Last summer, my good friend Carol Thibodeaux brought a little six-month old AQHA weanling out to our farm as a gift. The kids named him Humphrey. Today, I finally got a halter on him. I've been working at it for weeks. Because my time with him is limited to just a few minutes before I get ready for work, the process took a lot longer than it should have. Now that I have the halter on him I can start halter breaking him so he can be led where I need to take him, tie him when I need to, teach him to trailer load, etc. All of this will ultimately lead up to this fall, after he turns two, when he'll be taken to the trainer who will break Humphrey to ride. It's all a process that results in a greater relationship between horse and owner, enjoying many hours on the trail together.
I've been thinking about doing a message series called "Horse Sense." I think it would be fun to take the film crew out to the trainers and capture some of the process on film to illustrate my messages with. Maybe I'll even bring Humphrey out on stage for one of the services. There are so many references in scripture to horses and there's a lot to learn from the parallel between how horses are trained and how God trains us. I certainly hope I'm more easily trained than Humphrey!
