Editor's note: More events and images on our Horses & Life page, linked here.

It takes a dollop of common sense to ride a horse. To work a horse, be it cow pony, barrel racer, two-team hitch, or while on an endurance ride takes dedication, passion, patience, and time.

“Everything worthwhile is crazy and everyone on the planet who's not following his wild-hair, middle-of-the-night notions should lay down his burden, right now, in the middle of the row he's hoeing, and follow the direction his wild hair points.” – Author Win Blevins

People from around the world visit New England to steep in the life and times of people who rode horseback to meet and talk war strategy (George Washington put miles and miles on horseback from Virginia to Connecticut and Massachusetts and New York). There are folks who left here on foot to fight in battles from the first skirmish to win American independence and later by rail to face their southern brothers in the American Civil War.

History lives and breathes here. Horses are a large part of the community and fabric of the region, from Justin Morgan's “Figure” (the original do-it-all equine – the stallion could pull a plow, win a race, and then take his owner back home), or the present-day population of nearly every breed in the world and their people.

Back to the people who followed their “wild hair” –

Members of the Sheldon's Horse, Second Continental Light Dragoons, demonstrated the fine art of horsemanship in Wethersfield, Connecticut with saber fights, horseback patrols, and firing period weapons. General George Washington, Revolutionary War re-enactors and the United Train of Artillery and Doughty’s Artillery encamped at the Keeney Center to note the 230th anniversary of Washington’s meeting in Wethersfield with French General Rochambeau.

Sheldon's Horse, The Second Continental Light Dragoons was commissioned by Congress in 1776 at the direct recommendation of General George Washington. From March 1777 until January 1781 the regiment consisted of six troops drawn mostly from Connecticut, but with men from Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. Elements of the regiment later saw combat at battles that include Saratoga and Yorktown, where 20 Sheldon's Horse were detailed to accompany Washington and Rochambeau to the York peninsula in Virginia.

For an event to see the dragoons in action or for more history, which includes the details above, visit www.dragoons.info/Schedule.html

Visit the eight-horse Clydesdale hitch team that is stabled in Lakeville, Mass. Owned by the Hallamore Corporation of Holbrook, Massachusetts, these gentle giants are the ones seen at The Big E in the fall, but tours are available at the farm, open to the public.

Note: Tylord Farm is a 545-acre working farm in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, they've been breeding world-class Trakehner horses since 1977. For resources in Vermont that include referrals, trekking, access to the Green Mountain National Forest trails information, plus endurance and draft horse events, see the Vermont Horse Council.