The Healing of Horses

Betty and I started riding horses when we were 50 so that means we’ve been riding and around horses for 15 years.  During that time I have seen the healing power of horses many times.

We started riding because Betty had a bad back from an accident and read somewhere that riding horses was good for the back.  So, the healing presence of horses is what got us started with horses.

While we lived in Ohio we volunteered for a year and a half at a horse therapy center.  We watched and worked with kids and adults who had all kinds of problems – autism, multiple sclerosis, etc. – and when they got on to a horse it was amazing to watch the change.

There was one little, six-year old girl with autism.  Her mother said that she hardly communicated at all, except for the one day a week when she came to ride.  After she had ridden, she was very communicative for the rest of the day.

There was the woman who developed multiple sclerosis as a young adult.  She had ridden all her life, but now could only ride with the assistance of others.  Yet, she still loved it and you could see the joy in her face when she was around and on a horse.

When Betty had her accident on her horse Gletta and was laid up for six months she was hurt in more than just her body.  Her emotional connection to horses was injured as well and it manifested itself as fear.  Through her own courage and the gentleness of Sugar and now especially Morgunn, that healing has happened.  The fear is gone and the joy is back in her riding.

For five years I have been getting up every morning at sunrise to feed the horses and clean up the night’s manure – and I still look forward to it.  I never regret having to get up to go spend that quiet, special time with Sugar and Morgunn.  Every once in awhile, they will be in the back behind the round pen when I come out the door.  Morgunn will speed up toward the stable and, when he does, Sugar will kick up her heels and they will both come galloping.  Sometimes they will be going so fast they have to run around the stable to to slow down.

I love it and my soul rejoices.

When I’m around Sugar and Morgunn, I can tell exactly how I am feeling as they mirror my emotional state.  If I am calm and relaxed so are they.  If my mind is distracted, they don’t pay as much attention to me. 

They live in the moment and never hold a grudge.  I can be the worst rider in the world one day and they still trust me the next day.  They help me to learn how to live in each moment and come back to a place of balance.

I receive a healing touch every time I’m around the two of them.

Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride,
Friendship without envy,
Or beauty without vanity?
Here, where grace is served with muscle
And strength by gentleness confined
He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity.
There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent.
There is nothing so quick, nothing more patient.
~Ronald Duncan, "The Horse," 1954

It’s Baby Time

One of the things I like about this time of the year is all the baby quails.  We have two different quail species in our area – Scaled Quail and Gambrels Quail.   The parents will have up to 12 – 15 babies and we often see them running across the road when the babies are tiny – just about the size of a small mouse.  It’s almost impossible to get a picture when they’re that small.  They’re too small to get into our courtyard so we only see them when we’re driving.

A couple of weeks later they’re large enough to get into our courtyard so we can see them.  Great time of year.

This is a Scaled Quail brood.

Monday Video – Girl in a Box

We know that magician acts are really illusions.  There are tricks behind each illusion.  There are bad illusionists, mediocre, cheesy illusionists.  And then there are the few illusionists who make us say, “Wow, how did he do that.”

Here’s one that made me say, “Wow.”  Enjoy.

Sunday Reflections – Welcome, Purple

When I read/study the Bible, I read from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22.  When I finish Revelation I start over again with Genesis.  I have done this for many years.  I guess I enjoy reading the Bible as a book from beginning to end.  Maybe I’m just anal.  Take your choice.

In any case, I just finished reading Exodus and in the latter part of that book God gives Moses very clear, detailed instructions on how to make and build the tabernacle.

As many times as I have read through Exodus something small caught my attention.

For the entrance to the tent they made a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen — the work of an embroiderer; and they made five posts with hooks for them. (Exodus 36:37-38)

Blue and scarlet (red) make purple.  God is intentional.  I don’t think he just likes the colors blue, scarlet and purple.  I believe he wanted something symbolic for the entrance to the tent where his people could encounter him.

It struck me that he might have been saying, “I don’t care if you’re a red person or a blue person, when you come into my presence you’re all purple.”

I’m pretty sure he wasn’t using red and blue in a political sense, but saying, “I don’t care what your physical, economic, social, cultural, or emotional differences are.  When you come into my presence you’re all the same in my sight.”

Paul made this same point again in the New Testament in his letter to the church in Galatia.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28-29)

Maybe God wants me to see people more as purple rather than red or blue.

I kind of like being a purple.

What the Heck is That?

This morning I attended/audited the Albuquerque Police Department Mounted Horse Unit’s basic sensory course.  This is the same course they use to begin the training for their horses.  It involves a lot of sensory obstacles that the horses have to go over or through.  There were 10 horse and rider participants and five auditors who received over three and a half hours of dedicated training for them and their horses.

