What a day! 

When I pulled up, I noticed that Liza had already put Bob in the ring, so I decided to go over and say hello.  I called out to him, and he came sauntering over to where I was standing which blew my mind, considering our last session.  I rubbed on his nose and ears for a bit, and then he turned and walked away; shortly after Amy and Liza came out, and we began our session for the day.

Bob was standing at the far end of the ring, so I placed the grooming tray on a stand in the center and walked toward him to begin.  He seems to like most of the grooming (at times he does take a nip at me whenever I clean his right front hoof), but Friday he seemed more relaxed and willing to allow me to do whatever I wanted.  As I moved to get him to lift his hoof, he did indeed lift it but then brought it down on top of the toes of my boot (thank God for steel toes).  Yep, it hurt like a son of a gun, but I was able to flex the toes inside the boot so figured nothing had been broken.

Throughout the session, Bob seemed a different animal (compared with the previous session when he ignored and resisted my efforts to get him to come to me).  It was almost too easy; at one point whenever I would walk away after he came to me, he would follow without being told!  Amy had spoken to me about two phases of this; one where I have him come to me, another where I stay in the center of the ring and have him move around the periphery of the ring.  I started to attempt this, but each time I called to him, he would walk to me.  I would speak to him while rubbing his ears and nose; finally, Amy and Liza told me that by doing this I was reinforcing his behavior, that I needed to be more firm with him to get him to circle instead of approach.

They had given me a ‘carrot stick’ (a metal rod with a length of rope attached) that I had used at times to get his attention so he would approach me.  I called to him and, as he had before, he turned and began walking toward me.  I popped the rope to one side and said, “No!” while pointing to the other side.  He stopped, then walked to the inner part of the ring and began to walk around it.  I continued to stand in the center with my arm pointed to the side while I turned with him, continuing to tell him to move on.

I’m not sure who was more thrilled at what was happening, but Amy had a big grin.  Earlier she had remarked Bob had begun trusting me more as evidenced by his being more comfortable with my ‘snuggling’ with him; all that had happened that day seemed to reinforce this.  I guess our next session will be the ‘proof in the pudding,’ but I am excited at the changes in Bob and me.  One of Amy’s observations was that I was obviously more at peace with myself, and Bob had sensed this and so was working with me as a team.

A great day; a wonderful session and an indication that we (as a team) are going in the right direction. 

​ Hallelu-Yah!

So, what’s new with you?

Another 24 hour period passes and the world seems to pause to celebrate this particular day more than another simply because it marks the passing of one year (2015) and the beginning of yet one more (2016).  Spending multiplied millions (if not billions) on the gaiety of such an event and, with the new risks we face, add to that the billions in added security to protect the revelers who gather around the globe.

Why do we do this every year?  We eat special meals, supposedly to influence events in the coming year that will bring us additional money and good fortune all the while laughing off such and telling each other that we are not taking such folk-wisdom seriously.  But those meals are served with the same regularity as we light up the night sky with brilliant displays of fireworks each year. 

Multiplied millions share resolutions to at least attempt to improve their lives, if not that of some attempt at improving the world around them; such promises for change often forgotten in the passing of days (hours?) that the ‘new’ year brings.  We hope, perhaps, that this year can be different; that governments can work together, and that industry as well will work more for the benefit of the world and the people who live on it rather than chasing after the amassing of more and more in the coffers of those same governments and businesses. 

​But what is new with you?  Is it vain to hope for improvement as Jiminy Cricket once sang, “When You Wish Upon A Star?” or are we doomed to continue the same circling of the drain as we await the final push of a button to end it all with nuclear oblivion or some other form of destruction?  Can that be the underlying cause of such careless and hopeful abandon each New Year Eve?  We did not blow ourselves up (at least in the case of the majority) and can hope that such will be the case next December 31st all the while nervously watching the growing tensions between religious groups, countries, and individuals.

​Dare I say it?  Is there hope in something (Someone) outside of our control?  Events that I participated in while in the Navy back in the 1970s make me less hopeful of man’s efforts to obtain “Peace on Earth.”  As more countries and the despots who rule them become members of the nuclear club, it seems that we are indeed circling the drain of our demise unless there is Another who will, as the bartender in a pub I once visited in Scotland said, “All right, gents.  Closing time.”
​
We have no means to stop our maddened rush to eventual destruction.  A perusal of any news media or just looking within our hearts will demonstrate this truth.  Mutual Assured Destruction Doctrine is no guarantee of peace (as I learned in the 70s) and the vehement argument between scholars of different (or the same) religions give me little cause for hope.  It is only in one Person that I can look and see hope; a baby born in a slum of a forgotten part of a subjugated people brought that hope to all mankind.  A baby foretold for centuries, who was born to die and lived his life in complete obedience to the Law of His people, then executed putting an end, the authorities thought, to this sect of Jews.

But hope arose and continued to grow despite the efforts of any politician or imam; the Light of all men provides a newness in the most despicable of us (and I have, at times, been such and will be again).  Scattered around the world, the followers of this One look into a future that is New and filled with a Hope that the world scorns.  As this ‘new’ (but far too much the same) begins, I invite you to consider this Jesus and ask yourself what answer He would give you to the question with which I began this.
​
So, what’s new with you?