1. The facility provides a bring-your-own-horse experience. Riding someone else’s horse might be fun for a short time, but for most horse owners holds nowhere near the same appeal as riding their own stock.
2. Riders today constantly strive to improve their horsemanship. Thanks to videos, CDs and Web sites, a wealth of information is easily accessible, yet many people still prefer a hands-on experience with immediate feedback from a top equine clinician.

Easy Equine Travel
   All too often during a riding-related trip, a horse must, of necessity, spend nights in the trailer or tied to it. Either way, if the owner camps in his trailer, he seldom gets a good night’s sleep. And if he foregoes trailer living for a motel, he usually spends a fretful night worrying about his horse being tied in a strange place. All of which explains the appeal of an outfit that offers equine accommodations.
   Horse stalls at The Natural Gait aren’t extravagant – covered 12-by-12-foot panel pens with panel-mounted combination hay and grain feeders and convenient nearby water hydrants, which is adequate for temporary quarters. The stalls’ real appeal: Wide alleyways run between the pens on all four sides. Obviously the Brights put much thought into this arrangement, which satisfies a horse’s need to socialize with his own kind, yet doesn’t allow him to fuss directly with a strange horse in an adjoining stall. As a result, the horse owner can get a good night’s sleep no matter where he chooses to bed down.
   Although stalls at The Natural Gait are a bit of a walk from the lodge and covered arena, they’re relatively close to the outdoor arena and parking area and just across the road from cabins and campsites. The stall fee includes the first bedding, and guests can bring additional shavings or purchase them onsite. A facilities fee ($10 per day per horse, but not required for lodgers and campers) allows access to both outdoor and indoor arenas.

The Natural Gait’s annual calendar is filled with clinics presented by top-flight horsemen from all disciplines, who speak on various topics. Among those scheduled for 2004 are Texas horseman Buster McLaury, Certified Horsemanship Association Program Director Julie Goodnight of Colorado, Arizona horsewoman and rancher Lee Smith, Montana mule man Brad Cameron, teamsters Steve Bowers of Colorado and The Natural Gait’s own Dennis Crowley and Sylvia Super. Presentations on basic and advanced horsemanship, riding-instructor skills, colt-starting, ranch-horse versatility and cow-working are back by popular demand. There’s even a special workshop with canine clinician Suzanne Clothier for dog-loving horse owners.

When a clinician appears on The Natural Gait’s schedule, it’s not by happenstance. “We usually watch a presentation,” Donna says, “just to see which clinicians really look out for the horse.” The couple has discriminating tastes as far as equine clinicians are concerned.

The Brights also welcome area 4-H horse-project activities to The Natural Gait. In addition to driving clinics, Crowley conducts showmanship and horsemanship clinics for these young horsemen, and is ably abetted by Mary Cornwell, Natural Gait coordinator, and Super, both longtime equine industry professionals and staff members. Their right-hand man is Cornwell’s son, Clay.

Obviously, equine education is the focal point at The Natural Gait, but it’s equally obvious that guests and horses need refreshing breaks from the clinic routine. That’s when a trail ride along the Yellow River seems just the thing. In fact, some guests at The Natural Gait bring their own mounts to do only that.

The Natural Gait’s terrain is just right for trail riding – no matter a person’s level of riding expertise. That’s because just about any type of terrain can be found there, from fairly flat to gently rolling meadows and from steep, pine-shaded trails to wide, shallow river-crossings.

The area might well be an ideal spot for fishermen, too. The Yellow River has trout, and a pond is stocked with bass and blue gill. Canoeing’s available during the summer, and cross-country skiing, snowmobiling and sleigh rides are winter attractions. The Mississippi River’s a short distance away, where restaurants, tourist attractions and casino gambling are available in Marquette.

People-Pleasing Facilities

No matter a guest’s preference in accommodations, he can do things his own way at The Natural Gait. Both primitive and RV camping are available at minimal fees, with a shower house and laundry near the lodge. Six private bedrooms are in the indoor arena, and three log cabins sit atop a bluff bank of the Yellow River. Each cabin sleeps from six to 10 people, and the Ion Inn at the seed company headquarters sleeps up to 12. All cabins are fully furnished, complete with kitchenwares and linens, and have wood stoves and deep, shady porches and fire rings outside.

A “Natural Gait” Lifestyle

   To the Brights, a “natural gait” is more than a business name or the way a horse travels. It’s what some people might call hitting their own strides or marching to different drummers. The couple describes it as a “road of self-discovery” defined by a growing awareness of what intuitively feels right to an individual. In the Brights’ case, what feels right is, well… natural – as in natural horsemanship methods.

   And what could be more natural than the Ion Exchange, a business that naturally grew from Howard’s career with the Soil Conservation Service and Donna’s interest in her region’s flora and fauna, which ultimately drew her from a career in social work. Howard, a native of East Tennessee, believes in using readily available tools in his work. He’s resurrected seed cleaners and fanning mills from the previous century and long-stored at area farms, then adapted them to suit native-plant seed. His log-cabin office dates back to about the 1860s. Ion Exchange, in fact, takes its name from an old town, Ion, that washed away in a 1916 flood, from the ion-exchange capacity of the soil, and from the exchange of their seeds, plants and ideas with other people.