Horse Tales Part Two

The accident that I wrote about in the last post, or actually didn't write about, served to remind Rod and me that God is in control, and all the things we think are ours, are HIS. We weren't physically hurt in the accident, neither was the horse we were hauling . But our new Dodge truck and horse trailer were considered totalled.

This doesn't mean that God is like the play ground bully, wanting to take all our toys away until we pay attention to Him. Not at all.

Rather it means that He will continue to persue us, for however long it takes for us to choose Him, serve Him, and love Him, as our one God. Because He loves us enough to want the best for us.

Because all these other things that we put up and worship as idols, by spending all our time and resources on them, putting them first, whether it is horses or other hobbies, are simply not the best for us. Not by a long shot.

He is the best for us and if we would only look away from our toys for a few minutes and look deep into the face of our Savior we would be lost. In a good way.

All that pontificating to say, that we were swept up in the horse world and the accident made us begin to ponder our choices.

Not to say we weren't having fun, too.

We bred our Tennessee Walking Horse mare to a rare McCurdy Plantation Horse stallion, which is an old and treasured branch of the Tennessee Walking Horse.
This is the sire we chose, McCurdy's New Tradition.
Oh, and is he gorgeous, or what?

WahHoo! We were gonna have us a baby!

Rod had studied for months

deciding who to breed Precious Kisses to.(Seriously. That was her registered name. Who would do that to their horse? But it is so fun to tease Rod about his Precious Kisses.) We had her bred and cared for her carefully for the 11 months it took for gestation.

(This is her about a week before delivery.)

Finally the big day arrived. I will take most of this from my blog at that time:

"This little fellow came along more than a week late and when he finally arrived he kinda sorta got stuck at the shoulders. I was the only one home at the time,although Rod was hurrying back. I had Kim, our vet, on the phone with me to talk me through the process. Sounds surreal, eh?

I had never seen a foal born before and I was attempting to take it in stride. But honestly, they are such large animals, and to see two hooves and a muzzle extruding from the mare was pretty outlandish. So extraordinarily freakish that the image is still in my head and can be recalled at the most inappropriate times, like funerals or while talking to disgruntled customers on the phone.

I had read all Jim Herriot's books(All Creatures Great and Small, etc.). So I told myself I was fully prepared. (muffled laughter)

The real thing is breathtaking...and I don't mean that in a good way necessarily.
One thing I'll never forget is Kim's calm voice on the phone telling me that I needed to pull the foal out NOW.

Is she kidding me??!!

Apparently not, as she instructed me on the correct pulling techniques and told me to put the phone down so I could use both hands. (Can't every mother multi-task without putting the phone down? I was almost offended.)

I seriously considered putting the phone down and making grunting, pulling noises like I was obeying her, but was actually in the far corner of the stall sipping some fortified French Roast. (Laughter is now maniacal in nature)

But Kisses was struggling, we had waited for this baby for 11 months and so I grabbed those fetlocks and pulled each time Kisses pushed.

I was praying like crazy for Rod to show up because this baby wasn't budging. Finally Rod's head popped over the stall door and we were saved.
It took both of us pulling to get the little (read EXTRA LARGE) fella out, but it finally happened.

Sadly, his Momma, Kisses, decided she would attack him each time he tried to stand up and basically wouldn't accept him as her own. It was so overwhelmingly sad to see him try to get to him only to be rejected or kicked.
After a weekend of bottle feeding and continually introducing the foal to his Mom, they finally bonded and now you would never know there was a problem.

Rod slept out in the barn a couple nights just to make sure Kisses wouldn't attack her foal again.

It was an amazing weekend, one I don't think I'd want to repeat. But extremely rewarding.

And Goldust Drifter is a doll. :-) "

So it made what happened next all the more difficult.

More later....