since Dazzle died, I have had a yearning to breed again. Usually this yearning starts in the winter or fall and—usually—by summer I am able to shake it…BUT in 2018 instead of being able to shake it, the desire kept getting stronger and stronger.
I didn’t like the idea of raising a colt by itself, so I thought I should breed two. (I know, not a good rationale.)
Based on Psalm 37:4--“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”—I started praying that if this was something that was in line with His will, he would give me a sign as I started looking at ads on DreamHorse. I was looking for an Arabian and one that would increase the chances of having another black dream horse. I like black horses and they command a better selling price. (I could not admit that I was trying to replace Dazzle, but--looking back now--how could I not be thinking that!) There were not many Arabian mares listed and they were all far away…except one…she was within 10 miles. A good sign!
I went to look at her and although a little thin, she was
stunning. Then I saw her name on her
papers: CCA Angel! It was just about over at that moment, but I
decided to pray about it over the next few days and ask the Lord to show me for
sure...because the idea of raising horses for profit rarely works out and I
didn’t want to make a mistake. As I was
reading my Bible (right from where I left off the previous day) the Lord showed
me several verses, that were a “lean” in the yes direction. And then one that jumped out and said,
“YES!” Thus I acquired a lovely bay
Arabian with 8 champions on her papers.
The first order of business was trailer loading. Pretty quickly I discovered that she had learned
a number of things that were not going to be productive in her new life with
me. One of the most concerning was her
strong tendency to freeze her feet or—worse—back in response to forward
pressure on the halter. This is related
to a “skill” taught for showing Arabs so that they will stretch out in a show
stance…but not at all helpful for leading or trailer loading or sending a
horse on a circle, etc. It took about
an hour and a half to get her loading somewhat confidently and I would have to
work on it further at another time…it was good enough for that day.
As I began playing with her at home, things were difficult
because of this negative learned behavior of resisting forward pressure. If I tried to fix it like you would with an
unlearned horse, she got scared.
Apparently this behavior had been cemented in her with fear and punishment.
I had to reflect on this quite a bit in order to get her
training heading in the right way. The
solution?
I John 4:18 “ There is no fear in love, but perfect love
casts out fear. For fear has to do with
punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
She is skeptical and very smart, but she is starting to
relax and accept my overtures of friendliness.
I would not say she loves me yet (except when I have the grain bag in my
hand), but we are working on it together and the better the love gets, the less
fearful she is becoming. It is quite an
interesting transformation.
Romans 8:38-39 “ For
I am sure that neither death nor life,
nor angels or rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Hallelujah!
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