Three years ago, Gary Morris and his family moved from the outskirts of St. Louis, Mo., to an 8-acre farm near Fair Grove, Mo. The family includes wife, Amy, and teenage sons, Gregory and Ben.
Amy grew up with horses and always wanted some of her own. Gary said, “The rest of us absolutely love animals, so we decided to give horses a shot.” A friend was thinning his herd so they got a Paint mare from him.
That was the beginning. “I have always been interested in horses,” he claimed, but admitted, “I grew up as what you would call a ‘city boy.’ I rode horses a few times as a kid and enjoyed it very much. But when we got our horses, I basically knew nothing.”
When the family wanted a second horse, Gary said, “We decided to adopt one from the Long Meadow Rescue Ranch in Union, Mo.” They visited the ranch, looked at a lot of horses and selected an Arabian gelding. “We just liked his personality and looks – he has a lot of spirit.”
Their next horse was given to them by the same friends who gave them the first mare. While the Morris family liked horses, it was 13-year-old Ben who, in his dad’s words, “fell in love with the whole horse situation. So our friends decided, out of the kindness of their hearts, to drop off a horse for Ben. Their only condition was that they wanted Ben to train and break the horse. They wanted to see what Ben could do.”
Like a proud father, Gary smiled, “Ben has done a tremendous job. It’s a very well-trained horse already and he actually has it broke.”
Ben does most of the training when it comes to the horses and is working toward a goal. “He has watched every Clinton Anderson video,” Gary said. “His dream is to become an apprentice on Clinton’s ranch. You can apply when you’re 18, and it’s a 3 year apprentice program.”
Their animals are “pastured horses,” Gary said. “Seven to eight months of the year they eat pasture. In cold weather they do get hay and grain.” They are also given grain after training sessions. “We want to keep the horses in the most natural environment that we can.”
“We do not shoe the horses,” Gary said. He enlists the services of Natural Hoof Care Expert Louetta Plumlee to trim their hooves, a job Gary has no desire to learn. “She does the natural, barefoot trim,” he stated. “Her knowledge goes beyond the hooves. She has answered a lot of questions about caring for my horses, and the health and diet of my horses. There’s any number of things that can make your horse lame very quickly if you do not take care of their feet.”
“If you love horses, you can go from knowing nothing to owning your own, taking care of them and understanding them,” Gary said. He stressed, “If you’re interested in horses, but feel you don’t know enough about them, it doesn’t matter. You can take the time to learn and have a great experience with them. But you do need to take the time to learn.”
