Cool horse writing

newstalk
:: like newspeak, minus the ungood bits. ::
12/17/2003
Horses.
Filed under
general
favoritesby eykd @ 9:45 pm
We went horse-riding today in the snow. ¶
When riding a horse, it soon becomes clear that the horse is another being from yourself entirely. Riding a horse is not like driving a car. You hold the reins, and if the horse is trained well, you generally get your way with a gentle tug or two. Unlike a car the horse has a mind of its own. She may be tired, or cold, or bored, or feeling lazy, or wishing she could have some grain, or desiring to get that itchy saddle off and have a good roll. She may become irked with that anonymous, cooing monkey on her back and deliberately take it under every low-hanging, snow-covered branch or drag it past the trees on the side of the trail. She may simply start bucking, perhaps simply to frighten it, or in a serious attempt to get it off. She may deliberately disobey instructions, following too close to the next horse, or refusing to stop when everyone else has. She may break out into a canter when she is supposed to trot, or trot when she is supposed to walk. When riding, it soon becomes clear that the horse may indeed do anything she wishes. ¶
A good rider knows that he must not back down when the horse misbehaves. He must not show fear. He must be gentle, he must be patient, but he must be firm. This is the battle of wills between horse and rider: for any greater purpose to be acheived, the rider must be obeyed and the horse must submit. ¶
Horses have done well from this bargain. Over the millenia, their kind has thrived, spreading their horse-sons and horse-daughters across the world, becoming for an age pillars of human civilization. For this, they have received our love and affection: daily groomings, clean stables, mountains of hay, and grain and sugar cubes and other horsey delicacies. Our histories and our language are bound up in these workhorses and the horsepower they provide, no matter how many times we had to rein them in or spur them on. ¶
Yet they still resist. After our eventful ride, I was quite ready to get back down on solid ground and go to dinner. As I was walking past the training ring, I saw Brianna, one of the camp kids, riding a young brown horse recently broken. Brianna has grown up with these horses all her life, and she is one of the most experienced trainers the camp has. The horses gait broke from trot to canter to trot, in and out, occasionally bucking, as she rode it around the edge of the fence. Nothing could faze Brianna. With a deft hand at the reins, a sure seating on the saddle and a gentle voice in the horse’s ears, she rode through everything, certain that the horse would conform itself eventually. If not today, then tomorrow, or next month. She would persist, no matter how many branches it busted across her on the trail. ¶
I wonder if this is not something like when we Christians say that Christ lives in our hearts. We have allowed him to saddle us and ride, but then we persist in our strong-willed ways. We don’t want to go that way; there’s an interesting smell over here. Or we get bored, or tired, and we sulk. Or we get mad at our fellow horses and try to kick them. Or we get mad at our rider, and drag him past every tree branch and thornbush, all the way to the hill at Calvary. ¶
Yet always at the end of every ride (and this is the part that we like), there is the warm stable with hay and grain and a brush, and his hand on our muzzle and his voice in our ear, telling us that we are a good horse, and we’ll do better next time, and someday we will be a great horse and obedient, and able to do great things someday with our rider. ¶
Sometimes I wonder if this is not how it is. ¶

-->
Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:


Name (required)
E-mail (required)
URI
Your Comment



eykd.net
newstalk
subverbia
about/contact
categories
general
favorites
asides
meta
trivia
news
politics
story
scifi
fantasy
books/literature
writing
religion
technology
society
science
search

currently reading
Celebration of discipline: The path to spiritual growth by Richard J Foster
“An imminently practical handbook to the traditiona...” [more]Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger
“This is the first time I've ever been able to perc...” [more]

archives
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
June 2004
May 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
May 2003
April 2003
December 2003
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
« Oct

Jan »

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

commentary
Instapundit.com
politicalwire
news
NPR News: Top Stories
NPR News: World
International News" href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/international/index.html?partner=rssnyt">NYT > International
National News" href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/index.html?partner=rssnyt">NYT > National
praxis
berenwasteland.com
Ftrain.com
Malakhim
tech news
Technology News" href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/technology/index.html?partner=rssnyt">NYT > Technology
Slashdot
The Register
Wired
theory
jill/txt
Making Light
Many-to-Many
Mark Bernstein
net.narrative environments
owrede_log : interfacedesign.org
rodcorp
Scripting News
Space and Culture
other
Login
Register
meta
RSS 2.0
Comments RSS 2.0
Valid XHTML
WP
In association with:

All contents Copyright © 2003-2004 by David Eyk Some rights reserved.
The contents of this page are licensed under a Creative Commons License.