Posts

Top 5 Reasons to Wear a Helmet

 I know that helmets can be a controversial issue among us horse folks.  But, here are just a few reasons to wear one when riding. 1.               Helmets can save lives. Head injuries are the leading cause of death in horseback riding accidents. A helmet can help to protect your head in the event of a fall and can reduce the risk of serious injury or death. 2.               Helmets are comfortable and easy to wear. There are many different types of helmets available, so you can find one that fits well and is comfortable to wear. 3.               Helmets are affordable. Helmets are a relatively inexpensive investment that can provide you with peace of mind and help to protect you in the event of a fall. 4.               Helmets can set a good example. Wearing a helmet can set a good example for other riders and help to promote safety in the equestrian community. 5.               A helmet can protect you from the sun. The sun's rays can be very harmful to your skin, and the

7/30/21 - The Choice to be Happy

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  Proverbs 17:22 – A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. I am not sure that I have ever been around a happier horse than little Miss Honey.  She generally greets you with ears up and a gentle nicker.  Of course, she could just be hopeful for a cookie or an apple… But she is generally a happy little horse.  She likes to go out to explore the world when we go on a trail ride, looking forward with wide eyes and pricked ears.  Happy to see what is around the bend.  If we are doing some arena work, she is bouncing through that with a spring in her step looking for the next challenge.  I am wondering, do we have a choice to be like Honey?  To greet each day with our eyes open and ears perked up looking for the next adventure that is coming our way?  Maybe the adage “Happiness is a choice” could be applied?  Maybe when circumstances threaten to crush people’s spirits and sink them into the gloom, they need the powerful medicine of joy more than ever.  Sol

6/18/21 - Little Faith

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  Matthew 17:20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Sunday was a difficult day for Louie.   Nothing seemed to be going the way he wanted it to go and he had a little bit of a melt-down.   There was cotton blowing from the cottonwood trees, people walking on the path across the creek, bicycles going down the road, and then there was a truck.   The truck was his undoing that morning and everything went downhill from there.   Louie had a hard time standing next to the block for me to get on him; this was due to the cotton blowing on the ground.   That and I wouldn’t let him eat the weeds that had been sprayed with weed-killer.   So, he snorted, blew, and got a piece of that darned cotton up his nose.   Most of the time Louie is very good and will wait patiently while I step up on the block and i

6/11/21 ~ Healing

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  "LORD my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me.” — Psalm 30:2 Little Miss Honey has been battling a respiratory infection the last few weeks.   We took her in to the vet this past Monday for bloodwork and a check-up.   She was not exactly happy with the poking and prodding and at one point tried to hide behind her “mom” when the vet was talking about doing more procedures with her.   So, we decided to do another round of antibiotics and see where she was after a week.   Honey does not like the new antibiotics.  They are liquid and I have to give them to her by squirting them in her mouth.  She makes ugly faces and sometimes walks away from me.  Just as we sometimes don’t like to take medicine that can help or heal us, Honey feels the same way about her twice daily medicine.  I am thankful that the vet (horse dr.) has the knowledge and skill that God helped her acquire to know how to run the correct tests to diagnose Honey.  Sometimes I have learned that when times

6/4/21 ~ Knock Knock

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  6/4/21 Matthew 7:7-8 ~ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.   For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door opens.” I think little miss Honey has been reading this scripture regularly.   She has been asking and knocking at the door to her stall for treats, snacks and extra meals like a hobbit looking for 2 nd and 3 rd breakfast.   She is teaching the little colt next door how to beg for snacks and treats.   Louie pretty much ignores her unless she is successful in getting on of her minions (me) to give an extra helping of hay or dinner snackies.   Then he joins in on the begging.   Honey and Louie even do a pat down to see if I am hiding cookies in my pockets when I go in to clean their rooms!   These horses have it made.   Breakfast and dinner in bed, Mani-pedies every 6 weeks, spa days, personal chauffer, all the cookies, and housekeeping every day to keep their rooms tidy wit

5/28/21 ~ Faith & Trust

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  Faith isn’t a feeling.  It’s a choice to trust God even when the road ahead seems uncertain. ~ Dave Willis Faith and Trust, two words each with  5 letters. Both on the surface seem so small but yet are so big.  Have Faith and Trust you hear people say.  I myself have often said the same thing.  But what does that really mean? In working with horses I have to trust in my instincts and have faith that what I am doing is the right thing.  After working with these wonderful animals for many, many years I have learned to read their body language and subtle cues that they give me when working with them.  Some say that it is “whispering” to horses.  No, not really; I am just listening to what they are telling me as if I was having a conversation with anyone else.  The flick of an ear, the tightening of facial muscles, swishing of a tail… Those are all ways that horses speak to us if we listen.  Just as your pet dog or cat “speaks” to you when they want let out, a treat, your attention, to p

5/21/21 ~ Trust

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  Proverbs 3:5-6 5 Trust in the  Lord  with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. 6  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Trust, such a simple word; yet in so many ways it carries tremendous weight.  For fun I regularly ride horses, they weigh over 1,000 pounds and have a mind of their own.  There has to be a mutual trust between us for our relationship to work.  I have to trust that they won’t plant me in the dirt and they have to trust that I won’t put them in a harmful situation.  If I had a relationship based on fear or force with my horse, I couldn’t trust that he would perform to his highest level in a tense situation.  I wouldn’t be able to ride him without the fear of him running off and brushing me under a tree or into a fence.  It would be difficult for me to calm and reassure Louie when he gets frightened of the tree that he has calmly walked by for two previous weeks… Just as Louie and I have to have a trusting relationship,