Trusting Over the Obstacles

Liz and I are out on our lesson and we are feeling good! The sun is warm on my back and there is a slight breeze so it's not too hot outside. We start warming up... First we trot around in circles and I notice Dawn, our riding instructor, doesn't have to remind me to close my fingers today, something I've been working on forever. At the canter; Liz is a little sticky on her left lead but she always hates to pick that one up anyway. And then we move on to jumping, my favorite! I walk Liz around in a circle and face her toward a smaller jump to warm up. I give her a little nudge with my heel to pick up a trot and that's all the encouragement she needs. She heads straight to the jump never wavering! We're coming closer and I can feel her as she collects herself to jump over it on her last stride. We soar in this amazing harmony over the log!

We keep on practicing over the smaller jumps for a while and then move on to the bigger coops and brush boxes for the real jumping. These are a little bit scarier but are also more fun because it feels like life pauses for a just second when your in the air right over the jump. We are trying our jumps in a different combination this week. We trot the coop and then canter up the hill and over the brush box. Easy, right? I circle Liz around to get ready for the coop. I can feel her getting keyed up and I know she can feel my excitement and nervousness... We start trotting toward the coop and I look at the center of it until we are only a few stride away and then look up and at my next jump. We are soaring through the air and at that split second there is not a worry about life or my future on my mind. She lands with a loud thud and we canter up the hill to the brush box. Liz never likes taking this jump up the hill so I have to be on my toes to make sure she doesn't swerve off on me. We are getting closer and she is veering off to the right; I jerk her left rein but as we approach the jump she veers right again. Dawn is upset, "Now, why did you let her run out like that?" I turn back around and start thinking about the jump and why Liz was always dodging it? And then the light bulb went off! Liz didn't want to go over it because I didn't trust her. If the rider on her back wasn't feeling confident then why should she go over the big scary jump?

With this in mind I take a deep breath in and out and start to change my mental thinking about this jump and Liz. I know she can do this; this jump is nothing to her. And sure enough as we approached it the second time she was a little hesitant in her canter so I gave a little nudge with my leg to tell her you can do it and we did it! What a difference a little bit of trust can make in our life especially when faced with obstacles to jump over.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

—Proverbs 3:5-6

I have a few personal obstacles in my life right now and I know that I haven't been trusting God with them as I should be. So I am trying my hardest to trust in Him and listen to his advice from his Word and from wise people in my life. It is hard and I would rather just chicken out and go around this jump. But what point is life if you never take the jumps and feel that exhilaration of trust and companionship of God (and your horse)?

Getting Along

I don't know if all of y'all are familiar with horses... but they don't usually get along with each other. In fact, they are not above kicking or biting their neighbor to prove a point about who's the most dominant! In the horse world it's called the pecking order and everybody has a place in that order. Don't believe me just watch while I fill up the water trough or call them in the barn for dinner time!

Recently we have added a new member to our heard and she was particularly bullied. On her first day at our farm all the horses ran her around and around and eventually straight into a barbed wire fence! Can you believe the other horses walked back to barn proud as if saying we showed her who's the boss! Thankfully she walked away from the incident with only a few stitches in her forehead.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I got to the farm this afternoon and everything was really, really quiet. The horses were lounging in the shade of some pines and were being lazy on this warm, sunny day. Well, this friendliness can't last! I call them to the barn for their supper and still nothing! They just stroll down to me as if they were just enjoying their day in the sunshine. When they got to the barn: Nada! They all walked in by their exact pecking order, no complaints, and went straight to their stall. No one gave the new mare any trouble, which was a first for this group. OK, we'll see what happens when I give them their feed. Now, Snap (this loony, blue eyed paint) always gives me this crazy head shaking when I feed the others first; but of course today he's propped back in his stall waiting patiently for my to get to his stall! Even when I let them out they just strolled down to the lake in a group as together and casual as ever! What has happened to my horses?

Psalm133:1

How wonderful, how beautiful when brothers and sisters get along!

It is so terrible that I think chaos and disunity is normal, not just in the horses life but my personal life. How many times have I thought the newest "drama" in my life was cool and exciting? And what gives TV shows their high ratings? When things go wrong and the main characters are fighting.

This is the exact opposite of what we should be striving for. We should make it a daily habit to get along with everyone and create harmony not discord. Imagine how much our lives would be easier if we said no to the gossip that divides friends, no to having a bad attitude that get's everybody down, and yes to building each other up and relationships that are strong and unified! That is my goal this week and I hope you can make it your own as well.