Good Heart

Gosh it is so tough to keep up these days. Now that I have two mustangs, clients horses, my own and two small children I stay really busy. I went out to Spade yesterday and saw that his throat latch was swollen. I was so afraid that he was getting sick so I decided to not ride him. I prepared this morning to take him to the vet and when I checked him this morning everything seemed to be back to normal. I will check him tonight and see if he is better.
Yesterday I had another mustang friend come down and help me gentle my barrel mare. In three hours she went from never been handled to being saddled. Angie took me step by step on what has to be done to get the correct bond with her. It isn't near as easy as most horse trainers make it seem. Angie made it look easy, but after seeing the process I realize that there were times that I had the chance to have that type of bond with Spade but I moved to fast to gain it. I also realized that what a true bond looks like. I thought because Spade let me touch him all over and let me get him saddled that he was trusting me and bonding to me. He just recently has be truly bonding but I have lost so much. It is really hard to explain. Magpie on the other hand bonded to Angie and I immediately because it was done right. She isn't really all that skittish about anything. When she starts to get worried I quickly get to a place to retreat and walk away. Then she happily bounces up to me again. I now can brush her from head to toe, saddle and unsaddle, and pick up feet. Today I ended with her in a full cheek snaffle. She wore it the rest of the day. It should help her learn how to hold the bit.
Tonight I went out to take the bit off when I walked down the run she perked her ears and came to me. She is still a little funny about touching her face. I took of the bit and put on the halter. And started working on desensitizing. About that time Talicia came out the back of the barn. I was so excited to see her. I told her to come in the pen. I let Maggie go and Talicia walked in. I told her to walk in like Maggie wasn't even there and look away and talk to me about her day. She stood there and Maggie walked up and started sniffing her and Talicia giggled. I thought it was funny. Then I told Talicia to walk away and ignore her and Maggie started following her trying to get her attention. It was neat to see her work like that. Finally I instructed Talicia how to handle her and she rubbed on her. She followed Talicia to the gate and I was going to open the other gate to send her to the stall so I could use the round pen for another horse.  She was standing at the front gate pulling on the tarps hanging on the fence. I called her name and gave her eye contact and she came to me and followed me down her run to her stall. She is such a neat mare.
I have to tell you when I was messing with Spade I was constantly frustrated that he wasn't responding to me. But now I know how God feels when he has a person that he has found that is eager to please. I tell you I want to be like Magpie. She is so willing to do what ever I ask. I love her attitude, the way she responds to pressure, and her friendliness. In the old testament God declares that David is after God own heart. He show that he loves David and his willingness despite his short comings. I don't expect this little mare to do everything perfect or to always have the right attitude. But in the end she has a great heart. We should be people after Gods heart. I love trying to do everything that God ask. Figuring Him out sometimes is like my horse trying to understand me I am sure. God knows that we are going to make mistakes. He just loves us according to our heart. All we can do is try our hardest to understand God and to immediately do what He says.