Ride for the Cross

When someone makes a decision to buy a horse the first real test they have of that horse’s trust for them comes when they pull up with the trailer to load the horse to haul him/her home. This is a sure fire way to find out if the horse trusts them or not. Naturally the horse’s past experiences with being loaded or hauled in a trailer play a big part in the equation. I’ve seen horses with little or no training load without hesitation and have seen horses that have been hauled numerous times flat refuse to load. Not only does refusing to load indicate a lack of trust but it also indicates a lack of proper discipline in training, or a lack of training. A horse needs his owner or handler to take charge and be the leader. If you lead, your horse will willingly follow but you must establish that sense of leadership. It is rare to find a horse that will just give it up to anyone who comes along. Just as we can spot an individual who knows horses with ease, so can a horse recognize a leader when that rare individual comes along.

What is your walk with God like? Do you draw near to Him or balk at the thought of trusting Him with your life? Are you willing to go where He leads or do you hang unto your own thoughts of what your life should be like? Do you trust Him to take you where He needs you to be? Do you recognize God’s ability to lead you through life even when the going gets tough and you want to do things your way? Are you willing to get in His trailer? Do you live by Matthew 6:33? “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”.

In order for a horse to load in a trailer takes a lot of trust on their part. The horse has to learn to trust you. If you are having problems loading your horse it may well be that your horse has not learned to trust you yet. Sure that horse may have had past problems with a wild and crazy driver or someone who tried to whip them into the trailer and they associate the horse trailer with something negative but you need to help your horse get past those past experiences and replace them with new and positive experiences for them to reflect back on.

There are many tried and true ways to load any horse in a trailer and “make” him load but it is well worth the time and effort to establish that necessary trust in your horse before attempting to load up. Start with the simplest thing of all, following on a lead rope. Your horse should be able to recognize that where you go he/she goes. When you walk through the gate he follows you through the gate. Lead them into a stall, over obstacles, over a tarp on the ground and whatever else you can think of to help him learn that where you lead is a safe place to go. I have found that building a small platform or bridge out of 2x8s or 2x12s works wonders, especially for horses that have little or no experience in trailer loading. I use three 4x4s about 24′-36′ long as a base nailing the 2xs across them. You can even add a piece of rubber stall or trailer mat to make it resemble the trailer floor (but it needs to be screwed down securely so it will not slip and slide on the platform). Now put the platform near the corral fence and begin leading your horse over the platform until they willingly go over it everytime you lead them by it. I even go so far as to take the halter off and free lunge them in the corral until they get excited about going over the platform on their own initiative. Now you’re ready to load into the trailer. But first back the trailer up to the corral where they have no opportunity to go around the sides of the trailer. It helps to have a large enough gate in your corral to accomodate the width of the trailer. If you’re working in a portable panel corral just take one of the panels loose and back up to the corral and pull the panels to the sides of the trailer. Now place your platform at the back of the trailer with no room for them to get a foot between the platform and the trailer ( you could even measure your trailer before building the platform and make it to custom fit your trailer). Your horse is now used to going over the platform without hesitation and if you have established his trust he will step right up on the platform and into the trailer before he even realizes he is loaded in the trailer. I’ve taken it a step farther and use long driving lines to drive the horse around the corral and over the platform about a hundred times throughout the week. Then when I’m ready to load I use my driving lines to drive him up to the platform and into the trailer. This also gives me the ability to safely teach them to back out of the trailer without having to be in front of them while trying to get them to confidently back out of the trailer. After driving them into the trailer a few times remove the platform and drive them into the trailer without the platform. Now you’re ready to just go ahead and lead them into the trailer. I always say “load up” each time I bring them up to the trailer and find that it really helps to say “load up” while I’m driving them into the trailer so when I finally lead them up to the trailer they are already conditioned to the term “load up”.

I think this is the way God works with us in our lives. He gives us small assignments that we can get done without too much fear and risk involved. Then He gradually gives us more and more until we’re ready to handle that big assignment He has waiting for us. But we like the horse must be willing to trust and follow where He leads. Knowing that we have His strength to pull on really helps. I’ve used Phillipians 4:13 “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” and Galatians 2:20 “not I that live but Christ who lives in me” to get me through those hard times when I know I can’t do it on my own strength. That is what your horse is doing when he goes into the trailer, he is loading because he trusts you to lead him and knows where you lead it is safe to go. You have established yourself as a leader in his mind. Just as we must establish God as the leader in our minds. All the horse has to do is learn to give up control just as we learn to give control of our lives to God. When we do that, life gets better and we can grow to new heights.

Now go build your own spiritual platform and start walking with God. How do you build your own spiritual platform? Just start reading the New Testement, the instructions are there.