Horse Tails

My father owned many horses and he loved them all. Some were work horses, a team, that he used to pull a wagon before he got his first tractor. For several years he milked cows and delivered milk to customers in Albion, using his team, Kate and Queen. He once drove that team to Clear Lake from Albion for a college boys' vacation.

When I was growing up we had one riding horse Chip, and he was joined by a number of others through the years. Chip was daddy's horse but I never quite figured that out until after a number of incidents happened. My nephew Randy would come out and spend the day and we'd try to ride Chip. Since there was only one horse we would try to ride bareback. Dad would even help us get on Chip and send us on our way. As soon as we were out of his sight Chip would stop and we'd try and try to get him going again. We'd get so frustrated one of us would lead him a ways then we'd try to get back on and go again. He would stop again and refuse to go. At least twice we had led him quite a ways from the barn and gotten on only to be bucked off as Chip went running back to his barn.

Once some neighbor friends rode their horses to our place and I planned to ride back to theirs. Chip would go for awhile with the other horses though it was never an easy ride. It seems like it was a constant battle to keep him moving. I made it to their house two miles away. When I decided to go back home Chip didn't want to go. It was a battle of minds as we made it the first mile. Then we came to our corn field. Chip knew where he was and decided it was time to go home. Fast! He took off between the corn rows through the corn field as fast as he could go. I hung on for dear life. All the while my legs were being sharply slapped by the corn leaves. Eventually we reached the clearing and Chip trotted nicely to the barn.

Chip knew I wasn't his owner. He didn't know my voice and he wasn't going to obey anything I had to say. I think that's the way daddy wanted it. Daddy rode Chip in many parades and herded cattle with him, never with a problem.

We need to be like Chip, following only one; the Shepherd. "The sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out...they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice" (John 10:3-5 NIV).