Hardy Oelke
Testimonial
Othmaringhausen
58553 Halver
Germany

Dear Leslee Connell Schwartz,

A friend of mine, who knew that I knew your father and learned a lot from him, got a copy of the book "Vaquero Style Horsemanship" for me and sent it to me as a complete, and pleasant, surprise. I had no idea that a compilation of Ed's articles had been published! Some of them I already had, namely those published in H & R and Western Horseman, which I had subscribed to at the time, others were new to me.

I do appreciate what you did, and Ed certainly deserves it. He was a very special man, the rare thing among horsemen: a teacher. I had the pleasure to translate his "Hackamore Reinsman" into German some years ago, a book that is, as far as I know, still in demand. I was just recently asked to do a hackamore clinic in April, and it will give me another chance to keeps Ed's legacy and his name in people's minds. I met him in 1975 at Jack Carroll's place after I'd had a lengthy correspondence with him, which started in '73. When I wrote the first book on western training, Ed was kind enough to write a foreword for me. I still have most of the letters he wrote me, and cherish them. I'm absolutely proud to have known him personally.

Anyway, I'd like to applaud you for a job well done. I'm going to re-read Ed's old letters and see if there is anything that might be of interest for you to quote, should there be another edition...

Best regards,

Hardy Oelke

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