There were three officers who were mounted and four officers on the ground that worked with the riders.  We auditors were invited into the arena and had a police officer who stayed with us the whole time to answer questions and give us more information as to what was going on.  The training was extremely well done.  The officers were all very friendly, approachable, knowledgeable, and willing to help in any way they could.  They were all excellent horse men and women.

Here are some pictures from today:

A couple of the officers relaxing before the event started – note the Yo-yo.

Introduction – the first test was to see if all the horses could stand quietly for a period of time and they all passed. 

Going over a tarp – this little horse had real trouble with this, but eventually got it and did pretty well the rest of the morning.

Pushing through nerf rods with a floppy duck’s head on the right and a kite on the left.
 
Going over steps.

Walking over a teeter-totter – this was the hardest obstacle for many of the horses.

Walking over elevated poles.

Pushing through the jingle bell gate – a spring loaded rod with a jingle bell on it.

The final test was to ride by a fan blowing streamers out at the horses and past speakers that were blaring out various sounds – trains, jack-hammers, horses screaming, bands playing, etc.
Finally, I had to include this picture of Rudy – one of the most beautiful horses I have ever seen.

Here’s a video that gives an overview of the obstacles and how some of the horses did.

Friday Funnies – Laundry

The cartoon is self-explanatory – enjoy.

Movie Review – Toy Story 3

Betty and I worked with the horses in the back this morning and went to see Toy Story 3 in the afternoon.  I won’t give away any of the plot, but just make these observations.

It’s amazing to me how solid the Pixar movie stories are – as good as the computer animation has become – the story is still the strength of their movies.

However, the animation continues to get better and better.  The backgrounds are texturally amazing and the humans are now rendered in a way that allows you to connect with them at an emotional level, just as with a live actor.

Finally, the ending is fabulous.  If you get a chance to go see it on the big screen, we recommend it.  (We chose to see it in 2D and not in 3D and it was fine.)

Summer Jewels

Here are just a few random photos of what makes summer in New Mexico so much fun.

A Roadrunner nesting in our cottonwood tree – maybe Simone who rested in our stall fans all one winter?

 
One of our resident Antelope Squirrels looking for sunflower seeds in our courtyard.

Summer flowers.
 



 
The final jewel is in our cactus bed.  Shortly after we moved in 6 years ago we went out into the sage and transplanted some Prickly Pear cactus and a small piece of a Cholla cactus.  The Prickly Pears have bloomed almost from the beginning.

The Cholla cactus (the tall cactus in the middle) hasn’t bloomed until this year.

Summer in New Mexico is good.

Monday Video – Horses and Art

Two things I love – horses and art – are combined in this unique video.

Enjoy.

Sunday Reflections – Loyalty

O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.  (1 Chronicles 29:18-19)

Loyal: 1. faithful to one's sovereign, government, or state: a loyal subject. 2. faithful to one's oath, commitments, or obligations: to be loyal to a vow. 3. faithful to any leader, party, or cause, or to any person or thing conceived as deserving fidelity: a loyal friend. 4. characterized by or showing faithfulness to commitments,vows, allegiance, obligations, etc.: loyal conduct.

I was thinking about what it means to be loyal – to someone or something.  From the dictionary definitions above, “faithfulness” has a lot to do with loyalty.

But, where does loyalty end?  Does it have an end?  Would/should I be loyal to someone with whom I disagree?  Would/should I be loyal to someone who does something that might be illegal/immoral?

A dog is a good example of a loyal companion, but I have to admit most dogs will still be loyal to someone even if they do something despicable.  Is that a good example of loyalty?

Sir Thomas More is one of my heroes.  An important counselor to Henry VIII of England, he was tried and executed for treason by beheading in1535 for denying that the king was the Supreme Head of the Church of England, a title the king had been given by the Act of Supremacy of 1534. More was in prison in the Tower of London since 1534 for his refusal to take the oath required by the First Succession Act, because the act disparaged the power of the Pope.  Henry used this act to create the Church of England and enable him to marry Anne Boleyn even though he was still married to Catherine and the Catholic Church would not grant him a divorce.

Even though the King ordered him to be executed, Sir Thomas More never lost his loyalty to the king.  Even until his death, he remained loyal.

That’s loyalty in it’s finest form – total disagreement on a life and death and matter, but still loyal.  I believe More was able to remain loyal because the king did not deceive him, nor lie to him.

