A Matter of Perspective

One week ago today, we had wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour here. In the early hours of the morning, the wind got under the horses run-in shelter (a very well-constructed structure, anchored into the ground) and picked it up, leaving it a hundred feet or so from where it normally sits. In addition, part of the fence went down with it, and the understandably sppoked horses took off running.

As we got ready to leave for church at 9:00 on Sunday morning, we had a knock on our door from someone who said our shelter was down and the horses were nowhere in sight! That's not the kind of news you ever want to hear!

It took us an hour and a half to even track the horses down - and track we did! We following their hoofprints through muddy fields, through orchards, through more muddy fields, and were close to meeting upo with them when we got a call that they had been found. We had spent the 90 minutes of tracking time doing a lot of praying, and were thankful to find all seven of them safe and sound, happily munching in a lawn a few miles away. They were feeling a bit frisky, and some of them gave us a bit of trouble about being caught, but it wasn't more than 15 minutes before were had them on their way back home. We had two trucks, but no trailer, so we put lead ropes on them and sat on the tailgates of the trucks, leading them home. We must have looked like pre-Christmas parade of the goofiest kind to the few people who passed us on those backroads that morning!

Being in the position of not knowing where the horses were, if they were together or hurt, etc., was frustrating for those 90 minutes, but it gave us a good amount of time to just pray about every aspect of the situation. We prayed for safety for the horses and for any people who might be involved. We prayed that the horses would stay off of roads. We prayed that the horses weren't separated, that no one would find them and steal them, that they would stay out of danger and not have any injuries. We also prayed for our own attitudes. We had been looking forward to going to church that morning, and having a relaxing day together with family. It would have been easy to start snapping at each other, making negative comments, or just being mad.

By the time we found the horses, we had found things to laugh about. One thing that got us giggling was when we pulled up to the house where they had stopped, and saw them all grazing in the lawn. A couple of them were rearing up and playing like wild horses, a couple were trotting across the yard. I cracked up and said, "Oh my! I wonder if there's some horse-loving little girl inside that house.... one who asked Santa for a pony for Christmas.... and who is now screaming to her parents, "Santa didn't just bring me one, he brought me SEVEN!!"

We not only laughed and made the most of the adventure by looking for fun in the midst of frustration, we also found that praying up a storm for an hour and a half ahead of time gave us very, very thankful hearts when we found the horses together and safe, with no apparent damage to themselves or anyone else. From what we could tell by tracking them, they had stayed away from roads. They had also avoided a downed power line just a few hundred yards from their pasture.

As we walked them home in some pretty bitter wind, we could have justifiably done some whining, but we were too busy saying, over and over again, "I am so thankful they were okay! I'm so thankful we had my parents to help us look for them! I'm so thankful...."

The fence repair was simple, but the shelter repair is still a work in progress. But, we're still feeling thankful. Thankful for a couple of awesome friends who have given of their time once again to pitch in and help....thankful for mild weather for the horses (even though our horses almost always prefer to stand around outside of the thing no matter what the weather!) .... thankful for the clever minds of my hubby, son, and the aforementioned friends who are figuring out how to reassemble the shelter without costing the ranch much money... thankful for a couple of days off of work for the repairs to be done.

We have faced some strong opposition from an Enemy who doesn't want this ministry to happen, and this latest difficulty is likely another attempt to discourage us from doing the work we are doing with young people. As long as we keep our focus on God, though, we'll find the courage and the perspective we need to keep taking steps forward.

Pray that what the Enemy wanted to use for harm will, instead, be used by God to do good things for the families we serve! Pray that we will continue to keep our eyes glued to Jesus, and that we won't tire of doing good!

Blessings!
Krista

The Ranch's New "Digs"

Much has happened since the last blog update. Most notable is that the ranch operations have moved to a more permanent home in Sodus.

In an amazing series of events, God orchestrated a "house swap" of sorts for the Meyer family, enabling us to purchase a piece of property that we could share with Shily's Promise, for no cost to the ranch. This eliminated the need for the ranch to fund its own property purchase or to pay for boarding for the horses - a huge blessing!

The summer found us busy putting up fencing, building a shelter, running a water supply to the pasture, and clearing woods. Since the open land had previously been used for crops, we had to start from scratch in establishing pasture. That meant the horses had to be given hay all summer to make up for the lack of grass for grazing.

Even with all of the busy-ness of getting set up, we were able to start working with a handful of young people. Some helped with fencing, shelter-building, and woods-clearing. Others came for lessons. Their excitement and joy were just what we needed to remind us that the hard work, the waiting, and the obstacles we faced during the last three years had been worth it. This was what we had been working toward through all of that. Laughter, smiles, confidence, trust ... yep, they more than make up for blood, sweat and tears!

Pay it Forward

I've been blessed to be able to work with a remarkable young lady during the last week. She and I have enjoyed several hours at the barn, talking about all sorts of horse things.

Last Friday, we had a really neat moment, when Beauty, her favorite horse, chose to show his trust in her in a unique way. We were standing with Beauty in the snowy pasture, when he decided to walk a few feet away and drop down into the snow for a good roll. I gasped and said to my young friend, "Wow! Beauty just paid you the highest compliment a horse can give someone! He laid down near you!" I went on to explain that because a horse's first defense is always to run from percieved danger, and because it's not a simple thing for a horse to get up from a rolling position, they will only lay down when they feel very secure and safe. The fact that Beauty felt safe enough to put himself into such a vulnerable position was a big deal!

Today, this same young lady and I were talking about how hard it can be to find people that we can trust with our hearts - people we feel safe opening up to and telling about our sometimes messy lives. This time it was my turn to get the highest compliment, as this precious girl said, "I feel safe talking to you. In fact, if I were a horse, I'd be rolling in the snow right next to you right now!"

*sniff, sniff* What an awesome job I have!