"Horses make you happy."
This is what my wife said to me when she looked at this photo of me with Noble Spirit [above], a local celebrity who was the inspiration for Joanne Anderson's book, A Noble Spirit (Perry Creek Publishing, 2012).
"Horses make you happy." Indeed, they do.
I was raised in a horse family. My mother was a rider, an international show jumper, hunt master, trainer, breeder, and trader. By seven years of age, I had my own horse, was riding, and won my first ribbon in western class (photo below) in Colorado.
When I was nine, we moved to Virginia, and I began riding English and learned how to jump. Also, my summers especially were filled with grooming, braiding, mucking stalls, and cleaning tack as my mother's horse business grew. After a succession of three horses, I tapered off riding, until many years later I rode again with her on competitive trail rides with her beloved Appaloosas [photo].
As a teenager I didn't ride as much, but I loved working with the horses. During the period of my parents' divorce, our barn residents were comforting companions to me. There's something indescribable about the manner, and even the aroma, of horses. I just loved hanging out with them. Our farm was a place of solace and stability for me during the difficult teen years due in large measure to the kind attention the horses gave me.
Later, I read in the Bible that there are horses in heaven: "Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True... And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses." (Revelation 19:11a, 14) I believe the new creation will be filled with all manner of glorious creatures, horses included.
There are not many creatures that compare to the horse in its glory. God says to Job, “Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? Do you make him leap like the locust? His majestic snorting is terrifying." (Job 39:19-20 ESV) I'm not much on sports statistics in general, but I do remember Secretariat's record-shattering speed in the 1973 Belmont stakes: he ran 1.5 miles in 2:24 minutes. The day before, Secretariat's trainer was asked how the horse's workout run went. He answered, "The trees swayed."
So, yes, horses make me happy. I've always liked dogs, and now I seem to be taking to cats, too, ...but horses will always have the special place.
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