~Sheika Moments

Well I haven't put any of my videos of Sheika on here for a while so I thought I would. She is doing great! I know, I always say that...but its true. No she's not perfect, or finished but she tries and she keeps improving. So, she's doing great! Check out my you tube channel to see more of my horsie movies!

~Tips for haltering your horse (movie)

So Tash helped me video another movie and it turned out really good. Partially thanks to a friend for lending us his lens. I love it! Don't ask me what it is though. ;)

The movie...its just a few things I've learned along the way. Check it out and tell me what you think! Do you tie a rope halter the correct way?

~Birthday blessings

Yep I had another one! Another year older.
My family was so great!

Tash did a photoshoot of Sheika and me in the morning.

But she didn't edit them yet. :( 

Also Marcy n Jess made me a trail challenge through the woods. It was great, so check it out!

They all walked along to watch and Jess videoed it for me. 

So... enjoy! Can't wait to do it again!

~Snow snow snow...

Hey ya'll! A while ago I was waiting and waiting for snow. We were starting to feel like winter had missed us. Well not anymore. We got several snows now in the last few weeks and well...I'm ready for spring.

The horses have been doing really good in it though and I rode 5 times in the first two days of snow we had. I was really looking forward to pulling my sisters around in the snow with the horses and also to try snowboarding or skiing behind a horse.

The first day we rode in the snow it was so deep we ended up riding up and down the road in front of our house, which was plowed but still had snow covering it. It was so fun since we hardly ever ride on our rode.

Normally people drive anywhere from 55 to 65 on it, so it is not very safe for horses. I've done it a few times but found out that some people just ignore you and buz right on by without slowing much or giving me extra room. So yeah I don't like riding on roads much.

But since hardly anyone was out driving we rode the whole way to the end of our road which is somewhere around a mile and a half from our house. I rode Dunny and pulled Jess on a sled and Marcy rode Hank. It was an awesome experience. Mostly we walked or trotted but on some on the more level spots we cantered. There was always that thought in the back of my mind "What if we hit an icy spot?" but we didn't really have any problems. I don't think I give our horses enough credit for what they can do. They are so much more athletic than I think they are.

I love to snowboard and had seen some skijoring movies so I decided to try except with my board cuz I'm a lot better with that than I am with my skis.

Dad was so sweet and came out to pull me. It was actually harder than I thought. I think it was because it was plowed but still really bumpy.

Also I did a medieval dress-up with Kat which was so fun. Yes I still like dressing up. Hehe!

It was really deep though, most places the snow was up to Kat's knees. She was very ready to get back to the barn, which didn't help in taking pictures. She was always moving! We had Hank along to keep her company but patience has never been her strong suite.

                       Note to self: Need to work on getting Kat some patience.

All in all I have had some very good times in the snow with the horses, but I'm ready for spring! And grass, and warmer weather, and dry ground, and no mud, and...etc. (End of thinking capacity.)
 But I'm also reminded of the verse "In everything state I am, therewith to be content." So I will try to be content till spring and maybe even be thankful for all the snow we still have!

~Riding Dunny movie

This is my first attempt at putting a riding movie on so hopefully it works!

~To overcome

(To start off with, you should have your Bible on hand.)

 (My lil' sister Jess letting Dunny lick her hand.)

He is victorious

He is all-powerful

He is almighty

He is supreme

  He is so much more but there are not enough words to describe Him! His being exceeds our understanding. But do you know that as followers of Christ we have access to all that He is?

He will give strength and peace-Psalm 29:11

He will give grace-James 4:6 (But there is a condition with that one. We need to be humble to receive it.)

He will give wisdom-Proverbs 2:6

 

  These are just a few that I picked out so you go and find more!

Do you believe God? Do you believe His word? If you do, accept it! Cling to it! Believe it! And live it!

   Here’s something for you to do. If you can, do it right now. You can say it in your head but it would be better to say it to God out loud.

