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.

Liz Loves Peppermints!

Liz has a major sweet tooth! I can crinkle a plastic wrap, rattle a tick tack container, or shake her treat bag and she will come running to me from anywhere in the pasture. I took advantage of her sweet tooth by teaching her a new trick: to give me a hug. And believe me she is an amazing hugger now. She will hug me again and again and again as long as I have a peppermint to give her after she's done a good job. When I run out she pouts and starts sniffing and muzzling all over my body. She starts at the top and muzzles around in my hair to see if there are any treats left up there, then moves to my jacket and sniffs and licks extra hard at my pockets, and lastly moves to my boots where she comes back up disappointed that there are no sweets for her.

God teaches us a lot of tricks too. For instance the Golden Rule, the Ten Commandments, teaching Sunday School, going to Bible Study, and praying for others are just a few of the "tricks" he has taught us. How many times do we do our trick and then look up to God as if saying, "OK, now where is my reward?" And then we go looking for our reward in recognition, a present, or whatever it is we are looking for.

"Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free." Ephesians 6:8

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven." Matthew 6:1

God's reward for us is waiting for us in heaven and we need to persevere and keep doing a good job until that time comes. We don't need to be like Liz and keep wanting treat after treat every time we do a good deed. Our peppermint is not instant but eternal!

God's looking after me!

Psalm 5:11

But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

Like most riders, I have fallen off my horse many times. Some times I break bones other times I just bruise my ego, but the other day I had the fall of all falls. It was so huge I don't even remember it. My day went something like this...

I pull into the farm on a last minute decision to go trail riding on my mare Liz. I'm surprised to see my dad still there feeding the heifers. I tell him my plans and ask if anyones deer hunting where I'm going to be riding. He tells me no and to have fun and that he'll probably be leaving in an hour or so.

I move out to the barn where the horses are eagerly waiting to be let in so that they can get their feed. After they are all settled in I grab my grooming tote and my tack and head for Liz. I got her black coat really slick and shiny so she would look great in our new Christmas present which was a gorgeous blue striped quarter sheet with her name embroidered on it. After I have her all tacked up and groomed we are ready to roll!

It's a little cold and windy today. This is making Liz a little frisky so I was trotting and cantering more to settle her down. We were having a great time just the two of us and the last thing I remember was turning down a trail that I don't travel very often.

The next thing I remember is being woken up from my dream state by my dad. He helps me in the truck and ask me stupid questions like when is my birthday and what my name is. I feel nauseous and accidentally make a mess in the truck cab. The next few hours are a blurr. I'm so tired I'm drifting in and out of sleep, but I know my night involved a lot of poking and prodding and MRI's.

The next few days I'm still a little fuzzy but finally understanding what happened to me. According to the tracks in the trail, I came upon a muddy spot and Liz skidded and lost her balance and we both came down! This gave me a concussion and scared Liz that she ran back to the barn by herself. My first question to dad was, "You didn't hurt her or sell her did you?"

I'm happy to say that now we are both doing fine! And I'll be able to ride again in a few more days! (Even though I've had to miss a few fox hunts in between.) The situation could have gone a lot differently. My dad could have not been at the farm when Liz came back by herself. I could have fallen off differently and broken something. A numerous other things could have gone wrong. I'm just so thankful that God was protecting Liz and me that cold, muddy afternoon. I'm joyful and will rejoice over His protection over me!

Feeling Sick

It is a beautiful winter day. Not to cold and not to hot with blue skies all around me. I'm getting everything ready for the fox hunt tomorrow: cleaning out the trailer, filling hay bags, cleaning tack, etc... I decide to start with the my least favorite which is trailer cleaning. I'm really getting into it and have all the poop cleaned out and only have to put the new bedding down when the fatigue hits me. I've been feeling a cold coming on for a few days so it's not really a huge shock. But for the rest of the time trying to get ready I feel like I have a huge rain cloud hanging over me making every chore I have to do twice as hard.

Liz looks over at me from across the fence and starts walking up to me like "Do you have a treat for me? Is it time to ride?" I give her head a little scratch and say, "Not today girl. I don't feel so well." She shook her head and trotted back over to be with her pasture buddy.

As I started walking back to the barn to wrap things up I started thinking about this cold I had and how it was making my body so weak even during my everyday chores. What if I translate this to the spiritual level? Is there any part of my live that is affected by a spiritual virus I have? I know I have plenty of areas in my spiritual life that are infected with sickness. Such as complaining I had no help with the horse chores, not being consistent with my prayer life, and gossiping at the hunt... just to name a few... I stopped right there in the barn and asked God to help me heal myself from the inside out.

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.

Psalm 103:3

Lord, you know my physical diseases and most importantly my spiritual ones. You are the best doctor in the world because you are not limited by physical conditions but can heal my soul as well. Thank you for giving me a cold and opening my eyes to see my spiritual sickness!

The Lost Hound

Yesterday night I drove down to the farm to feed the horses but I noticed when I pulled in the driveway there was a black and tan hound sitting in our yard. I got out of my car and walked up slowly to the shy hound saying soft soothing words to get it to come closer to me. I eventually won him over and got to take a look at the number on his collar to call his owner. He belonged to a hunt club near our farm that runs deer. This got me thinking about how different this hunt club was from the one where my family fox hunts. Our huntsmen never leave a hound behind even if they are hunting on their own farm; they stay out on horseback and track them until every single one of them is accounted for. The other hunt club just assumed their hounds would show up back home or someone like me would call and they could pick it up.

Further thinking... if I were a hound which club would I want to be in? This reminded me of the parable of the lost sheep and how the good shepherd always went out and looked for the lost one while the other ninety-nine were in safety.

Luke 15:4 What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

I am so thankful that I am part of God's heard and that he looks for me when I stray away from Him. I can't imagine how lost and alone I would be waiting for someone to find me or trying to stumble across my own way home the way I would if I was in another "hunt club."

Thanks Lord for always looking for me when I'm lost.