Rancho Ontelaunee Theater        1:12 Video Clip:  Natam Turnout
     Natam was seventeen years old, when this video was recorded at his regular turnout pasture at a boarding stable adjacent to what most local horseowners thought was the finest equestrian trail riding area anywhere in Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Wissahickon Valley section of Philadelphia's Fairmount Park.  (I think, at the time, it probably was.)
           During this time, Natam was at about the peak of his apparent fitness as an adult horse. He was ridden by me for several hours, nearly every day.  We missed only three days of riding in one entire year, during this period, when I was unemployed (temporarily out of work in the TV News business), and trail rode Natam for at least four to five hours most days, and many times for twelve hours or more, with short breaks on the trail for meals.
           Points related to this video, to be outlined in the portion of 'Natam's Story' dealing with this period of his life, will include the nature of the turnout area, the routine of Natam's being turned out alone, the restriction of only owner supervised turnout being permitted, and Natam's bouts with crippling lameness and with pnemonia.  And, while I believe Natam's behavior, as seen in this clip, is pretty to watch, I think there are indications that, when not being ridden, he was forced to spend most of this part of his life in the unhealthy and boring environment of being confined to a stall in a horse barn, while wearing horseshoes.

The MEDIUM SCREEN video is, noticeably, not as high in frame rate and resolution as the large screen selection.   This results from keeping the video data size to about one half that of the large screen version, in hopes of making it practicable for viewing on accelerated computer-internet configurations that are faster than dial-up, although not as fast as high speed broadband, which is recommended for the LARGE SCREEN selection.