Horse Training

Cowboys love to train animals. Sometimes, the animals can train us. This poem is entitled 'Horse training'.

On a hot summer morning, I walked out to train a young horse we were teaching to ride in the ring. The flies were buzzing in the hot morning sun as I walked to the barn with my two little sons. One said, "Dad, you see those two horses right there

standing together like they were a pair.

They get close together and that's how they graze,

but their heads are facing in opposite ways.

So, the head of the one's by the tail of the other.

Why do they do that?" He asked me and his brother.

I said, "You're a mighty, observant, young man

and I'll answer your question the best that I can.

You see there's lots of flies around this cow lot,

they're a natural pest that we've always got.

The horse uses his tail to shoo off those flies

like I do with my hand if the need should arise,

but the tail is too short to reach that horse's head

so they've learned they can partner with another horse instead.

They can stand close together, one's head by the other's tail.

Then they can shoo the flies off each other without fail.

So that's why the horses stand together that way.

Now, go in the barn and get them some hay."

While the boys did their chores, I stopped and I thought,

"There's a message for me in that lesson I taught.

If horses can learn to cooperate too,

there's no limit to what we as people can do.

There's some things a person can't do as just one.

When we work together, so much more can get done.

If we partner together, which is really my druthers,

we'll share the rewards as we serve each other.

It's a mutual benefit that we can treasure

if like all those horses, we all stand together.

It was time to begin that pony's training lessons,

but I looked at my kids and thanked God for my blessings.

At supper that night my wife says to me,

"How did that training go for the new pony?"

I said, "It went well, but not in the usual way.

My kids and my horses taught me a lot today."

Happy Trails.