Horses

"It was almost time for the Lord to take Elijah by a whirlwind up into heaven....As they were walking and talking, a chariot and horses of fire appeared and separated Elijah from Elisha. Then Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah saw it..." 2 Kings 2:1a & 11

What better way to go than in a chariot of fire pulled by horses? I've been to one of the annual Frontier Days in Cheyenne, WY and to see those people race in the chariots there made me a little nervous as they would seemingly fly around the arena. I've had my share of horses in the first 20 years of my life...and, I understand why they have words like horsepower, as the Bible even mentions the speed and strength of horses.

I didn't grow up on a horse farm, but grew up around people that had horses and I got to ride them several times while out at my best friend's house. When we lived at the old house, our next door neighbor's, the Stokes', had horses. In our childhood years, we grew up around Audie & Julie the son and daughter of Mr. Jack and Mrs. Judy as we called them. Audie, who was the same age as my sister Pam and a year older than I, was an all-around, natural-born cowboy. After school and during the summer months, Audie and Julie would always come over, or we'd go over there and play. Audie was always a prankster, and knowing we didn't know as much as he about the equine family, he always had the upper hand over us. So it was when he saddled up all the horses one day and asked me, Pam, Wes, Anneil, and our cousin Cathy if we wanted to ride. Pam and I rode double (me on the back). We were just little kids (probably somewhere around 7 & 8), so we just could walk straight, and the only horse we were around to ride at that particular time was the one at the grocery store. At any rate, we hopped on and took off at a slow pace. Well that wasn't fast enough for Audie, so he comes by and slaps the horses rear end and it took off, throwing Pam and I both off the horse, onto our stomach's, and knocking the breath out of us. Audie got a good laugh, but he was verbally chastised by my mother later.

A few years later, Audie and Julie came over on a pony cart and asked me and my baby sister Ginger if we wanted to ride; so me and Ginger jump in the cart and we're "off to the races". Yeah right. If you're like me you probably think, a little baby horse...but a pony is not a baby horse. The pony got spooked by a car when it got close to the highway in front of the house and took off like Moody's Goose. If you don't know what Moody's Goose is, just know it moves fast. The pony could not be stopped, but went right over the highway and into their yard, just missing a bayonette bush. Julie bailed out of the back leaving me, Audie, and Ginger still in the cart. You must know that working on their small farm and around horses since he was old enough to say "horse", Audie was a strong boy. He stood up in the carriage and pulled on the reins with all of his might, and this didn't affect the pony one ioda, it only made him run faster. I yelled for Audie to let me help him pull the reins (thinking we'd pull together), but Audie handed them to me and jumped out as me an Ginger bobbled down the road, screaming with all of our might with every ounce of breath we had. As the pony continued running down the side of the ditch and Audie running after us, it rode over a culvert causing one of the wheels to be on the highway, and the other to run over the culvert and off of it. In seemingly slow motion, it flipped the cart and threw me and Ginger out of it and into the ditch. Knocked the breath right out of us (again). We got up and off of the ground crying out of fear and not because we were hurt. All we could see was the pony & it's cart being drug on its side a quarter of a mile down the road. Audie came by us still running, and eventually caught up with it and its warped frame. Audie had a warped frame when his dad, Mr. Jack, got home from work that day and saw that the cart was bent up. That was about 40 years ago, Audie came by to visit last year and one of the first things he asked me was, "Wanna take a pony cart ride?" He's never lived it down, and neither have Ginger and I.

Fast forward about 10 years, and several horserides I have under my belt. A few years before Jesus turned my life around, a friend and I decided to take a horseback ride. A couple other friends of ours had horses, Toot (pronouced with a long u) and Carol. Toot was an older horse, very good-natured and one that no one would fear riding, and Carol was high strung, one that the owner used in his rodeo competitions. He said, "I don't mind ya'll riding her, but whatever you do, do not holler around Carol because she spooks easily". So off we go. We had nothing to do that afternoon, so we were in no hurry. When we got as far out as we wanted on their property, we decided to turn around so we'd have enough daylight to ride back. I don't know if every horse does this, but the three horses I've ridden in my lifetime all had the trait that when it sensed it was on it's way back "home", their paces would pick up. Toot sensed this, and would trot a little when he saw Carol and my friend take off at a little pace. Toot would stay up with him so that my friend and I could talk to each other. Due to the drugs we were under the influence of, this made us laugh quite a bit. Back and forth it went for about 10 minutes until Toot's pace picked up a little more. Toot got a little faster until pulling the reins didn't slow him down. For some reason the pony cart flashed in my memory... I commenced to getting a little more stern with him in a louder voice just to try to get him to slow down, only Toot was not obedient. Soon, Carol was way behind and Toot and I were barreling down the path toward home. My voice was now into the hollering/screaming range as it was hard enough to hang on, let alone see straight under the drug influence. We were in the field and had to go through a gate that led into the yard...I knew we weren't going to make that turn as fast as we were going, until at the last tenth of a second Toot made a turn into the gate nearly taking my leg off. We were headed straight toward two trailers parked end to end in a V-shape, and there was no place to go but to hit right in the middle of the V. Once again Toot made a split second decision and stopped...dead in his tracks. I went right over the top of his head and onto the ground a few feet from the parked trailers. I'm sure it would have looked like something you'd see on a cartoon. Fortunately I did not break any bones, but from the groin area all the way down to my knees were solid bruises on both legs. Toot didn't get hurt, but he certainly hurt my pride. I haven't been up on a horse since and really have no intentions of doing so until one day in the future. Word has it there'll be a lot of them, and for some reason, I don't think I'll have any trouble riding it, as I'm quite sure it'll be well trained. Just listen to this description...

Then I (John) saw heaven opened, and there before me was a white horse. The rider on the horse was called Faithful and True, and he is right when he judges and makes war.....The armies of heaven, dressed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. Revelation 19:11 & 14