Have you asked, “What is this?” “How could this happen?” “What do you think happened?” “Isn’t this interesting?” “Who would have thought?”
As we journey in life and journey on our horse trails, these questions do arise from time to time.
Recently, we had a horse struggling to walk. Her front right leg was incredibly tender. There wasn’t any noticeable injury after examining her leg, hoof, frog, heel and shoulder. I gathered my sprays and oils to B.E.S.T. (Bio-Energetic-Synchronization-Technique) this crippled mare. She had a lump on her right side of her neck under her beautiful long mane and “lo and behold,” she had a huge lump on the left side of her neck. Were these hard lumps affecting her ability to walk? How could this be? It was at this time two things “kicked” in for me: #1 history, and #2, memories.
As a young curious filly, this horse stuck her head through two bars of a twelve foot metal gate that was at the east end of the barn. I had finished riding, brought my sweaty horse into the wash area of the barn to hose her down, and when I looked up and saw this cute little face at the other end of the barn. She had twisted her head to fit between the bars of the gate and now she wanted to back up, but she felt the weight on her poll (top of head behind the ears) and was stuck. The right side of the brain ignited, and she immediately was in “instinct” mode: FLIGHT!
She didn’t have any information in the left side of her brain because she had never experienced this before, so there wasn’t any data to connect with. I stepped out of sight, said a prayer, and the rest is history. She pulled that gate off the side of the barn, ran through a single electric wire that was off at the time, and into the pasture with a twelve foot gate on her neck!
As she ran, desperately trying to free herself from this predator gate, one end of the gate was up in the air and the other end went “bong, bong, bong” on the ground she on which she traveled. I put my horse in her stall, collected a halter and lead rope, and calmly walked out to the pond she was standing by. With sides heaving, flared nostrils and a look of genuine panic in her eyes. my body language illuminated, “Help is here, my little darling dear.”
In one strong, yet gentle lift of one end of this metal horror (by the favor of God Himself), the timing, position, and leverage freed my equine friend from her prison cell. With tail flagged, she took off with a freedom run that is forever stamped in my horse album. A vet check verified she was fine physically. The following thirty days I successfully spent time with her to remove the edge from this traumatic experience. So in figuring out what was going on with these lumps on this horse, her history came to my mind.
After a couple of days, I used B.E.S.T. for the second time, and the lumps were softer and less dense. She is moving with more fluidity, yet tenderly. This is when memory comes. “Annie” was a chestnut (reddish color), Morgan mare. I showed her in Western Pleasure classes at the KANDI MORGAN AND OPEN HORSE shows back in the day. In her 25th year, she had a knot appear on her neck. Annie died in 2008.
A call was made to our beloved farrier (someone who shoes horses) and his wife. What an amazing team they are! They were in the area, and came to check on our horse. For whatever reason, this year several horses have foundered on grasses. I wanted to make sure we were not dealing with founder or laminitis. After checking her over, it was neither.
“She’s been bitten.” Bitten! This NEVER entered my mind! In her defense, she had struck out with her right leg to defend or break the grip, and in doing so, her knee got bruised and it hurt to put weight on it.
These horses are amazing! What life lessons they bless us with again and again as we investigate a situation they bring to us. My life lesson was “Deb, don’t allow history and memory get in the way of TRUTH/REALITY.”
This leads me to meditate on the Glory (God’s viewpoint and opinion, which is reality) of God.
Go ahead, bite me!
