Lecture and Test

What another great day!  I have to say that God has a way of showing you that He loves you. I will get to that in a minute.
It had to be almost 100 degrees today. The sun was so hot. So after church I decided to wait until later to go out and work horses. I had three to work today so I knew I needed to save energy. I had two horse friends call and wanted to come see me work with Spade. I love it because I get so much more done when I have people around. Around 5:00pm I decided that I could handle the heat and headed to the round pen. I have to say I was really excited to see what Spade remembered from the other day and I had a few new things that I wanted to try. After catching him pretty easy I took him in and brushed him and re-braided his hair. He really likes that part. I even was able to brush his hips and all the butt that I could reach with out getting in the kick zone. For the first time today I didn't feel tension coming off of Spade while brushing him. After braiding his crazy hair I pulled out Gracie's saddle. My intention was to saddle him with it again today and do a few other things. I grabbed the little saddle and the pad off the fence. Spade stepped back a little worried. I came toward him with the pad and he started backing. I gave him a stern but comforting "Spade, Whooooaaa!"He stopped. When I stepped to his front shoulder, he froze and relaxed. With me (not sure about other trainers) I get a feeling when the horse is willing to allow me to do the task I am wanting to do. It is a "peace" between the two of us. That is the only way I know to describe it. I walked up and put the pad directly in its spot in the middle of his back. Then turned and put the child's saddle on with no problem. I have to say I was a little shocked that he took it so well. I wanted to up the ante a little so I asked my friend to grab my barrel saddle out of the trailer. When we brought it in the pen he responded like I thought he might. He started backing up. After about 2 min of introducing Spade to the much larger saddle he froze with the "peace" and I easily placed the saddle on his back. Because I had pulled all the gear on the right side of the saddle up on top for help lifting the weight I then had to figure out how to get it down with out scaring him. As I pulled down the stirrup he tensed up then relaxed. Then I started pulling down the back and front girth and Spade spooked and stepped back quickly. After a step or so he stopped. I was SO glad that he didn't drop the saddle. I walked up and readjusted everything. I went ahead and finished saddling him. After I buckled the girth I tried to step him back a few steps (a trick that an Aussie trainer taught me recently to get them not to buck). It was funny because he was a little claustrophobic with the new saddle so when I went to back him he leaned backwards half way to the ground and seriously thought about lying down. I have never had that response from a young horse before. He finally moved his feet. I then moved him out and started doing the rest of the things I had planned.
I started moving him around the pen and being more precise on the gates and direction that I wanted him to go. He did wonderful. Well except the fact that I still can't get him to lope. We are going to work on that. :-) We lunged, turned, and backed all over the pen. Then it was time to unsaddle. As I unbuckled everything I was telling Spade how proud I was of him and how well he was doing. As I went to go and put the girth across the top of the saddle to pull it off something about the way the gear is pulled out from his side scares him. He stepped back and I let go of the girths. They fell down beside his side and he looked at them with his scary face and stepped quickly to the left. The saddle went off balance and it fell beside him. Before it could hit the ground good he had already turned and kicked it. Thankfully I still had the lead in my hand and I backed him up quickly and worked him to let him know that wasn't a good response. I then pulled him back up and re saddled him and worked on our little problem. He finally relaxed. We will see if it carries over to the next time.

My favorite part of the day was after I worked with all 3 horses. Talicia and I came to the house thinking my day was over. All I still had to do was move some hay in Spades stall and then I could go to bed. When I walked in the house Danial informed me that we didn't have any formula for Raelyn and that I would need to go to Walmart. Now?? It was 10pm. Talicia said she would go with me so we jumped in the car and took off. We got all we needed, went through the checkout and back to the car. As I was getting in the car something made me look at my receipt. I saw two items on the paper. I thought "I bought three items?!" I then realized that the girl in the check out didn't ring up my bottle liners for Raelyn. Seriously?? It is now 10:30 and I am beat. Really? I was standing at a crossroad and I knew I had a choice. In the back of my mind I remembered a story that one of the ladies in our church told about our pastor's wife. She had been in a similar situation a few months ago over a small can of soup that was left in her basket. I knew what was right.  I told Talicia and she asked "What are you going to do?" I replied "I am going to go pay for it." She smiled. We pulled back in our parking spot and got out of the car. Walking back in the store I felt the smile of God on me. Then the Holy Spirit asked me "Do you remember the sermon from this morning?" I literally laughed out loud...Pastor's sermon was on the Breastplate of Righteousness and how it is connected to Integrity. How when we have a lack of integrity it strips us of our armor.  The Holy Spirit came again and said a simple phrase to me... "You heard the lecture and now you have passed the test!" I smiled the whole way back in the store. I knew that God was happy with me. Talicia and I discussed how much humor God has. It is times like this that I know that God cares about who I am and who I become. Lectures can be heard  and test can be passed.