My commentary about this verse has a bit of a long story to go with it, but I will do my best to keep it short. First off, the fact that there is a mare and foal in the picture is so fitting, because that is what this all entails. About 7-8 years ago the realization hit me that I would not have my trusted gelding with me for all of time. He was in his late teens and beginning to slow down. This was the horse that really helped me build my lesson program. I addition to that he also helped me have great success in the show ring. When I searched for a lesson horse, I looked at several horses over a period of 2 years before I found him, and in all honesty, it was my husband who found him. My husband is not a horse guy, but he loves me and has learned as much about my trade as he can and supports me every step of the way. He is such a blessing.
Once that realization hit me, I began looking for a replacement, but I didn't want just any replacement. Owning Highly (my gelding) opened up so many doors and introduced me to the wonderful world of local bloodlines. He may not have been world famous, but he was Iowa famous. After owning him I found a few others who also had horses from his same bloodlines and were so very successful in their fields. I had in the back of my mind that I wanted another one of this bloodline; but they are not on just every street corner and their value was well known.
Alas, I came across an ad for a mare that was by the same sire, but her price tag was a little too steep at that time. However, we met the owner of this mare at show we attended with our #VirtuousCowgirls and struck up a conversation. To keep the story short, we ended up making arrangements with a good price on this mare for the ministry and I helped with the purchase price in order to breed her for a foal to be my replacement horse. This mare has been one of the best investments we could have made for our ministry.
There begins the second part of this story. I had always wanted to raise my own horses, but it just never really became a reality. I had a stallion with genetic defects, then the market crashed on me, and a whole slew of other things, but the one thing that remained consistent was teaching lessons, and that is really how I became a riding instructor. Once I had this mare bred I prayed over that foal. I asked the Lord first to make sure it didn't have excessive white (something both my gelding, our ministry mare, and their sire all had), I was so tired of scrubbing white horses. Second, 'I laid out a fleece' (Judges 6:36-40), I prayed and asked the Lord that if He was to fulfill my desire of wanting to raise my own horses that I would like to have a filly born; but if I had a colt, I would be content to know that raising horses was not His will for me.
The mare produced a beautiful filly, bay, with two socks and a blaze. She has such a good mind on her and we have been able to use her in our program since she was young. She is 5 years old this year and has exceeded my expectations. She's still learning, but I have no concern with letting others ride her, which is her purpose. She is also a joy for me to ride. I couldn't have asked for more.
th that answer to prayer I began focusing on raising my own horses again. I had been formulating in my mind what my plan would be. I decided to return to my roots and get back into Morgan horses. So I did a lot of research on what type I wanted and looked at the Morgan market. There is certainly a market for Morgan horses and a need to continue the heritage. Then one day, my #CornerstoneFellowshipMinistry partner came to me and commented on how our entire herd is aging. Most of our horses are in their late teens and mid twenties. We had purchased another little gelding and he has been nice, but not completely up to our standard. We have had a few horses donated to us as well, but donated horses are usually aged, and have health and behavioral issues. Stephanie made a comment about raising our own as we have a few nice mares in our herd. I said if you are serious, I have a plan already, and off we went.
I found a nice quality Morgan stallion and came to an agreement with the owner. Got three mares lined up to get bred and went ahead with our plans. We had 2 of the 3 mares confirmed in foal to the Morgan, but missed the cycle of the other. By then we were running into negotiation issues with the stallion owner and we decided to breed the third mare to a different stallion. It took quite a bit of work, but we finally got that mare confirmed in foal.
Come the following spring, we noticed that two of the mares were not showing like they should be by that time in their pregnancies so we got one of them re-checked, and she came up open, and the other mare was coming into strong heat cycles so we knew she was open as well. That was a huge disappointment to us, and those were both of the mares bred to the Morgan. The third mare was still going on strong and foaled a beautiful POA colt about 2 weeks early, but everything looked great; until the next morning and he was found dead with no signs of trauma. Talk about a big blow.
We were already late in the season to get started with this venture and we ended up making a quick decision to get the mares all re-bred again. We ended up going with three different stallions, we got a re-breed to the POA, one mare we decided to do live cover on for her mental well-being and thankfully a collogue of mine agreed to breed her late in the season. The third mare was my son's mare and he decided he wanted, *gasp!* .....a mule. With some very quick looking I found a quality jack at a price we could afford. All of these mares did not take on their first time, which set us back a few weeks again and we decided to switch one of the mares out with the conditions we were facing. Rather than getting my son's mare bred, my mare has now been cooking the mule. My son owes me big time, I'll hold this over him for his entire life.
So far this spring all mares are looking healthy and well along in their pregnancies. We are weeks away from their due dates and we are praying we get three healthy foals on the ground. The Lord's will prevail.
So that was a long way to get to the meaning of this verse. The Lord holds the life of every creature in His hand (Job 12:10). None of these issues are surprising to Him in any way. I do wondering, if this is His will, why has it been so hard? I don't have a good answer for that, but I do trust Him, His plan, His will, and His timing. It may not be well with our circumstances and we have suffered much heartache through this, but it is well with my soul. I rest in Him and don't fret; or at least when I do, I turn it all back to Him and claim His promises and tell Him that if it's not meant to be, so be it.
This is where this verse lies, even though we have planned and have done all that we can do, it is still up to the Lord. His ways are always better. I think though, after this we may take a break again from trying to raise our own....for now anyway.
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