Where is your shoulder!!?

I was in awe this week as I worked with a beautiful Palomino Mare in the round pen, She's an excellent beauty, but a little lethargic on reacting to her cues, so we were working on getting her to move with less convincing needed.

As she ran in the pen she often decided to slow or walk whenever she wanted. I remembered that my energy needed to be focused on her shoulder. Some say the shoulder is the heart of the horse. Every time I focused in that area she moved forward knowing I meant business, but as soon as I got a centimeter too forward on her neck or too far back towards her rear... she would wander in her attention or slow down.

Now it is possible that she just sensed my attention wandering... but I am often amazed at the influence we have on a horse when we connect with their shoulder. I swear I almost literally felt connected to her when my focus was in just the right place.

So, when God is working with you, stretching you and growing you. Where is your shoulder? WHAT is your shoulder...maybe that's a better question.

Where is the area He focuses that completely gets your attention and draws you in, to move you to keep your eye on Him? Think about it. I would love to hear what you all come up with.

Patience Please.

How would it be if we had a God with little to no patience?

Think of the silly things we do... think... if you were God... how many times would you like to smack a few people (or yourself) alongside of the head to wake them up (OK... well that sounds harsh... but lets just be honest). Really, just ponder for a moment the amount of patience God must have with each of us.

For getting ahead of Him,

for not moving when He says to move,

for not paying attention to Him,

for being lazy or stubborn when He cues us to go in another direction,

for being scared and not trusting that He has everything under control.

You see, a good trainer needs the same qualities as God, at least they need to aspire to have them. And patience is one of the best qualities a trainer can have. In order to get something through to a horse, it often takes time. Sadly, many trainers just "don't have the time" or are not willing to find it. And that's when things get physical. That's when things get frustrating and could look ugly on either end. The trainer can hurt the horse out of frustration or the horse can hurt the trainer out of anger, frustration, or often just plain ol' confusion.

Horses are a lot like people... they can do all the same frustrating things as listed above... if we treat them as God treats us we're gonna get a lot farther with them. God is the best model a trainer can ever have. God does discipline us to an extent... and we should also do so with our horses. But with time and repetition and effectiveness. Most times the impatience we have with a horse comes more from inside of US than it does from the horse. Also we are so culturally driven to make progress, and as we well know... that's not as much the case with the horse. We need to work on their time frame when possible. God certainly does that for us, why should we not reflect that in return and not only with horses, but with the people we love!