 

  Dear Father,

I accept your word as truth and believe that you can show your power through me. That your grace is sufficient and that through you, I can overcome anything! Thank you God, for giving me the ability to be victorious.

Love,,

Your child who wants to know you  

If you have time here are a few more verses to look up. If you don’t have time, write them down so that you remember to check them out later.

~2 Corinthians 2:14

~2 Corinthians 12:9-10

~Romans 8:37

Now the last thing is that God has given you all this for a reason.

“For God, who commanded His light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

He is now saying “You have found me, it is your turn to show me to others.”

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man;

  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

  Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

  Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

  ~Ephesians 3:16-21

~ To Compromise

  Satan is out to get you. (I hope you realize that by now.) He wants you no matter what, no matter the method he has to use. He hates to see revival in your life and he will fight for you even harder when he sees it happening. Satan comes to you saying that he only wants to make a deal with you. He will give you peace and prosperity, he says, but who is talking? The Bible calls him "the father of lies." You can NOT listen, cling to God's word! Satan may promise freedom, but in the end, it is only bondage that you are left in.

  You do not need to fear him! You can not compromise because compromise always takes away the glory of God. His word is not negotiable. It is firm. It is true. You are loosing ground to the enemy with every single itty-bitty compromise you make.

 

 That outfit is modest enough, isn't it?

It won't really matter that much.

I can do it just a little bit. 

No one would ever know.

  

  If you ever find yourself talking or thinking along these lines, you are dabbling in compromise, and God is obviously not in the center of your life, nor is He being honored. It is sin. Will you admit that? Will you repent and turn away from it? True repentance is always followed by obedience. 

   

  To sum it up, yes, Satan will fight to get you back, but God is stronger! He has already won! Cling to Him, live in accordance to His word, and you will conquer!   

~Riding Dunny

Hey I rode Dunny today and Tashia came out to take some pix for me!

She did a really good job! I am so happy with these pictures! Thanks Tash!

Although some did get a little blurry or not quite focused but we were moving a bunch so it's understandable.

We ended up taking a bunch!

I started off doing some groundwork with him first since I haven't done it in a while, but mainly just for fun! I do what Clinton Anderson calls "Lunging for respect and roundpenning for respect." It pretty much consists of directing the horse, keeping it's mind on you and disengaging the hindquarters. Since starting to use this method Dunny has really calmed down and started trusting me more. He still doesn't trust much at all but there is progress. He's a very tense horse so I like these exercises to get him relaxed before I ride. I don't do it every time. Just when I feel like it. I'd encourage you to go watch  some of Clinton's stuff. Especially his walkabouts. I've never seen them in person but I watched it on his TV channel.  

I had a bunch of small logs lade out in a circle and lunged him around them. He was a bit dopy though. He doesn't pick up his feet as much as he should.

Good boy!

Working on disengaging the hindquarters. I usually start off by doing this. I learned it from watching some of Clinton's stuff. I start by tipping his head back to me a bit, while encouraging him to move his hindquarters around. I either swing my whip a little or tap him on the rump. It's just like swiveling on the front end instead of the back. Because he they should just pivot on the front end. 

Then on to tacking up. He's such a good boy I don't need to tie him. Unless maybe if we were standing in grass, THEN we might have a bit of a problem. He can't resist eating! (Can't you tell!) When I was cinching him up I was like "You are FAT!"

Dunny knew how to ground tie when we got him so I didn't have to teach him that, but I have been training some of my other horses to. I start off by stopping them and dropping the lead to the ground. Maybe pet on them a bit and tell them to "stay," I like to use a hand signal with it. Usually I just hold up a hand when I say that. Not a limp hand. You need to have it stiff like you are commanding something. Then take a few steps away. If they stay standing, go back and tell them "good", pet them, what ever your reward is. If they do move to follow you or walk away, taker the leadrope and back then up to where you had them and do the same thing again till you can walk away, around, behind, what ever direction you want but that they stay there. Don't get frustrated. I'll take some time but if you keep at it your horse is sure to get it!  

