Horse trainer, teacher, and
raconteur. I saw his demonstration a couple of years ago at the
Hecklerfest. His rapport with his horse
Kola was impressive (but I'm not an
equestrian, so don't quote me on this!). He did some archery and threw a
tomahawk. He told a folktale with a real zinger of a punch line and sang a song composed by one of his grandfathers. He demonstrated
counting coup on my son, who volunteered without having any idea what was involved. I bought a T-shirt for my son with a picture of him and
Kola. He autographed it in both English and
Cherokee characters.
Here is what he had to say on a recent post card: "World-renowned animal behaviorist, GaWaNi Pony Boy ... has developed a teaching method called Relationship Training®. This method focuses on the relationship between horse and rider rather than the immediate results that so many training methods are centered around.
GaWaNi Pony Boy is one of the horse industry's premier clinicians and conducts an average of 40-50 private gatherings each year".
I'm on his mailing list since I bought a copy of his book Horse, Follow Closely: Native American Horsemanship, 1998, Bow Tie Press, Irvine, California.