Eight Agitated Pregnant Mares

My cell phone rang at 10:54pm. I was just considering how nice my bed would be when Liz Carey called and said, “Um, did you know there are a bunch of horses wandering around the front yard of our house? They are not supposed to be there are they?” Well, Collette (the director of our horse ministry) is away this week and somehow, I am the one who needs to take care of these unusal problems. So naturally, the idea of catching these horses at 11 at night is not especially exciting to me, but I jump in the 4Runner and drive over to the ranch.

The sight that greets me as I jounce down the rutted dirt lane is like a surreal movie. It’s a very dark night and the headlights illuminate large slow moving animal shapes walking in and out of trees. As I approach these shapes, several of them kick up their heels (do horses have heels?) as if to mock me. “Ha, ha,” they say. “See if you can get us.” Thankfully, Dave and Liz are out there, braving the cold. As we walk toward the pasture, several of the more docile mares follow us right in. Liz has been interceding on the mares behalf, that they would be calm and compliant, and obviously, God is listening. I only have to catch about half of the eight with a simple rope around the neck and am able to lead them in with little difficulty.

Horses, apparently, are smarter than dolphins since they were somehow able to open the chained gate. In any event, it was not as bad as I was thinking and I am grateful to God for sparing me from running around the woods trying to catch a 1,600 lb agitated pregnant mare … or eight.