Lessons from an Old Horse

Sometimes God seems to send strange people or creatures to help teach you things. This week this "learning" has come from an old horse that just sort of ended up with us. We bought a pasture last year with several horses on it, they all needed to be moved before the purchase was complete. Well, sale day came and went and all horses were gone except for one old mare that had feet about as bad as any I had ever seen. The horses owner said that we could have her, most likely not wanting to have to deal with having to take her to a sale or put her down. My farrier (a true horse guru) said that he thought that we might be able to save her. We are a year into getting her back into shape, and making slow progress.

This old girl has taught me much about patience, trust, perseverance, stoic bearing of your circumstances, and love. At first she could take about three steps and stop for 15 minutes to just let her feet rest. On good days she can get into a trot, on bad days she can gimp along a few steps at a time, but he worst days are better than her best when we first came to know her. After almost a year she will now amble over to the fence when I show up just to speak, and even when I have to clean her feet or do other unpleasant things, she never complains and will most likely put her head against your chest when you get done. She is stoic about her situation, never complaining as my other spoiled horses do.

Over the last year I have learned many lessons from this old stray horse. Mostly to be thankful for what you have. As bad as she had it in the past, it seems God found a way for her to be taken care and for her to teach some horse novices lesson not only about horses but about life. God seems to have strange ways of working and through some unlikely creatures. I believe that she has faith that she will be taken care of, even though sometimes the things that we have to do to her probably are scary and unpleasant, she still takes it all in stride and with great grace. I hope that I truly absorb these lessons and can apply them in my life. Never overlook the things in life that are trying to teach you something. It has taken me along time to realize that this old girl was given to me for a multitude of reasons and the most important has been to teach me several lessons that I probably had not listened to before. I hope you all have a very Merry CHRISTmas. Please remember the reason for the season.