I then warmed him up and did a good bit of cantering.
Yeah I ride forward. He is kinda hard to sit on when he's worked up. His strides are pretty surging until I can get him to collect. He likes to keep his head up though so I do need to work on lowering it a bit. A lot of fine tuning, but isn't that riding for ya?

On to jumping we go!! Nothing big, but I think it's fun! When I was younger a friend taught me how to jump English and ever since then I've been hooked! I can normally just feel when I need to rise and don't really have trouble going along with him. And yes you can jump western just watch out for the horn!

I LOVE JUMPING!!

And a bit more jumping!

Did I mention that I like jumping?? Ok I guess you get the idea!

• Do you like jumping? 
• English or Western?
• Have you taken lessons?
• What riding and training style do you use?

~You can trust Him

  I want to share with you, four little truths that could (should) make a big difference in your life. I heard it from a preacher once and I've never forgotten it.
  These four things I'm about to tell you, are absolutes. They won't change, never have, never will. No matter who you are they apply to you! Whether or not you accept or believe them does not change their validity.

 So here they are:

1. God is older than you. {John 1:1-3}
2. God is wiser than you {Isaiah 55:9}
3. God loves you VERY much {John 3:16}       

And the last one. Are you ready?

     4.  You can trust Him {the Bible}

You can trust Him. 

You don't know and will not know true peace and joy until you can wholeheartedly say "I trust you Lord" and then live it out.

  If you just agreed to the first three things then there really shouldn't be anything keeping you from accepting the last one.

  Maybe you think "If I give God everything and trust Him to lead me, He might ask me to do something crazy like- go to be a missionary to some primitive tribe in Africa, or marry someone that's not very handsome or my type."

  So I have a few questions for you:

• Does God want what's best for you?
• Does He have a plan for you?
• Would God ever allow something that is not good for you?

Yes, humanly speaking, putting your life in someone else's control is scary.

But God is not human.

He does want the best for you. (His best.)

He has a perfect plan for you.

He will never allow something that is bad for you.

You can trust Him.

So the question is: will you trust Him?  

~Just been riding

I wrote up this post about a week ago then never did anything about it. So here it is. Just some pictures and an update on what I'm doing with my horses.

All the photos were taken a couple weeks ago by my lovely sister Tashia ;)

Yeah I've been riding! 

Jess was out riding with me too.

And yes I'm wearing sneakers! I like them better for riding bareback. (Don't ask me why)

Doesn't this look cool?

We were having a bunch of fun riding around bareback. As I'm sure you can see! I rarely ride Dunny bareback (except when I bring them in from the pasture) so I thought it would be fun to do it then. And you know then you don't have to tack up! LAZY!! I actually had one near disaster while doing it. I was cantering around and somehow got a bit out of place. So I tried to right myself and must have tensed up while doing it, because he took off! The bad thing was that I still wasn't in place to stop him and he headed right for a corner! As you can imagine I was trying to hang on while pulling back while prepare for a sliding stop or a quick turn. It wasn't looking good. Thankfully he just stopped and I threw myself around his neck to stop from flying over his shoulder. So it ended up OK and yes I went and did more cantering but with no more catastrophes! And also Tashia wasn't watching so no real embarrassing pictures! 

I've been riding Kat too and she's doing great! I started lunging her before I ride and it helps soooo much! A couple days ago I did her first round penning with her and riding her after that was amazing! She was so much more relaxed and was starting to extend a bit more in her canter. When riding, I was having problems with her cantering or lack of it. (before I started lunging and round penning her) She would canter a few steps and that was it. And just those few steps were so bad that I felt like a sack of potatoes flying around. I don't think she knew how to canter with a rider on her back. 

