitzmiller (of Kemp, Texas), Steve Smith (of Scurry, Texas) and Mark and Miranda Lyon (of M and M Horsemanship in Whitesboro, Texas).
While not all horses at the event were Mustangs, many were. Laura Dawson’s past includes a major history with them, as she spent years working for the Mustang Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Georgetown, Texas, dedicated to helping promote the Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Program and increase the number of successful adoptions of America’s excess mustangs and burros (a Mustang is defined as a free-roaming horse of the North American west that descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish; the remaining Mustang population in the U.S. is managed and protected by the BLM).
During her stint with the foundation, Laura was involved with several Mustang-oriented events, like Mustang Million, a big-money competition broadcast on TV on the National Geographic Network. Her work with the organization also helped open doors for what she’s doing now.
“We offer equal opportunity fun, and there are many types of horses here this week,” she said. “But while I was at MHF, I had the good fortune of meeting a lot of these clinicians.”
The methods of all clinicians at last week’s event fit in with the Dawson’s approach to training horses.
“They all love natural horsemanship,” Eric said. “There’s no bullying or cowboying going on here – not with the people or the horses.”
Laura Dawson also has a history at Golden Hills. Around the turn of the century, she was part of a large horsemanship event that returned to the facility several years in a row.
“It was early in the ‘horse clinician era,’” she said. “There were no TV shows or DVDs, and only a few clinics here and there. We had a very wet-behind-the-ears Pat Parelli here and a young Clint Anderson. There was a very large gathering – in its last year there were probably 800 horses and people in camp.
“We’re shooting for that type of attendance with the Mustang Family Reunion Ride.”
Despite the goal of attracting lots of horse people to their events, the Dawsons also intend to maintain a low key, low stress, family-oriented atmosphere.
“Our clinicians are all about the people and the horses, and we have a very tight-knit family dynamic here,” Laura said. “Even if you’ve never been to this kind of event before, you can come in and have lunch with us and suddenly you’re part of the family. We don’t care what level of experience you have of how long you’ve had your horse.
“Everyone here is very encouraging, from the trainers to the people who have been with us for a long time.”
Laura Dawson said several characteristics of the 5,000-acre Golden Hills layout make it ideal for a big horsemanship gathering, not the least of which are its location in the central U.S. and the more than 200 miles of horse trails that take riders through all manner of Ozarks landscapes.
“This place has a unique set of attributes,” she said. “It holds a thousand people, they feed us wonderful meals, it has lodging as well as full-service campsites, it has a fishing lake and hiking, and even a pool and a weight room.
“There are other facilities around the country, but they don’t have everything. This has everything.”
Eric Dawson said the first-ever Mustang Family Reunion Ride was an epic kick-off to what he and Laura hope is a long-running and popular series.
“It has been amazing,” he said. “The staff and the clinicians have all been excellent to work with and the campers have been great. Everybody just goes with the flow, because we really are such a big family. Of all things, the trails have been fantastic and it’s been a perfect opportunity for all levels of riders – and even mules and wagons.”
The event was previewed in an article in the May issue of Southwest Horse Trader magazine, a popular equine-related publication out of Splendora, Texas. The Dawsons’ plans for their business include expanding to offer events on both coasts.
“But that means we’ll have to find a place like Golden Hills, and that’s not easy to do,” Laura said.
The second annual Mustang Family Reunion Ride at Golden Hills is set for June 21-27, 2015. Many of the same horsemanship clinicians are scheduled to return, as well as other nationally known trainers. A “horse health and wellness” tent and a vendor tent will be added next year.
“We’re already looking forward to coming back,” Laura Dawson said. “It should be even better than it was this year, and that’s saying a lot.”
To view a gallery of photos from the inaugural Mustang Family Reunion Ride, click on this link:
http://houston.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=52230165&event=1819424&CategoryID=57447
Mustang Family Reunion Ride:
http://lonestarlranch.com/mustang-family-reunion-ride/
Mustang Heritage Foundation:
http://www.mustangheritagefoundation.org/
Golden Hills Trail Rides and Resort:
Ken McNabb:
Guy McLean:
http://www.guymcleanusatour.com/
Lanny Leach:
http://lannyleachhorsemanship.com/
Mary Miller Jordan:
http://www.marymillerjordan.com/
Wylene Wilson-Davis:
Mary Kitzmiller:
http://www.marykitzmiller.com/
Steve Smith:
http://www.cornerstonehorsetraining.com/
Mark and Miranda Lyon:
http://www.mandmhorsemanship.com/