I owned two horses, an aged Q.H gelding, with issues- blind in one eye (that never stopped him), suffering from heaves and worsening arthritis in his front legs. And our ten year old rocky mountain gelding who had weight issues and needs LOTS of exercise. Having gone back to full time at work, I had been thinking how nice it was to only have one horse that needed to be ridden. Our Q.H Skip still gave rides around the hayfield to our grandson and various barn children who’s parents had no time, or horses too hot for such a job, or stood in as an extra when our family all wanted to ride. We had other horses at the barn we could use when we wanted. So, when the thought came to my mind, ‘I need another horse, an older one who doesn’t need to be used every day” I was surprised. I ignored the thought until I got home and checked my E-mail. There, amongst the junk mail, was a letter from my daughter. A forwarded list of Morgan horses in need. This is not an unusual thing for Megan to send me, she loves to look for horses online and send me adds for the ones that interest her, but never have I thought any thing about this, but hmmmmm. Well this time one of the horses she pointed out was a twenty year old Morgan gelding. In Illinois. So….I sent an E-mail to Kathy. I did not really think this horse would be close enough to see, but promised myself if it was with in two hours of our home, I’d check it out! He was, thanks to Kathy for being willing to meet us, and we made arraignments. I was a little worried, as by now I had asked God several times if I had really heard Him say “go get that horse!’ or if it was just me wanting a horse. He seemed to confirm that, yes God wanted me to go get the gelding.
So. We loaded up the whole available family ( my daughter and her husband are in Nebraska, so we left them out!) and headed to western Illinois to meet Kathy, her husband, their young friend and an assortment of Morgans. I couldn’t help but wonder if Kathy would think it was strange for my husband, son, daughter in law, and one year old grand baby to come, but we all wanted to see this horse that God had chosen!
Well our first look at Earth Wind And Fire was a little intimidating. He was tied, waiting to be tacked up and go for a ride. All the other Morgans stood quietly, tied to the trailer, but Windy paced back and forth, high headed and excited. And big! My son Justin had come to try him out for me, and Kathy, who I loved on sight, had brought along a quiet mare for me to try out. Really, it seemed obvious the mare was the better choice for me. We tacked up, and Justin, an intrepid rider who has ridden since birth, hopped on the very hyper Windy bareback. Windy hopped around, pushing into other horses, people, any thing in his way. Justin caught my eye and shook his head “not this horse”. Had God sent us for the little mare instead? I didn’t know, but trusted God to let us know.
We headed off down the trails, it was a beautiful ride. Justin and Windy lead the way. I watched with interest. I needed a horse that would lead the way for our rides with younger children. Windy never spooked, never hesitated. Justin chose the hard trails. No problem for Windy. My little mare, Happy Holly, was great too, a very nice horse.
We returned to the trailer and Justin assured me Windy was the horse for us. If I didn’t want Windy could Justin have him? Of course Justin’s young family can not take on the costs of a horse,but that’s all right cause we can share!
Now Windy is called Indy, in honor of his new life. He has learned to stand still when mounted. To stay standing until asked to go. He has spent the last month going out for rides on our trails with our rocky mountain gelding Smoke, who is ridden by our ten year old niece. He calmly leads the way so Smoke does not have to face the scary things first. On one long ride when Smoke was being naughty, I traded horses with our niece and rode Smoke while she rode Indy. Our niece is from out of state and only rides for the month she is at our house in the summer, so I was very proud of them both as they walked quietly along behind Smoke. Indy also has learned to handle opening gates from his back and tries very hard to figure out what we want of him. As he was ridden english before becoming a road horse for the Amish, our leg commands are confusing to him, but he is learning. He also is taking Justin and one year old Sabbath for rides around the hayfield and is very careful with the baby. Indy has a very good since of humor, so much like our Smoke, tossing his grain bucket, untieing himself in the barn and sneaking in the barn
when Richard brings the stall horses in for the night! Richard likes him any way (that’s saying a lot)! I could go on saying niece things about him all night, but I think you can see that I, for one,am very happy with the horse God chose for our family!
We were required to take a class to learn how to be pregnant or give birth or something. All I really got was that I had to be up from six in the morning till after eleven and up again by six the next day, but I got to eat out and they served a beautiful fruit salad.