Before I had gotten her she hadn't done any trail riding but I've been taking her out and have never had her try anything! No bolting, no skitzing out, not even any panicky moments. She just takes everything in stride. Thats pretty amazing to me, knowing how little training she has had. She's just so calm! Its not because of me either, she just has such a great temperament. I love my lil gal! 

 

~Called, chosen, and faithful

(Photo credit-Tashia)

I was glancing over Revelation when I came upon this verse: "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful." That made me think that these are qualifications for who will go to be with Him.
1. They are called. (Isaiah 4:1b)
But do you know, everyone is called. God gives everyone the opportunity to come to the knowledge and understanding of Himself. Otherwise He would not be just.
2. They are chosen. (Eph. 1:4)
Again, I believe everyone is chosen. It's just that not everyone accepts. (2 Peter 3:9)
Here comes the big one.
3. They are faithful. Can that be said of me? Will that be said of me?
When I meet the Father face to face will He be able to say "Well done thou good and faithful servant!" Or will He turn His back on me and say "I never knew you." I think those are the scariest words anyone will ever hear. Because at that point there will be no hope. It is sealed.
  But we are not there yet! We still have a chance! While there is breath, there is hope. So I wanted to say this:
How you live today is going to determine where you spend eternity.
What you believe today is going to determine where you spend eternity.
How you treat others today is going to determine where you spend eternity.
Your life RIGHT NOW is vital! The world tells you "You're young so live it up!" When you are older you can settle down and get serious. What does God say?
Ecc. 11:9-10 says "Rejoice, O young man, in the days of thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou; that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement. 
Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity."
  OK so you may not have been faithful in the past. Don't give up there! Confess your sin, turn away from it, and move on to what God has really called you to!

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.
.......in the days of thy middle age
.......in the days of thy old age 

~Lost Eyes

Sorry about the winter picture ya'll but I didn't feel like going and taking one right now!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I see through your eyes. There's an emptiness inside.

A longing for something, and you don't know what for.

I've been there before. Your heart is a door.

Many people have come through, they've hurt and used you.

Now you're left in pieces, your heart is cold as stone.

You search for a reason, to why you're all alone.

Lost eyes! Searching for something.

Trying to break free from the pain.

Lost eyes! Search no longer, Jesus is the answer!

Look to Him and He'll remove the shame.

Lost eyes!

Now you've turned to Jesus and He's removed the pain.

He's filled you with His love, and your life He has changed.

Your eyes are full of life and as you go each day.

You see their lost eyes as they pass by your way. 

But now you hold the answer deep within your heart.

Bring them to Jesus, the darkness soon will part.

Lost eyes! Searching for something.

Trying to break free from the pain.

Lost eyes! Search no longer, Jesus is the answer!

Look to Him and be saved today!

Lost eyes!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is there someone you know, who treats you very unkindly? They always seem upset and like they delight in hurting you? I want to share something with you: Hurt people, hurt people. Can you grasp that? Read it again: Hurt people, hurt people. A lot of times we see the outward things-how they behave. What we fail to see is what is going on, on the inside. Deep down inside that "bully" is a person who is hurting. When they are hurting, one way they try get rid of it, is by taking it out on someone else. If you look close enough, you will see a person who is screaming out "I don't feel loved." or "I don't feel accepted." It seems that when we come in contact with with a "nasty" person we have the tendency to write them off or think "Boy, they have problems!" Do we love God enough to take the time to pity them and show them Christ's love? Can we overlook their outward appearance and stop to care out their heart? Sometimes all people need is someone to listen to them. We need to be able to look on that person with complete love and tell them "I don't have the answers and I can't take away your pain, but I can take you to someone who can!" 

  We are in a world of hurting people, lets show them the Great Physician!  

~God is stronger

  I was reading through some of Romans yesterday and I came upon something that really jumped out at me in chapter 6. (Verses 14-19 I think?)
   "For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 
   What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
   Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteous?
   But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
   Being then made free from sin, ye have become the servants of righteousness." 

