Friday, February 02, 2007

Keeping my head again today in YOUR hands….in the effort it takes I am remembering an experience I had several years ago witnessing a Horse Whisperer…really a real live Horse Whisperer…..here is my attempt to write about it.

I wanted to write about our experience this weekend (September 2004), watching the Horse Whisperer....It was INCREDIBLE....

He took a 4 year old that at the time he thought was 3 (which I guess with horses this made a significant difference), a 4 year old beautiful little Chestnut filly and in the course of 5 hours broke her to a saddle.....

He began in the pen with this pretty little horse warily eyeing him. She had been minimally handled, having been wormed and branded, so very little human contact and what was, was negative..... She and Bob Toomer hence forth re: as HW were in this ramshackle flimsy pen. Seriously nothing but a bunch of metal gates wired together for this purpose and surrounded by bleachers. So on top of HW in the center she had the distraction of maybe 3-4 hundred people watching.........
He began by equating her horse life before this time in the pen to ours...time spent in our own pursuits, satisfying ourselves thinking that was ALL we had to satisfy or worry about..how we protect ourselves. As he’s speaking, he begins running the horse in a circle, just a light canter around the pen ....our life in circles with God at the center whether we know it or not.

She runs and he starts telling us what he is looking for, looking for her to begin to 'humble' herself...she would stop and drop her head and walk and occasionally lick her lips, ultimate submission for a horse....so he approached her...very small steps and slow......if she moved she would have to run again until she assumed the humility pose......

He waited and approached her, not right up to her, maybe 3-5 feet....she knew he was closer, she experienced him closer.
And then it became about her turning towards, choosing him.....and if she wouldn't, she would be made to run again...not hard, just useless running......kind of like us...without God our lives just useless running.....He did this for about 90 minutes to 2 hours and finally she turned to him and was rewarded with stroking and calming words.......You could tell she loved it, craved it......

HW got fatigued and needed a helper.
In comes King a cow horse and very good at what he does but what HW needed was a horse to respond EXACTLY as he asked...he had gotten to the point with the horse that this 3 ft. was very important to maintain and he also wanted/needed to increase the closeness SLOWLY at her choosing, so as to introduce the halter....

Well King being a big eager horse could only approach with big fast jerky movements...HW couldn't use King and had to get another horse...
THIS is where the visual became quite personal .....how I saw myself as King...fully saddled and broke and eager to be of help...but moving bigger and faster or sooner and closer than God wants me to........eager but maybe not as obedient or as good a listener as I am supposed to be..
Leviticus...Levi for short, another cattle horse but seeming to respond more in line with what HW wanted.......closer and closer, each time having the horse, having her choose to allow it, to turn towards him......it was as I said INCREDIBLE. Because when that horse which had never been lovingly touched, CHOSE to put her head inside the halter....well it was amazing....She chose to allow it and the HW never forced her just presented opportunities for her to choose to KNOW her purpose as a saddle horse.....
I hope this makes sense because it deeply impacted me and I wanted to share some of the experience with you.....I loved the imagery...choosing to find our purpose....choosing to allow God into our lives, allowing Him to show us our purpose....it was a really cool day and then the next day....

We went horseback riding... King and Levi were among our mounts...I was riding a barrel horse named Tuff who liked being in the lead and not being a goo....an accompl.....OK I DON't KNOW HOW TO RIDE A HORSE.......well my beloved children figured that out and spent the afternoon enticing Tuff to take me on little runs...me giggling and bouncing in the saddle, must have been enormously entertaining because they took turns being behind me or in front of me so they could watch and listen to me...I may have said some inappropriate words about almost falling off...BUT I didn't , fall off that is, well I did Fall Down and hurt my knee TWICE but....I never fell off of old TUFF!!

Anyways thanks for listening and being in my life and loving me even when I get a little too close or rough or pushy.....I love you all b

Sheep Horse….purpose protection....I am perhaps mixing word pictures…well I’m gonna stay here for awhile with my head in His hands or maybe my head in a halter…..

2 comments:

Jada's Gigi said...

This is an incredible analogy!! Awesome! Thank you for sharing!

Danielle said...

Oh my, Becky. This is powerful. "...she would be made to run again..." I can't get this image out of my head. Wow. Thank you for this inspired post.