A Gift From Papa

I've been sitting on this news for about 2 weeks! I've been afraid of saying anything for fear of jinxing it and I'm not superstitious! I will be officially getting this gift on Monday and will blog about this day but first I must share the story behind it.

May 2007 my beloved horse Blue died. He was 18yo. I had owned him for 12yrs. We had been through alot together. I can't begin to tell you how deep my bond was with him but the day he died a little bit of me died with him.

Christmas that year Pastor Kirk gave me a gift as he usually did but this gift was extremely special. Here is an excerpt from a blog (January 1, 2008) I had on a previous blog site.




On Friday before Christmas Pastor Kirk came in with a rather large wrapped gift for me. He usually gives me something every year. I decided to wait to open it until Christmas. When I opened it I felt bad for not allowing Kirk the blessing of seeing my expression upon the revelation of the gift. As you can see it is a sculpture. The name of the sculpture is "The Gift". I began to cry as I looked at the intricate details of this awesome piece of work. God began to show me through this artwork that I was the little girl and He was the cowboy. I believe it was God's way of reassuring my heart that I will have another horse one day. I know I have a horse now but I do not have the connection with Clyde that I had with Blue. I believe one day God will give me another horse that I will bond with like I did Blue. And I'm just foolish enough to believe that someone will give it to me. I don't know when or how but I believe I will have another horse other than Clyde. I couldn't quit crying for several minutes. I finally did regain my composure. I have found when I tell people about this sculpture and what I believe it stands for, it makes me cry again! I will have to say this is a very special gift and such a tangible reminder of God's love and promise to me. Geez, there are tears in my eyes now even as I write this! I did call Kirk later and thank him. Even as I was thanking him and sharing with him what God had showed me I began to cry on the phone....so he didn't miss out entirely on the affect the gift had on me!

Fast forward to 2013...six years later. Doyle and I have been discussing getting a couple more horses. Clyde is 23 will be 24 in February. He is a "senior citizen" in horse world. Every day I have him is a blessing. Not only does he need company as horses are herd animals but no one else can ride with me because I only have one horse and I want to teach my grandchildren to ride. 

Sunday afternoon September 8th, I was on Facebook. I saw a picture from a friend of mine, Melanie,  I meet through scrapbooking, of her two little girls on horses. The caption was "Giddy-up...of course now they want their own!" I don't always look at comments but because horses were involved I did. Someone posted "We have three horses we're trying to find homes for, if interested. LOL". I posted "I might be interested. Can you give me some more information? I currently own an older horse and want to add." Then Melanie posted "That would be awesome but absolutely nowhere to put them. Valerie would be a definite 1st choice for me! I know she would take wonderful care of them!"

This lady messaged me through Facebook and we chatted back and forth. In the end she gave me her phone number and I called to make arrangements to see the horses on Tuesday September 10th. I was in love the moment I saw them! It was all I could do to restrain myself but I knew that I had to have Doyle's approval to go through with this. I knew I had it when he said to the people "Valerie always said she liked seeing color in the pasture. I guess now I need to go work on the barn to get ready for them." 

Let me introduce you to Patches. A 13yo registered Paint Mare. Stands about 15H.

Meet Diamond. A 12 yo registered Paint Gelding and half brother to Patches. He's about 15.1H. He's the same height as my Blue was and built about the same.

This is Dixie. A 7yo half Paint half Mustang Mare. She's probably about 14.2H. Not any relation to the other two. She was taken in by this family from a friend when she was a filly (less than a year old). She has never been ridden. I am hoping to change that.

All three are very docile and of gentle temperament. Doyle picked up their feet without any of them having a halter on. I was impressed! The other two have been trained but haven't been ridden in 5 years. 
 
The two registered Paints are horses left from the father of the woman who owns them. He used to raise Paint horses. He has since died. She and her husband are retired and want to move at some point. They didn't want to sell them for fear they wouldn't go to a good home.  
 
Can you tell that Diamond and Dixie are buddies!

I did ride Diamond Wednesday. I chose him because where they live now is VERY rocky and he is the only one with shoes. He did just fine.  I was very pleased.

These guys are the reason I've been so quiet of late! I've been busy helping Doyle prepare our place for 3 more! We now have everything ready and have scheduled to bring them home with us on Monday. I am so excited I took off work so I can spend time with them and watch to make sure they don't beat up on the old guy!

That's a pretty good gift huh?! I believed Papa for "a horse" to be given to me and He gave me three! That's so like Him. It drives home the truth from Ephesians 3:20 "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us"

My heart is full!
Have a good one!