I Have an Angel!

..not that I ever doubted this ... but here is the story of both the angel watching over us and the angel of a horse Joy has:

Before we left for Baton Rouge yesterday, I prayed.  I prayed that the horses would load without incident, that we would have a safe journey and that we would have FUN!  We were blessed with all three things...but there is a story that goes along with it.

Rev hit his head the last time he came out of the trailer, so Joy and I understood it might take some time to get him loaded and since he is a stallion, we had our concerns about how he would act with Sport standing right next to him.  Thankfully my trailer has the full head dividers - so NO biting!!  We had to move the trailer to a spot where there was a dip and a hill to lower the step up for him to 6 inches.  It took a bit of time, but all of a sudden he just jumped right in.  Once in, Rev is a total gentleman.  He stood still to be tied in and moved over when asked so I could shut the partition.  Have I told you that I just LOVE this horse???

Next we brought Sport up to the trailer.  Sport is fairly easy to load, but Rev was talking to him.  Sport stuck his nose into the trailer and his eyes doubled in size!  If he could have spoken - He would have said..."You want me to do whhhhaaaattt?  Go wherrrrreee?  Next to whoooooooo???"  After 5 minutes of reassuring him he was safe, he walked on and we were on our way to our destination.

We waited until the sun was up to load the horses.  After we got organized and got the horses loaded, it was close to 8:30.  ETA for Baton Rouge was 1:30 to 2.  Traffic was light and the weather was perfect.  We were making excellent timing ...until.....

..a man drove up next to us and flagged us down.  We pulled over to the shoulder.  I stayed in the truck and Joy got out.  The man pointed out that one of our trailer tires had blown out.  We heard nothing.  We saw nothing and we felt nothing, but sure enough... most of the rubber tread was gone off of the tire.

We thanked our good Samaritan, put our emergency lights on and headed to the next town... at a much reduced speed.  Winnie Texas was next in line.  Joy looked up a tire shop on her phone and that is where we headed.  On our way, we saw another shop.  We pulled in.  I talked to one of the guys who worked there.  They seemed quite busy..and I felt very unsure if they had trailer tires and if they were reputable.  As I stood there a gentleman tapped me on the shoulder.  I turned to see a smiling face.

"Hi." he said.  He was standing in front of a church van in need of a new tire as well. 

He continued, "I just thought you would like to know this is a family run business and they not only do a very good job, but also at a very reasonable price!" 

I smiled and thanked him for telling me the exact phrase I needed to hear.  We chatted a few minutes when the service man came from the other side of the trailer to show me the tire on the opposite side was doing the exact same thing!  The tread was tearing away.

No one ever wants to have any kind of mechanical troubles on a road trip... but let me ask you - could this have gone any better than it did???

Thank you Lord for hearing my prayer!!

We made it to Maranatha Farm by 2:30 and had a blast.  We got Sport settled into his new stall.  Joy tacked up Rev and was able to take a lesson on him.  I had the chance to sit down and talk to Marjorie about Revival in detail.  I loved the way she described him, well mannered, talented, easy to teach, and so affectionate.  I can see all these things in this horse. 

Here he is - giving Joy a lesson just minutes after stepping off the trailer from a 6+ hour ride!

Can a horse have a more beautiful neck??

Have I told you how much I love this horse??

Oh yes - Joy was not taking her lesson alone.  This little girl was riding her lesson pony at the SAME time.

What a good boy!!!