My youngest brother Patrick Elido, died December
29, 2008, in a hunting accident at age 17. Lido was born with cerebral palsy. Although his right
arm was of little use to him, and his right leg was not much stronger, for several years, Lido was the first person to mount
each of the wild horses and colts that I started. One day when he was about ten years old, he mounted five
horses that had never been mounted and only got bucked off of one of them. Cerebral palsy made everything
that he did difficult, and his spirit made everything that he did possible. He ran hard, trained hard and
worked hard to build a rock-hard, lean body. His left arm carried the strength of most grown men's entire
upper bodies, and he could run five miles faster than most teens he attended school with. He also understood that the essence of natural
horsemanship was to simply communicate with a horse in a language that the horse understood. He knew how
to handle a scared horse with only his eyes, and a mean horse with only a rope halter. His ability convinced
me that it was possible to teach natural horsemanship to kids to the degree that they could actually start and train their
own colts with proper supervision and instruction. During
the first few years that I conducted training clinics and demonstrations, Lido was my only assistant. During
one of my clinics with a particularly rough BLM mare who gave me great difficulty in saddling, I heard a voice coming out
of the audience as I explained that I would not be mounting her for the clinic. "Um ah bolunteer," Lido called out.
Lido's speech was as labored by cerebral palsy as much of his movement. Lido was the toughest
ranch hand that I will ever know. He had guts. He loved animals and people. And
when he rode, he rode hard. He treated those around him with good-natured kind-heartedness.
