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Volume 120, Number 44 • Wednesday, June 4, 2014 • SUBSCRIBE TODAY • GoldthwaiteEagle.com • 325-648-2244
Star School Holds Final Graduation
By MIKE LEE Eagle Contributor Alumni and employees current and past gathered Friday for Star High School’s final commencement and to reminisce about their time at the school. “Remember that summer we tore out the old gym floor so they could put down the new one?” former teacher Bobby O’Neill asked school Facilities Engineer Paul Carl Ising. “I remember there was no air conditioning in here back then. We opened all three doors to the outside, but there wasn’t any breeze coming through,” Ising answered. “After we got the floor up, we pulled up 90 percent of the nails. It was you and me and a couple of kids helping us,” Ising said. “Did we ever get paid anything for doing that?” O’Neill asked.
“Naw,” Ising said. “It was kind of like when you took the money at the gate or ran the scoreboard at the ballgames. You just did it.” “I know,” O’Neill said. “We didn’t do it for the money. Doing things like that put you closer to the kids, closer to their families.” Star schools, which have operated in some form since 1888, served rural students in eastern Mills County for decades because of the volunteerism and community spirit that Ising and O’Neill discussed. Whether it was Willie Guill plowing the arena for the next rodeo, members of the Fire Department keeping up the rodeo arena or Ising replacing most of the water lines, the community always made sure projects around the school were done. But Friday, the school graduated its final senior class. Rumored to be closing since the 1960s, Star schools finally will consolidate with the Goldthwaite school district effective July 1. See Final Graduation 4A
Battenfield is a ‘Miracle’ with Horses By Tammarrah Pledger Eagle Asst. Editor Last week, The Eagle received a story from a woman from the Austin area who detailed her accounts of working with a local horse trainer. Catherine Pellizzari said her experience with Michael Battenfield was nothing short of a miracle. Pellizzari’s Story “I lost my oldest mare last year and felt my world had ended,” Pellizzari wrote. She said though she didn’t really feel she was ready for a new horse, her husband insisted they at least go look. She said they found two black horses, half-sisters about 10 to 11 months old, that were so poorly taken care of that their halters had cut into their skin. “I knew the work ahead of me. I managed to get the halters off, get them healed, and left them alone for a bit. It did not take long to realize one was scared of her own shadow and the other one would run you over,” she went on to say. When it came time to break the horses to be ridden, they sent the first one off to a trainer, but that turned out badly, Pellizzari said. “We sent the first one off and soon realized we needed to immediately go get our horse. Very bad experience, mainly for her. I would never forgive myself for not getting her sooner, he was no horse trainer. What to do now?” she said. The second trainer was better, she said, but didn’t want to continue the training for a prolonged time. He was riding both horses by the time Pellizzari brought them home. “I thought everything would be fine (for the most part),” Pellizzari wrote. “She runs me into the round pen, almost broke my hand, and before I can get a good hold, bucks me off. She was used to him, not me.” “In the past I would have just gotten right back on,” she said, but this was different. “I was hurt. Now I am nervous and (have) lost my confidence. How does that happen? Rode most my life. Not now. Almost gave up.” In a telephone interview, Pellizzari told The Eagle, “Until my accident, there wasn’t a horse I wouldn’t get on, but I had lost my confidence.” This horse had actually run her into steel panels, which tore up her right hand, and then before she could gather the reins, bucked her off and tore up her left leg, both of which will require surgery, she said. That’s why Pellizzari said she was about to give up when she first saw Battenfield in action. Pellizzari Meets Battenfield Last October at the Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society EXPO annual fund-raiser in Austin, she was manning a booth when she saw Battenfield giving one of his colt-starting demonstrations. When they announced that Battenfield, who had taken first place in the training competition the year prior, would be giving a demo, she was curious. “I was in awe,” she said. “There stood a young man, tall and slender, with a horse no one had been able to work with. I stood in disbelief as he began communicating with this horse, who wanted absolutely nothing to do with him! In less than 30 to 45 minutes he was on his back, and the horse was calm. Talk about a true
horse whisperer. I had to meet him.” “I waited for him to walk out and followed him back to sales.” Pellizzari writes. “I stopped him politely, and he allowed me to introduce myself and talk to him about what I had just witnessed. He continued to listen patiently as I explained what had happened to me and my horse. He offered some advice and told me he did offer classes, and that I should come to one.” “After I left that weekend, I kept imagining being able to even go watch this individual, not to mention have access to take classes and learn from this young man,” she said. A few weeks ago, that’s just what she did. Pellizzari Comes to Mills County “It was the most incredible week I have ever had,” Pellizzari said. “I learned more in a week then I have known all my life ... there are really no words. He does not just have talent, he has a gift — a gift that he is generously willing to share. He is very eager to teach and loves what he does. I have physical handicaps, and it made no difference. He was very patient and understanding.” Pellizzari said she had been involved in a five-car accident, in which she was struck from behind, causing her head to go through her windshield, resulting in a severe head injury. “There was never any bullying or mistreatment of any kind on his part. It was all about communication between him and the horse,” she said of Battenfield’s training methods. She said her horse came home very different. The horse, which Pellizzari said is probably one of the most dominant she has ever owned, is calmer and more responsive. “She does not try to run me over,” she said. “She settled down and with a lot more respect, is doing everything I have asked.” The horse, however, was not the only one changed by the experience with Battenfield, Pellizzari said. She said she had been through three trainers before Battenfield, and “he was (her) last hope.” “Here was a girl who had been around horses her whole life, but after my accident, my confidence was taken away. He gave it back. I felt like I had lost hope, and he restored it through the grace of God. I will always be eternally grateful. He is truly one of God’s miracles.” (For more on Battenfield’s training programs, visit www.battenfieldhorsemanship.com.)
“ ... after my accident, my confidence was taken away. He gave it back. He is truly one of God’s miracles.” — Catherine Pellizzari, Austin In the photo, local horse trainer Michael Battenfield gives a colt-starting demonstration at the Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society EXPO annual fund-raiser in Austin last October.