I was doing some saving on my computer and came across these stories.  Some of you have read them before, but most of you have not, thought I would share a little more of my police experiences with you, it will be a ‘serial’ story of three chases that happened within one week over 40 years ago:

It all started with Dennis and me working the Graveyard Shift on a Wednesday morning.  It was a quiet night, end of February and not much going on.  We were in the office having coffee and Dennis mentioned he could use my help on Saturday. 

Dennis is a Rodeo Cowboy.  Both he and his wife were raised around and loved horses.  They had several of their own.  The problem was he didn’t make much money on the local rodeo circuit – it was more of a hobby.  As a Police Officer he didn’t make much money either.  To stable their own horses and to help support their “horse habit” he and his wife, Mickey, leased a large barn with an indoor riding arena.   Mickey gave riding lessons and they stabled horses for a fee.  On occasion, some of the owners were not able to be with their horses regularly, so for an additional fee Dennis and/or Mickey would exercise them. 

This particular week they had to exercise several of the horses and didn’t have enough time.  Thus he could use my assistance.  I told him I would love to help him.  While I have ridden horses since a young child, (and actually owned a couple at one time) my experience had been more just pasture or easy trail riding, (although had a few experiences on good cow horses – but, that is another story….)  My experience, while certainly nowhere near in the same class with Dennis and Mickey, would be more than sufficient for the horse I was to ride.  Dennis also said he had just purchased a Shetland Pony for his children, but, they were too little right now to ride him.  If I wanted I could bring Vicki – who was 5 years old at the time – and she could ride him.

We got together at the arena at 0830 Saturday morning as agreed.  Both Dennis and I had Saturday off, and he had been up there for a couple of hours, working in the barn.  He had most of the horses saddled up, including the pony.  His wife had arranged to have a couple of her friends come over, so the six of us were going to go out and ride through some adjoining orchards. It was going to be an easy hour or two of riding and enjoying the experience of being in the great outdoors with a horse between our legs.

Both Vicki and I were pretty excited.  I had not been riding in a couple of years, and Vicki was going to be able to ride a horse that wasn’t attached to a bar.  Mickey took Vicki out into the arena and the pony was fine with her.  Mickey told her how to guide him and told her there should be no problem; the pony would just follow along with the rest of us.

We left the barn and headed out into the orchards.  Although it was the end of February and we had had a lot of snow early, it had pretty much melted off and the weather was quite mild.  We were riding along when the pony decided he would like to eat some of the green orchard grass.  Now that is not what the rest of us had in mind.  NONE of us had thought about tying a lead rope on the horse, doing that would have been a big help in controlling his behavior.

Vicki couldn’t get him to move.  Now horses know when they have the upper hand, and they can be a little obstinate when they want to.  Shetland Ponies can be some of the most head strong animals around, and this one fit the pattern – VERY hard headed.  Being only five, Vicki had neither the savvy nor the strength in her arms to get the pony to respond.  SOOOOOOOOO, Dennis decided to help a little – he whacked the pony on the rump. 

    The pony moved alright.  He just plumb took off.  And away we went after him.  Vicki was gamely holding on, both hands on the saddle horn, yelling “Whoa!!!” as she went along.  After a couple of minutes the pony decided he had enough, and stopped, abruptly.   Vicki went rear end over tea kettle right over the front of the horse.  I ran to her and she was fine.  She wasn’t crying, and she really wasn’t all that scared. She said, “I don’t like that horse.”  The pony just moved over a little and started eating orchard grass.

To be continued

Deuteronomy 3:25-28  I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.

²⁶ But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.

²⁷ Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

²⁸ But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

There are times we will not see the fruits of our labor.  We will not see the prophecy of God fulfilled.

Moses had led the children of Israel for over 40 years.  He had covered their sins with his prayers to God on their behalf.

He had suffered their criticism and unbelief.  He had laid his life down for them, yet, because he had sinned when striking a stone for water, in disobedience to God, he was not allowed to go into the promised land.

It would be up to Joshua and Caleb to lead the sons and daughters of the original Hebrews that had left Egypt to obtained the land God had promised them.

It was a punishment for their refusing to do what God had told them to do.

Moses was told he would not go into the land, even though he pleaded with God.  He was told to raise up another to take his place to lead them into the promised land.  Moses was allowed to see where the land was, but would not enter in.

He was told to “charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him:”

God wanted Moses to train his replacement – and he was to do it without whining or complaining.

Not always are we to experience the fulfillment of prophecy because of our sins – but we always have the responsibility to train others in the way of the Lord.  To train them to move on when we can no longer lead; we have a responsibility to God to teach and train others to take our place. 

We want to see God’s people grow, we want to see them exercise their faith and continually move forward with the understanding that the leaders of today will lead the people deeper into the promises of God – but they too may not see those promises fulfilled. 

We teach them in faith that God will do what He says, even if we ourselves do not observe it.

When a man plants a tree, it is accepted that it will be a long time before the tree is large enough to produce fruit or materials.  Fruit trees can take anywhere from 5 – 7 years of care before they produce enough fruit to be productive.

It takes much longer for a tree that we want to have lumber to build our homes and other buildings or furniture. 

The person doing the planting – especially if they are older – knows that they may not see the fruits of their labor.  However, that does not stop them from planting, watering, feeding and shaping the tree.  They owe it to the future generations to provide for them.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again