Is it possible to remain loyal to someone with whom you disagree – yes.  Is it possible to remain loyal to someone who is not perfect, who makes mistakes? Absolutely.

I would find it hard to be loyal to someone who deceives me or lies to me, but beyond that, loyalty is a gift we can give to those who often don’t deserve it.

As I am given the gift of grace when I don’t deserve it.

(Happy Father’s Day!)

Catch Up

Today’s post is a catch up of the past few days when I didn’t take the time to post.  I could say that we were pretty busy, which was true, but that’s just an excuse.

On Wednesday, we took a nice ride in the area North of our house.  One reason we wanted to go that way is they are building a house in that area and the last time we walked the horses through there, Sugar spooked.  This time I rode her past the house, with lots of workmen there doing all kinds of things.  Sugar was very aware of their presence, but she didn’t spook and I was proud of her.

Thursday, we worked again out at Galloping Grace Youth Ranch.  It wasn’t our normal day, but they had about 30 Girl Scouts coming out and we agreed to help out.  It was a lot of fun and we had several young girls (about 9 years old) who were pretty good riders.  The best was a girl named Ava.  I asked her if she was named after anyone, but she said no.  As old as I am, I first thought of Ava Gardner.  She’s a famous actress from the 40’s and 50’s for you young pups out there.

Ava had never been on a horse before, but she was very confident in a good way, naturally confident.  She had great posture and great, natural balance.  Her seat was almost perfect.  After leading her around for a few minutes and showing her how to use the reins, she took off with Seabiscuit like she had been riding all her life.  And, old Seabiscuit is not an easy horse to ride unless he senses a good rider on his back, which he did with her.  It was a joy to watch.

Thursday night, we went to see the Isotopes play the Omaha Royals.  I love Isotope Park.  It’s well designed, no bad seats anywhere.  It’s comfortable and the food is really good and great variety.  You can even get Bananas Foster if you want.  But you can’t beat a good hot dog (Hebrew National) with sauerkraut, onions and lots of mustard.  The Isotopes lost 15 to 12 in 11 innings, but it was a fun game to watch.  We left long before the game was over, bedtime you know, but we listened to the game on the radio on the way home and in bed after we got there.  It reminded me of the time when I was a kid growing up in Nashville, Tennessee and I used to listen to radio broadcasts of the St. Louis Cardinals games.

Friday morning we worked with the horses in our back yard.  We’re continuing our spooking training.  In the round pen, one of us would stand in the center and swing an item – saddle blanket, plastic sack, nerf noodle, blue tarp, hula hoop – around and over our heads.  The other would ride their horse around, away from and toward the movement.  Both horses did pretty well.

Today, Saturday, is a rest day.  We’re taking it easy.  I’ll watch the College World Series later today and we’ll both do some reading.  Not a bad way to spend the day.

We’re Home

We’re home and had a great time with our kids and granddaughter.  We’re catching up here, both on rest and some things we need to do.  So, posting will be slight for a day or two.

Good to be home.

Last Day of Our Steamboat Springs Trip

We left Steamboat Springs on Sunday morning and drove up to Fish Creek Falls just outside of the town.

 

Then we drove home, keeping our eyes open for more moose.  However, we didn’t really expect to see any and we were happy with the three moose on the way up to Steamboat Springs.

Boy, were we surprised.  First this one, a cow…

Then this bull…

And if that wasn’t enough, we ran across a clearing where there were four moose – these three bulls…
 

 
… and a cow laying down behind the bushes…

We would have been happy to see just one moose, but we wound up seeing a total of nine.

On the way home, we stopped at a campgrounds to use their restrooms and Juliet found a puddle to play in.

Here are some more pictures from earlier.

First, on Thursday night after we arrived, Betty gave Juliet a robe that I had brought from Japan (while I was in the Navy) for Wade Daniel when he was Juliet’s age.

On Saturday, we went to a hot springs in the morning, but it started raining in the afternoon and rained the rest of the day.  That evening, after supper, we went back to our room and Juliet and I had some fun playing together.
 

All in all, our trip to Steamboat Springs was great.

Drive to Steamboat Springs

On our drive to Steamboat Springs we went through an area where it’s possible to sometimes see moose.  Sure enough, in the trees… if you look close you can see a small hoof in the lower right hand of the picture…

Not long after this she stuck her head out of the trees to cross the road (why does the moose cross the road?)…
 
Then she starts across…



 

Then as we were driving down the road, Marie saw this young bull eating in the marsh… his horns are pretty new and the velvet covering is still on them…


We got to Steamboat Springs and had dinner at Beaujo’s, a great, Colorado pizza place…

It was a good first day for our trip.