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Re: [RC] My Horse Goes to Church - Vicki AustinHoward, you are not alone in your thoughts about the horse. I feel mine is a healer for my troubled soul. Both of my army boys are over seas , neither will make it home for the holidays , and one we can not even send gifts, or know what country he is in (not in Iraq is all we know) and my horse keeps me sane about it. I KNOW God gave me the horse I have now at this time in my life. A very special creature he is. As I have said before, we will all answer for the way we take care of our horses (and other animals. They are gifts, and we are to be good stewards of all we have been given. Thank you so much for your insight and thoughts. Hope to see you on the trail sometime. Vicki --- Howard Bramhall <howard9732@xxxxxxx> wrote: I went to Church tonight. I don't go very often, but, hey, it's the Christmas season and the wife is in the Church Choir, and, if I didn't go, well, I knew the price would be more than the value of watching Notre Dame play Syracuse, which, I found out later, turned out to be a good game. Anyway, sitting there, alongside folks I did not know, listening to the beautiful voices, everything kind of got to me. Life, the fact that we may be the only creatures on this planet who know we are going to die, what is it all about, why are we here, those kinds of things started creeping into my head. (Geez, no wonder this guy sees a shrink). Do you know what I started thinking about? I swear, something is seriously wrong with me. I started thinking about horses and how much they mean to me. I started wondering why some religions don't believe that these creatures, or any other for that matter, don't have a soul. That they won't go to heaven (they're not alone, I don't expect to make that trip either). How can anyone think that? The horse has more soul than most humans, including myself. And, big surprise here, I started to tear up. Damn, what is wrong with me? Has to be some sort of change of life. I don't think I've always been like this, although, I do remember, as a kid, I used to cry very quickly when I thought I was going to get a beating. I hate pain and thought that would save my butt from it's company. And, yea, I was always in trouble. I'm getting older, things are changing. I don't even look at young, pretty women like I used to, although, I must admit, I still flirt when I get the chance. I think I do it to stay in practice, in case I ever really need to use it once again (yea, like you ever had it to begin with), kind of "for old time's sake." But, during the singing, quite inspiring and enjoyable actually (with hope and prayer thrown in), there I am, sitting in church, one of a crowd of two or three hundred, and I bet I'm the only one there who is thinking about the darn horse. We're supposed to be thinking of Jesus, man, what are you doing thinking about a silly horse here? You can't put a horse on a cross, he's too heavy. The horse didn't die for your sins, it was Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And then it hit me. And, most of you aren't going to like what went through my mind, sitting there watching my still lovely wife singing, looking at me, probably wondering why my eyes were filled with tears (actually she knows I'm weird in this way and kind of loves me because of it), having no idea that I'm sitting there on that pew thinking of horses when I should be thinking of Christmas and the joy that it brings. What is wrong with me? I'm thinking of endurance. American endurance and some of the discussions we've been having over the past few years concerning horses that die during competition. And, I'm thinking, hey, maybe it wasn't just Jesus who died for our sins, because it sure seems to me that some horses are dying over the sins of man. Sins like greed, sins like coveting that first place award, sins like not caring (enough), sins like abuse and cruelty, sins like, well, like placing ourselves above the horse to such an extent that we forget that they are a living, breathing organism just like our self. The only difference being they poop a lot more. Maybe, this is why the horse is not full of shit as is the human. We, obviously, think that we are much better than they. We would not treat our fellow man (without breaking the law) in this manner. We would not let them die on our watch without taking some sort of drastic action to change the outcome. And, I continue watching, listening, to the Church Choir, a beautiful, pre-Christmas scene, and, deep inside, I continue to cry. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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