She said, “I don’t like that horse.”  The pony just moved over a little and started eating orchard grass.

The chase had just begun:

As soon as Dennis realized Vicki was fine, he grabbed the pony’s reins and started to have some ‘words’ with him.  Mickey and the rest of the group arrived about that time. 

Mickey told Dennis, “Easy with him now.”  Dennis uttered a few more words and proceeded to kick the pony in the side to get his attention – the horse was still pretty interested in that orchard grass.  Now, the pony didn’t think too much of the kicks, so started pulling away.  Dennis was pulling back on the reins with the pony now backing away from him.  Dennis was still telling the pony what he thought of him, when the head stall and reins came off. 

Seems the head stall was a little too large, - they hadn’t purchased tack for him yet so were using what they had around the barn - the pony slipped out of it.  The pony wasted no time.

Off he went through the orchards, throwing his head back and forth.  He was free and let Dennis know it as Dennis stood there, watching the pony running off, with the reins in his hands, the headstall on the ground and the air turning blue with his angry comments.

   

Dennis told Mickey to take care of Vicki and hollered at me, “let’s go get him, Art.”  Dennis was riding his rodeo horse.  I was riding a quarter horse; almost palomino in color.  He was a gelding about 16 hands high.  He belonged to a person who was moving to The Dalles from Portland. 

Now, I have ridden cattle horses and western trail horses.  This horse was neither. He was good natured, but, he had been ridden on non-challenging trails in the Portland area.  He was NOT use to going through the fields after an animal as he was being asked to do now.

I got on him and we started running after Dennis, who was quite a ways ahead.  The horse had a good, smooth gate.  He ran well.  We caught up with Dennis, and I was thinking, ‘this is OKAY, Dennis may be a very experienced rider, but, I can keep up with him!!!!’  (those really were my exact thoughts – I can still remember them from over 40 years later)  I was elated and feeling pretty good about my riding abilities.  We were running pretty hard, dodging in and out between the trees and racing right along. 

The orchardist had been pruning his trees.  There were several piles of branches throughout the orchard, many in the paths, waiting to be gathered up and taken off to burn.  These piles took up most of the path and some were at least 5 – 6 feet tall and at least that wide.  As I was thinking about my fantastic ability in keeping up with Dennis, he had his horse jump one of these piles.  I mean JUMP it.  He cleared it with feet to spare. 

   

I had second thoughts about my ability to keep up.  I figured ‘if I can somehow keep him in sight I will be doing well.’ (yep, again exact thoughts)  I went around the pile.

   

Fortunately, keeping up with Dennis was relatively easy since the pony slowed down and finally decided to eat some more of that orchard grass.  Dennis was berating himself because he didn’t have a lariat on his saddle.  He told me to keep the pony between us and we would herd him back to the barn like an old cow. 

Sounded good to me.  

However, my horse didn’t have the slightest idea as to what we were trying to do.  With a cattle horse, the horse just naturally keeps the animal where he belongs, and can turn on a dime to prevent it from getting away.  I had to pull hard on the reins to get my horse to do anything.  Then, of course, the pony had his own ideas.  The pony got away a couple of times and we had to chase him back down.

Finally, we were coming to a small wooden corral just about a half mile south of the barn.  Dennis decided we should put him in the corral and he would go get a rope. 

Sounded good to me. 

However, the pony, again, had other ideas.  I couldn’t get my horse close enough to pen the pony up against the corral.  He kept moving away, while Dennis’ horse was pushing from behind.  We were kinda going to the opening, but, we had to be careful.  The corral was on a rock bench and there was a fair size drop off a cliff on the north side of it, and that is where the pony wanted to head.

   

Dennis kept telling that pony what he thought of him.  At one point he told him it was lucky for him he wasn’t carrying his gun, or he would shoot him. 

I didn’t mention that I was packing.

   

I finally got close enough to the pony that I could reach down and grab the saddle.  It was a typical western saddle with a few leather tie downs attached to the skirting, etc. to tie ropes, or whatever to the saddle. 

I got a hold of one of the leather tie downs just in front of the horn.  I hollered at Dennis that I “got him.”  Now, upon saner reflection, to tell the truth, that was NOT one of my brightest maneuvers.  As I did this my reins, which were tied together in a loop, slipped over the horn of the saddle on the pony. 

This was not good. 

To be continued:

Jeremiah 9:23-24 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

²⁴ But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

I remember going to an Oregon Sheriff’s meeting all pumped up because I had just done something that received praise from many of the citizens of the county.

I mentioned it to one of the older (and much wiser) Sheriffs - one who had been around a long time and who I had great admiration for – His comment was (paraphrased) One ‘oh no,’ will wipe out 100 ‘great jobs!’

How true his statement was – only I had far more ‘oh no’s’ than one.

Most of us have abilities, gifts, talents however you wish to portray yourself, that we do well and are proud of – and maybe even to the point that it is deserved - somewhat.

We must take great care that we don’t get so wrapped up in our abilities that we are full of ourselves.  Our shoulders hurt from patting ourselves on the back.  – And what can be even worse is when we surround ourselves with people telling us how great we are and not challenging us to correct mistakes we may have.

It is hard to accept criticism, we think we are doing great and then someone points out that there are flaws in our thinking.  We take them as attacks on us; we get upset with the audacity of the person who does not agree with us.

We can become so enamored with our talents that we don’t think anyone can tell us what or how to do whatever that talent is and not only do we resent someone telling us we are wrong or there is a better way, we banish them from our presence.

This trait is the most dangerous to those in leadership positions; people that surround themselves with ‘Yes Men’ and refuse to listen to any negative comments.  They get so focused on themselves that they think they are invincible and their minions keep telling them they are right in their self-assessment.

We see this in dictators, in teachers, politicians, businessmen, and even Preachers – actually in all walks of life.  AND none of us are immune from this sin of pride and narcissist behavior. 

No matter what gifts, large or small, we have we receive from God.  When we forget that, when we lose sight of the need to have Him in our daily lives we become vulnerable to thinking what we have we deserve, it is ours to use as we please.

When people get to the point where they believe their talent is all they need, when hard work, training, learning even more and especially guidance from God, is not needed, they are setting themselves up for a fall.

The leader that dismisses those that are honestly trying to help him by pointing out errors in his thinking or actions is, eventually, going to fall, hard.  And sometimes we need to listen to what our detractors say and truly analyze it to see if there is truth in what they are saying.

Instead of being enamored with ourselves, we must focus and take delight in our relationship with God.  That must be done in humility – we have all seen those that are so enthralled with their ‘religion’ that they drive people away instead of being a beacon to Christ and His righteousness. 

All too often we are more concerned with the praises of men, with our own ego that we fail God.  We look at what we accomplish, numbers, money, followers, but lose sight of who we are responsible to – God.

We need to give thanks to God for our abilities; we need to allow God to work within us – and allow those that are trying to help us point out our missteps; and help us to improve.

If we want to be excited about something, if we want to feel good about ourselves and our work for God, then we must focus on what God wants that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

May I strive to put things in the perspective that God puts them in, realizing my abilities are His gifts to me to perform that task(s) He gives me to do.

Later, Art :-)

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