When all else fails...

For those of you who know the difficulty I had getting back to Oregon from Texas, it will be of no surprise to hear that the day before I was scheduled to leave, my horse hauler canceled.  He called me up and had the guts to say he had loaned his trailer out to a friend over the weekend, and it got totaled.  He had also conveniently lost his credit card and so could not rent a trailer to do the haul.  Did I mention I was at the airport picking up my mom who was going to be driving home with me the very next day? My world was shattered.  I was not going to leave my horses in the Texas waste land with no food or hay in the care of my landlord, nor was I going to send them to an auction.  They had both been up for sale for months with no real interest.  Suffice it to say, I was in a pickle.

That night, I barely slept.  I agonized over what I would do and how.  The next morning my mom and I went to this awesome little mom and pop cafe in Aubrey Texas, out by the vet clinic who had so graciously updated my boys' health checks the day before.  And we made phone calls.  So many phone calls.

"Hello, do you know of anyone who can haul 2 horses from Prosper to Salem?  HOW MUCH? Oh ok, thank you..." and so on.

Finally, we got three different referrals to Cross Country Horses, and on a last ditch effort, I called the number.  Turns out, God takes care of His own, even if it is in His own way.  Rene, the owner of the business, offered to pasture my boys at her private place until she returned from her current haul and could take them all the way to the front door of the barn outside of Salem.  Not only that, but she took the saddles and the tack box too, and the hay.

I was concerned that the horses shouldn't stay on the property another night, and refused to leave Texas without knowing the boys were safe, so Rene called a favor from a friend who was an equine dentist, and he showed up in less than an hour with a gorgeous trailer (and a beautiful blue heeler dog) and picked up the boys, the papers, the tack, the saddles, and the fee.  God gave me this kind of tranquility about the whole thing.  Laredo loaded like a champ, and William loaded right behind him after some investigation of the trailer.  With their little heads tucked in, and the extras on the back of the truck, I thanked God for coming to our rescue, yet again.

My drive home was a disaster.  Day one landed me in urgent care with pink eye, day three with double ear infections and a near ruptured drum.  Day four got me a speeding ticket, and all the while, we were burning so much gas from the loaded down civic, I was worried I would run out of money.  Still, every day I prayed that God would be my guide, that his angels would fly with us all the way home... and they did.

I expected my horses to land at Rene's for a month, and for her to haul them up in the beginning of April, but she was so on the ball that they left Texas on the 18th.
Two days before they were supposed to arrive, the barn owner where I was going to board called me and explained that a nasty strangles like cold was going around, and it was up to me if I wanted to risk exposing my boys to it.  As thin and hungry and tired as I knew they would be, I decided against it, and begged my cousin to let me borrow her horse barn for a few weeks.  She said yes, and again, I looked toward God and thanked Him.

Then, the night of the horses arrival, it snowed.  Not just a little snow.  It pummeled my cousin's house and barn.  We advised Rene she should wait until morning to risk coming all the way into Salem.  Another sleepless night.  The morning did not melt the snow, and I was anticipating the huge hill that leads to my cousin's barn, extremely steep, extremely icy, with a few blind corners thrown in.  No problem.  Rene's 63' truck and trailer setup crawled down that hill, straight to the front door of the barn.

My boys hopped off with bright eyes, healthy legs, happy nuzzles and ready to eat some Oregon hay.

When I think of how disastrous things could have gone, I again thank the Lord for all He did for me, my horses and Rene with her huge trailer.  If my boys had gone with the first hauler, who knows if they would have even made it?  I looked at Rene's website for a long long time one night, praying the two horses would make it safe, when I saw in the corner of her page these words:  "Runnin on Faith." Isn't that the truth?  Love has no Fear, and Fear has no place in our lives if we are living on love.   There is that theme again.  To love like Christ commanded, one must forgive, one must have faith, and one must be willing to sacrifice.

I know that Rene made a sacrifice for me and my boys.  She couldn't have possibly gotten a profit for hauling my boys so far for so little money, let alone keeping them on her personal property like she did.  But, I think that is just what people who love God do... they say yes, they love, and they run on faith.

Thanks Rene!

http://www.crosscountryhorses.com/