 The first part of verse 14 is what really caught my attention. "For sin shall NOT have dominion over you." Sometimes it feels like you just can't get it right. You do something wrong, get convicted, repent,...but then it happens all over again. What went wrong? It says right there sin shall not have dominion over you. 
 One aspect of the problem right there is, who are you relying on to not sin? If you, yourself are doing it, you will continually fail. We do not have the strength to overcome sin and Satan. Satan is much more powerful than us, but he is no match for God! When we determine to rely on Jesus and His power, we can and will conquer sin. God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and He wants us to conquer. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." 
 Another thing is, did you genuinely repent? If you can repent and go on doing the same thing over again, then I would question whether you do.
  Repentance is being convicted of sin you have committed and being grieved because you hurt God in doing so. But it doesn't stop there. Repentance is an action, so there needs to be an outward showing of it-confessing it, asking for forgiveness, and then turning away from it. Others will be able to see if you have truly done it because it will show in your life. You will also despise that sin because you know that it hurts God and separates you from Him. (Because God can not look on sin.)

 I actually meant to go over more of that, but I think I'll stop here. I hope this has challenged you to look closely into your life and ask God what He thinks needs changed in you.  

  

~You have the reins

Take my reins Lord, Your will my command

My body your temple, my life's in your hands.

Please use the spur Lord if ever I fight

And try to do the wrong and not right.

Lord I may balk from things I don't know

But if you're with me, forward I'll go.

One step at a time, I'll walk right beside

Because I'm safe, with you as my guide.

In so many ways, the more I learn about horses, the more it reminds me of my relationship with God. He's the rider and I'm the horse. God isn't a dictator, demanding that we obey or else. He's a loving God who has guidelines and boundaries set up to protect us. We have our horses in a pasture. If we didn't they might get hit on the road. This may sound pretty academic but I think it's so neat!
  Most horses are born with a natural distrust for humans. They will hide behind their moms, just out of your reach. Lets say you work with this baby. You show it that when you pull on the halter it is to move towards you. Most times they will pull against you in the beginning; trying to get away from the pressure. If you do it right they will learn to yield to pressure and follow or come to you.
  In that same way God asks us to draw closer to Him. He puts pressure on certain areas of our lives, asking us to make the right decision and turn to Him. (Are you getting this? Or am I just confusing you!)
  When that baby does decide to trust you and follow, he needs rewarded right away. (So he knows he did the right thing.) How? By releasing the pressure.
  God also takes the pressure away that He was applying when we give our wills up to Him and decide to trust Him completely.

 Have you ever round penned a horse? No I don't mean just sending it around to get out some of that energy, I mean Natural Horsemanship- body language. You normally do this when you don't have a very good relationship and you either want your horse to respect or trust you more.
 First you send them away, and make them keep going. In the beginning his focus isn't on you. Its on the other horses, other distractions, or the gate. He doesn't realize yet why he's doing this He slows down, so you quickly apply (Here it is again!) pressure and make him go faster. Such as swinging a rope, or using a whip with a bag on the end, or for the Parelli people a carrot stick. :) There he found out he needs to keep moving and there is someone in the middle of his circle directing him. So he starts eyeing that person, wondering what's going on. (Ok back to you) As he's circling you start backing up and over and make it evident you want him to turn and go the other way. In essence you are now blocking him. He has two choices: (Well he could actually just run over you!) to turn towards you and the middle, and turn around, or turn towards the fence and turn around. (This is so much harder to explain than I thought. Why don't you just come over and I'll sow you what I mean!) Lets say he turns towards the fence. He either doesn't trust or respect you enough because in doing so he has turned his hindquarters towards you and his face away. So that was wrong. Therefore you apply more pressure, making him work harder. Hopefully then he realizes "That didn't work. I turned away and life got harder." Ok horses don't really rationalize like that but do you see where I'm going? God wants to be the center of your world; your total focus. When you turn away he applies pressure to bring you back to Him.
  The last part of round penning is when you have his attention and focus: he's watching you, has one ear turned towards you, and he also starts chewing or licking his lips. They are are signs of a willing spirit. So you step out and ask him to stop. He does, so you turn around and step away. This is the moment. Does he trust you enough to follow or come in to you?
  God does this too. (No not turn his back on you.) He works with you and when He sees the walls come down and the beginning of a broken and contrite heart He tests you to see if you will step out in faith and follow Him.

