Horse Tales Part four

Welcome back (Brenda) to my Horse Tales series. This is the last one. I promise.

You can click here for part one, part two or part three.

How organized am I? Very.

Soooo, where were we?

Ah, yes.

Rod and I had sold all belongings and were moving to the tiny island of Moorea in the South Pacific where we would farm vanilla. And coffee beans.

No? You're right. I was just checking to see if you were paying attention. But, seriously? Think of the awesome posts I could write from my over-the-water bungalow on Moorea....

Back to reality.

We had sold our three horses and all the horse "stuff" we had accumulated while we were enslaved to the Horse God. We were cleansing ourselves and getting rid of what had captured our hearts rather than God. Although difficult and sad, it was a process that needed to be done. Sorta like cleaning out your fridge when it hasn't been done for a while.

Blech.

You know what I mean.

After getting our heads and hearts screwed back on right, and recognizing what had happened to us, Rod began taking a look at perhaps, someday getting a horse again. Not letting it take us over, but simply owning one horse and enjoying it.

As Winston Churchill once said, "The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man." We know the truth of these words.

Of course by this time all of our things had sold and our barn was now completely a garage. With no stalls to keep a horse.

Hmmm.

But Rod had planted the seed and I began looking for horses in the area. I cajoled him into getting a horse that was.... pretty.

I clean their poop out of the stalls, for goodness' sake. Shouldn't I be able to enjoy the pretty horse while I muck out poop? I think so.

All the horse people you talk to say, "You can't ride pretty," but I disagree. If we are getting a horse to ride, why can't it be pretty,too? It can be and it will be. So there.

Here's what I'm talkin' about.

Yes, I pictured myself riding astride a beautiful palomino while wearing a long, floaty white skirt. While I'm at it, my hair is long and blowing in the wind and apparently I lost quite a bit of weight. But, it's my dream, so don't wake me up.



Rod didn't really picture anything other than a horse in the barn, so it was easy to get my way with the palomino idea. Even though he'd been mercilessly mocked before for riding my Barbie-Princess horse, especially by our farrier, Sned.Once Sned actually painted the horse's hooves with glitter nail polish right before Rod was scheduled to go mountain trail riding with a group of duster and spur wearing cowboys. Can I get a "yippee-ti-yi-oh?" That was fun.



But nothing really deterred Rod. He didn't care how pretty and girly the horse was. He was content knowing he'd have one in the barn.



So I made appointments to go check out some nearby palominos that had caught my eye. Right before we were leaving for a horse looking trip, I got an email from Annette and Rob, the wonderful people who had bought our mare, Kisses and her foal, Drifter. They were just sending us updated pictures of the two horses and letting us know everything was great. I responded that night, thanking them for the pictures and letting them know we were looking for one horse.



I got an email a short time later,



" We think it is possible that God brought us into the picture to take care of your horse(s) until you were ready to have them(him) back.



Whaaaat?!
Wow. We were not prepared for that response at all, in fact hadn't even considered the possibility of having Rod's baby Drifter return home to our barn.

God has different ideas and plans than I do and He doesn't always communicate these to me. Odd, isn't it?


This couple who bought our horses are great people who love the Lord and want to follow Him in all the decisions they make. We have been so blessed to meet and become friends with them. One of the things I treasure most, in all my friendships, is the ability to laugh together. When Annette and I first met, we were laughing until we cried. Don't you love people who you can laugh with like that?



Here is Annette showing me how a horse pins it's ears. Or how she pins her ears when she is upset. I can't remember which it was now.





Anyway, when I first told Rod about the emails and I saw his face at the thought of getting Drifter, his baby, back, I was completely overjoyed at the opportunity to put my silly Princess Palomino dreams away and say yes to Rod.



(see this post, written the day before the emails.Eerie, Providential, isn't it?)



So God generously gave me an opportunity to love Rod sacrificially, and gave an opportunity to Rod to get his much beloved yearling back.
What an incredible God we serve!




When we wrote back to Rob and Annette telling them of our wish to buy Drifter back, we received the following email:




"We are just fine with your decision.....we knew our place was to stand back and let you consider your options. It has been a strange place to be, while on one hand, trying let you know how much they both mean to us, and on the other, making sure you felt very comfortable to want one or both horses back. God made it very clear what our role was to be and I'm glad He has led you to your decision. "

You can see why we love and respect Rob and Annette so much. Aren't we blessed to call them friends? I think so, too.

So we say goodbye to the past, when our idol horses consumed and hello to a new day, with God as our only God, and Drifter at home in his barn.

Below you can enjoy a video of Rod bringing Drifter home and starting our horse adventure again, but with the right perspective this time.





Untitled from Diane Meyer on Vimeo.