On our way back from a rodeo in WI, we picked up a brood mare to haul home for some friends. She hadn’t been messed with much and loading was an issue. After giving the former owner 30 plus minutes to see if the mare would load by bribery and getting no where, we gave it over to my husband who has the patience and know how to train one to load.
Basically the process is one of simply teaching a horse to move forward when touched on the hip. All the clinicians use one form or another of this concept and it is through them that we learned it in the first place. It takes all the fight out. You lead a horse up to the trailer…they balk…you tap them on the hip very lightly and slowly until they take a step forward, then you stop and pet the horse. Any slight forward movement on their part wins them a reprieve from the incessant tapping. The process is simply repeated until the horse loads.
Well, after about 30 minutes of this, the mare loaded and off we went. Six hours later we needed to unload and walk the horses, we pulled off where there was ample grass and space for the horses to walk. After resting them awhile it was time to reload. The mare took one look at the trailer and went, “uh uh…last time I went in there, I didn’t get out for HOURS”. So we started the tapping thing. We didn’t have a buggy whip with us so Ray began to tap her hip with the handle of the plastic poop scooper. This was her moment of resolve. She’d move backwards…tap, tap, tap…hide her head…tap, tap, tap…you know the story. After about 15 minutes of this a lady…(blonde)…came and accused us of beating the horse! We tried to explain the process and invited her to stay and watch. She did…and called the cops.
Well, the mare gave it up pretty quickly. Like Ray says, there’s no one to fight but themselves and as we were shutting the trailer door behind her, two cop cars pulled up. They asked us a few questions, took one look at the plastic road apple picker, asked to see our dog?
...and when Huckleberry, a part pit bull came s-l-o-w-l-y and lazily out from under the motor home the two cops lost it and began to laugh out loud. She had called in that some people were torturing a horse with a pitchfork and a pit bull dog! (One look at Huckleberry and it’s easy to see the only thing he tortures is a couch!) They apologized for our trouble and sent us on our way.
Isn’t it amazing how far fetched from the actual truth the lady’s perception was? She’s been too heavily influenced by the cartoon movies that almost always show cowboys to be cruel and abusive. Whatever it was that has influenced her outlook, she could not look at reality and see what was actually happening because her preconceived ideas totally clouded her perception.
How often do we do the same to God? He loves us intensely and is constantly giving and yet we can adopt the opinion He will take from us what we love and consequently make our life miserable. Makes you kinda want to take a look at what’s influencing our perception of Him. Is it the truth of His Word or are we letting this world tell us what God is like? That woman meant well, but she was ignorant of reality…are we the same with God? What’s influencing your perception of God? If you are allowing the world’s opinion to shape yours, then I can promise you, you are as ignorant of truth in that area as that woman is in the area of handling animals. It’s a dangerous misconception because your eternal destiny is determined by your choices and your choices are made according to your perceptions. What if your perception is wrong? Are you willing to risk eternity on the accuracy of your personal opinions?