So, will you? God never fails, He never goes back on His word. 
Can you trust Him?
Will you trust Him? 

Photos by: Tashia

How I talked about it up there is how I have learned to do it. I actually combined my methods of doing this from Clinton Anderson, Monty Roberts, and the Parellis. 

 I got Dunny out just to take pictures for this post. He was like "I know what this is about." Right off he started licking and chewing and trying to come in! I was like "Just hang on fella I need some pictures. Act like we're doing this for real!"

In the end he decided to show off a bit for the camera!

Oh and if you're wondering about those logs in the middle. Well we had a trail course set up and they just didn't get moved yet. I normally don't use logs for round penning!

Oh and by the way, its one of the BEST feelings in the world when your horse walks towards you for the first time. Even if its only a few steps, or one step. He has decided to trust you! Maybe I'm just an emotional person. You don't feel like that? :)

~Patience in welldoing

Imagine with me that you are helping out at an elderly person's home (and of course doing your best!) maybe cleaning or something. And here someone comes up to you and starts criticizing you and telling you what an awful job you are doing. (Assuming this person is a non-believer.) How would you respond? If you simply smile and respond kindly you are doing exactly what God wants you to do. (If you have the right attitude as well, that is!) In 1 Peter 2:20b-21 it says 'but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:' 
  God says it is acceptable to him when you respond correctly. And through that, what a witness we can be to others! God brings things like that into our lives for a reason, but we have to choose what we are going to do with it. Get upset, maybe retaliate, or praise God.
  Now something like someone criticizing us isn't really that big a thing, but what about if someone were about to harm you? Would you grab a gun and defend yourself? Maybe even shoot them? Just one question about that: What kind of a witness would that be? Is that how Christ would respond? (oops that was two!) Umm I don't think so. He commanded us to love our enemies, to bless the ones that curse us, to do good to those that hate us, and finally to pray for the people who wrongfully use us and persecute us. (Matt 5:44)
  You may say "Well I need to protect myself and those around me!" All I have in answer to that is "How big is your God?" Is He not big enough or strong enough to take care of you? Yes, what I am talking about here is non-resistance. Please understand that I am writing this out of complete love for all of you out there reading. but if this offends you, I suggest you take it up with God. I got all this from His word.
  I urge you, if you don't agree with this, go talk to Him about it.
 
To sum it all up: I wholeheartedly believe God IS big enough to take care of us, it all comes down to weather or not we will trust Him and allow Him to do it.  

~Snow Pictures

Hey I decided to post a few of the 'better' pictures from a week or two ago when I was riding Dunny in the snow. Kalin had actually asked so here they are! My sister Tashia took the first two then Jessica my youngest sister took the next four. Very fun and it was a BEAUTIFUL day!

(Love this one! The angle and the coloring.)

 He even brought his head around back! I was like "Take a picture, quick, you better not have missed that." all while trying to look like I'm just smiling! It turned out really good though!

Then we ran back the lane. I started out nice and easy to see how slick it was but there was no problem. He wanted to go, I wanted to go, so I let him out a bit. I love to run! (Who doesn't?)

I didn't realize his head was up so high! Gonna have to work on that. 

I also took some pictures in the snow the other day and was very happy with how they turned out. :)

My (baby) sister Jessica! I love photo-shoots with people AND horses! I took tons of pictures of Jess and Hank together but decided only to put on two.