Finally! The point of encounter!

Man was it hot today! I have a sunburn on top of a sunburn and blisters on top of blisters!! Who knew that walking in sand all day in boots would blister your feet. Minus the heat and the blisters today was a great day for Spade and I. Again today I went out and in a few moments he allowed me to start where we left off yesterday. In about ten minutes after being in the pen I was able to reach out and stroke his shoulder as he looked at me with his "donkey" look. I have to describe this because it is really funny and interesting. Every time I would walk up to Spade he will turn so that his right side was toward me. He did this even if he was originally facing the opposite direction. He always managed to get turned around. As I would reach out to touch him he kinda leaned slightly away from me but would leave his front leg extended out toward me. It kinda concerned me at first because I have never had a horse do that with me before and I wasn't sure if it was a defensive/aggressive move but all other body language that he was giving me was unaggressive. I decided to be really careful in my approach. As I would reach to touch him he would pull his head to the side and cock it sideways and flatten his ear out toward my hand like a lazy donkey's ear. I wish I could get a picture of it because I have never seen a horse give this expression. It was like he really wanted to stand there and see what would happen but was fully set to take off if needed. After many times of approaching him and rubbing the right side he started to relax a bit. He started to feel like normal horse. So I decided to give that a break and move to the other side. 

For those of you that are reading this that are not trainers or deal with horses I would like to explain something before I move on. You would think that if you show a horse something on one side of his body then he should be fine with it on the other side of his body...Not so much. The way God wired a horse is that when you switch eyes then you also switch brains. I am not a scientist but it is something about the two sides of there brain not connecting or something. All I know is on his right side I can scratch Spade with the blue whip and then on the left side you would think that I had a big blue python in my hand. He started side passing sideways, again with the donkey look, and snorting. I had to start my inch by inch approach and retreat all over again. The funny thing is he was confidant on the right side so when I would go for the left shoulder he would crank his head all the way around to his elbow, trying to keep his feet still, just so he could look at the whip with his right eye instead of the left one. I felt like hi was saying "With the right eye it is the feel good scratcher, if I turn my head.....AHHHH what is that!!?!!" By the end of the day I was finally able to scratch him in certain locations on the left side as well as the right. I figured that was a great stopping spot. 

As I was preparing to leave I needed to take care of a few things. So I went and filled his water and then grabbed the wheelbarrow to clean out his nicely stacked manure...yes he stacks it. After I cleaned it all up I started dragging it though the round pen and Spade lit up! He started following the wheelbarrow! The one that on the first day he thought was going to eat him...that wheelbarrow. So I let it go and stepped back. He ran up and sniffed it from top to bottom. After he had discovered all he wanted he looked at me with a curious look wanting to check out the "pooper scooper" in my hand as well. So I laid it on the ground and stepped back a little. He ran to it and sniffed it too! WHAT!? What a huge thing for him to trust the items that terrified him not four days ago. I was so proud of him. It gave me confidence that he was soon going to be brave enough to be haltered and start exploring all the things that I have to show him.  What a good boy!

Today Spade taught me about trusting in the Lord. Everything in that horse's instincts is telling him that I am there to eat him and he shouldn't trust me. But today he chose to step out and try something different. At this point in the game all I need him to do is try. I feel like God is like that with us also. Somethings that He asked of us, all He wants is a try. I know that when I first came to know the Lord He didn't expect me to be perfect. All He was expecting was to try to turn from the ways of the world. I know that for me, all I want is Spade to try to understand me, and try to trust me instead of his instincts. Prov. 3:5-6 say, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and HE will make your paths straight. So I tell you today, if you trust in the Lord and submit and learn His ways, He will direct your path to what and who you are meant to be. One thing I have learned from my horses is if you try enough you will eventually reach your goal. God is the only one that knows your potential and what you can accomplish. Just like I know that Spade will end up a great horse. Sometimes TRUST just starts with a TRY.