As expected we had a day without sunshine today in our neck of the woods.  It rained a bit, but not very hard.

Carla worked today, and then came home to finish making some things for the kids at the church to put together a couple of turkeys, one out of pine cones and the other out of netting.

They will have fun.

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Chapter Eleven

First of Three

Police chases do not come as often as portrayed on television or the movies, but they do occur.

We actually had three chases involving Danny and myself in less than one week; that was almost as many as we would have as a department over a half a year.

However, the first one happened when we weren’t on duty, still it was a chase of a fugitive by two cops...

One Thursday in February Danny and I were talking.

Danny and his wife leased a barn that had a riding arena in it.  It was just outside the city limits adjacent to cherry orchards.

His wife gave riding lessons, both western and English; the arena was used to give those lessons.

They stabled their own horses and some for hire.  One of the horses was owned by someone living in Portland.  It needed exercising and the owner couldn’t do it because of the weather in the gorge.

He asked if I was interested in riding that week end.  I said yes!

When I was a kid, I had neighbors that had horses and used to ride with them.  After Carla and I were married I purchased a jeep pickup.  The pickup blew its engine.

A friend and I were talking, he had a horse he wanted to get rid of, it was green broke mare, a wild horse rescue about 6 years old.  You could put a bit in her mouth and a saddle on her back, but since she had little training, it could be a bit feisty and he had been bucked off once too often.

We did a straight one to one trade, his horse, pregnant with a colt, for my pickup.  Carla’s folks had 50 acres of pasture and Dad allowed me to put the horse in the pasture.

Carla’s dad had a very good saddle and other tack that he let me use.

After the colt was born, I did some more horse trading.  I traded the colt to a man that wanted a 4-H project for his daughter.  He had an older gelding, I could use another horse so I would have company when I rode, another straight across trade with a saddle and bridle thrown in.

When we moved to The Dalles, I sold the horses, I couldn’t afford to pay to pasture them and I couldn’t take care of them so far away from Redmond.

I hadn’t ridden in a few years, but I was up for it.  He said that he just purchased a Shetland pony for his kids and I could bring Vicki, my oldest at five years, to ride if I wanted.

We agreed on a time Saturday morning and Vicki and I arrived ready to ride.

Danny’s wife was also there as were a few others to exercise their horses.  She saddled the Shetland and took Vicki out in the arena to see how the horse would react.  Everything went fine.

Once all the horses were saddled we headed out of the barn and into the orchards.

Things were going okay, when all of a sudden the pony took off running; with Vicki holding on for dear life.  Horses know when they have an inexperienced rider.

The chase was on, the problem, for me, was my horse was just a trail riding horse; it had no training in trying to corner any animal, let alone a pony.

That little guy could travel, fast.  Then, all of a sudden he stopped with his head down; Vicki went flying off his back.

Then the pony started munching on the grass as if nothing had happened.

I went to Vicki, she was a bit shaken up, but not hurt, but she was excited all the same.

Meanwhile, Danny grabbed the reins of the pony and started yelling, giving him a couple of kicks – the pony pulled back and out of the bridle – it was a bit too large for the pony.

The pony decided it was time to go and took off running down through the trees.

Danny told his wife to take care of Vicki and we would be going after the pony.

We both got on our horses and gave chase. 

Danny was a good rider; he had been riding all his life.  He competed in small rodeos around the area.

He was going at a good clip trying to catch the pony.  I was able to keep up with him and I thought to myself that I was doing pretty good.  Then, he jumped a pile of tree limbs that were in the middle of the path between the trees. 

I figured if I could keep him in sight I would be doing well.

We finally caught up with the horse, but didn’t have anything to catch him.  Danny was shouting that if he had a gun he would shoot him; I didn’t tell him I was packing.

He told me to keep him between us and we would just herd him back like an old cow.  But, my poor horse had no idea what we were doing.  The next day my arm was very sore from having to guide her through and around the trees.

I finally got close enough to grab hold of one of the saddle strings and drew him closer to us – the horse didn’t know what I was doing and tried to pull away, even as I was forcing him over with the reins.

It went well for a couple of minutes, but the pony wanted nothing to do with it.  I started to let him get free, when I realized that my reins, they were in a loop, was draped over the horn of the saddle and I didn’t dare turn loose of the strings.

Especially since we were heading towards a cliff. 

We got him over to a corral and managed to get him inside.

We were done for the day, my horse, definitely got his exercise that day.

We went home, Vicki couldn’t wait to tell her mother and her grandmother – she was there to help Carla with Ken, our second child that had been born earlier in the week.

While Vicki was talking I saw the look grandma was giving me, she didn’t say anything, her look was enough.

Copyright November 15, 2017 Art Labrousse

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James 5:16; 19-20 KJV  “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;

²⁰ Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

One of our responsibilities as Christians is to be there for others, particularly our brethren in Christ.

We may never know what kind of problems a fellow Christian may be going through.  It isn’t our job to pry, but it is our duty to be available to listen to them, talk to them and pray with them. 

However, it is also our responsibility to keep what we hear to ourselves, we can’t help if we start talking to others about the problems of those that have entrusted us with their problems.

Later, Art (-: