Road trip: 4 states and a Peruvian Paso gelding

Over the last few days my family and I went on a road trip from Ohio to southern Virginia to see a Peruvian Paso horse. We drove through the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia and even had some snow on the way. West Virginia's slogan is Wild and Wonderful and, yes, that fits well.

We then arrived at Wheaten Point Farm where we met Maximiliano. He is a tall black Peruvian Paso gelding.

Here is Maximiliano with Carlos Gallegos, his Peruvian trainer.

After a demonstration of Maximiliano's gaits by Carlos I was allowed to ride him. He is energetic and arrogant as a Peruvian Paso horse should be. To some people that might be a bit intimidating but it's part of the breed's characteristic. These horse just want to to go and perform. Initially I had to establish a bit my role on Maximiliano's back but then we did understand each other well. He was born in 2006 and got some basic training, which is just enough to start riding him. It will be up to me to continue his education and carefully get him exposed to all the spooky things this world has to offer to horses.

Thanks to Rob Park, who is also a LeanDog software development coach, I am learning more and more about Clinton Anderson's training method of natural horsemanship. There are some differences between the Peruvian training methods and what Clinton does but the basic ideas are pretty much the same: teach the horse respect and respect the horse to form a mutual relationship.

Maximiliano now has to wait a couple of days for his ride from Virginia to his new home in Ohio.

We are on our way back to Ohio. Yesterday we just crossed through a part of West Virginia again and then spent the night in Frostburg, Maryland. Today we have another 5 hour drive ahead of us, which will take us partially through Pennsylvania. All in all it will be about 1100 miles (1700 km) when we arrive.

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