Building Trust

I will never forget the day I received a phone call from a successful business owner.  He had a paint gilding he wanted broke to ride.  He was willing to pay up front, which was hard to refuse.  Then the red flag: He asked me to come pick him up.  A few days later I hooked up to my trailer and headed over to his house and found a big, stout, three-year-old gilding running right beside his mama. The proud owner stood by watching.  After visiting for a few minutes I was ready to get the gilding into the trailer.  The owner warned me that he hadn’t been caught since he was cut.  To make a long story short, I ended up running him and his mom into a corner, they ran down the fence and then I roped him by foot to drag him into the trailer.  It was very difficult; my wife was running the gate and she was not very happy with me.

Needless to say we got him home and haltered, and after working with him for a couple of days we got him saddled.  Breaking him was a very slow process.  The horse was very teachable, but if you went too fast he would not learn.   If you went slowly he was kind-eyed and did whatever you asked.  There were three weeks of groundwork before he was mounted.  By the end of the first month I had won his heart and I was riding him through the hills.

At the end of that first month the owner called and wanted to swing by to see the horse’s progress.  He watched his gilding trot in circles, stop, back up, turn really well off pressure, but he would barely go into a loap and was uncomfortable when he did so he would drop back into a trot.  He had taught us that putting extra pressure on him was not very productive.  The owner was very pleased that he was responding so well and looked so gentle.  While we were un-tacking the horse after the ride the owner walked up briskly to pet the horse’s neck with his five-year-old son and that poor paint horse about jumped out of his skin.  The owner was very unhappy and wanted to know why that happened.  I explained that the horse didn’t know him or trust him.

It’s hard to deal with situations like that but he stormed off and got into his truck and yelled, “I will leave him here for two more months!”  Although it was good for business I had a bad feeling about this deal.  The time passed and the horse did really well.  The owner came to ride the horse with my equipment and was very pleased.  The horse was ready to go to work.  The next day he came and took him home.

The next evening the nastiest message was left on my phone.  He was yelling and screaming about how the horse was untrained and never was rode.  Apparently the horse ran off with him and almost killed him.  Of course, I hustled over there the next morning and walked right out in the pasture and caught him.  I walked him over to the truck, dropped the halter rope and brushed and saddled him (with my tack).  I walked 60 feet from the truck and got on the horse.   Walk, trot, lope, stop, back-up; all in the first few minutes.  The owner was very frustrated and went to his tack room yelling and screaming.  He brought back his addle and bridle.  “You put this on him and do that!!”  I will never forget stepping off and looking at his $100 saddle, $10 blanket and $10 cinch.  Just by looking at it I know it pinched the heck out of his withers and belly.  Not to mention that his bridle was a three-piece mouthpiece and six inch shanks with no chinstrap.  I just looked at him and said, “sir the problem is not the horse.  It is you.  You are lucky he didn’t buck you off.  It would be a great idea to get some riding lessons because your horse is ready to let you ride him.  But if you don’t know how to ask him to do something you will not be able to enjoy how good he is becoming.”   Well the rest of the story is not worth writing about.  I can tell you this: He had some unique names for me as he asked me to head down the road.

That man was planning on adding a new hobby to his life.  He wanted the pride and fulfillment of riding a horse he had raised.  Riding horses is not like riding a motorbike.  A motorbike you can buy, ride and park in the garage until you are ready to take it out.  It rides the same every time.  A horse, if you don’t spend time with it and work with it, will be of little enjoyment.  Even if you feed it and care for it there will be no partnership with it unless you spend time on its back.

Christianity is the same way.  It isn’t just something you do when times are tough.  It is a relationship with God that is HIS heart communing with your heart because you chose to surrender your life to His.  It is a daily journey and the more days you walk with Him the more enjoyable and solid of a life you will have. 

I don’t know if that gentleman ever took the time to enjoy that wonderful paint gilding that wanted a job.  There is a living, loving God that would like you to take the time to walk your life out in Him.  You can only enjoy real peace and contentment if you will take the time.

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (II Peter 1:2-4 NKJV)

Prayer:

Lord I don’t want to be like that man who is too busy to spend time in the areas he needed to so that he could have his heart fulfilled.  Father, show me how to walk with you and find worth in my heart by leaning on your provision and your perspective.  I surrender my selfishness to you so you so that life, peace, and joy can be the anchor of my self-worth.  Our relationship heart to heart can heal the broken places, the regret, so I can enjoy every day in you.  Holy Spirit make my crooked path straight.  So I can enjoy the freedom of life.  In Jesus Name.

Until Next Month

Ride with God,

 

Travis Klingeman

On White Horses

travis@onwhitehorses.com