Walk the Talk

We had a visiting minister yesterday in our Peoria church, Brad Bower from Tuscon AZ gave the morning sermon. At one point he mentioned that he may as well preach the truth, he gets paid the same if he does or doesn't. Some of us chuckled at that (AC ministers don't get paid) but one couple got up and walked out. Now before anyone gets upset there actually was a good reason. This couple were sitting next to Diane, Diane introduced herself and they mentioned that they were from Bluffton but seemed kind of confused. They asked if we were going to have a wedding today and when Diane said no they were a little upset. They asked Diane, "is this Joe Braker's church?" Only then did Diane figure out they were suppose to be in Morton. After the afternoon service Greg Rumbold shared that last year around this time he and his family were heading on a vacation and saw Brad at the airport. Since Greg did not grow up in the Peoria church he knew Brad did not know him and instead of going over to introduce himself stood back to watch if Brad's walk matched his talk. He was pleased to announce to us, "the love of Jesus was sloshing out of him."
How important is it for us to walk our talk 24 hours a day, day in and day out?
This morning during the walk the sky was spitting on us again and by the end of the walk it was more than just a sprinkle. Sarah, Karin, Rhoda, Emily and I went to the Hog Trough for breakfast from there Sarah left for Peoria while the rest of us took the truck and trailer to Middle Grove to pick up Katy. We drove through the rain, dropped Emily off in the rain, turned the truck and trailer around and waited until Emily brought Katy up all in the rain. Emily and Katy were both drenched and muddy from their long hike back to the gate. Katy has an appointment with Dr. Hoerr tomorrow morning to get her coggins drawn so she was cleaned up as best as we could this cold rainy day then stalled.

The next job was to figure out how to get the machines and all Mark's attachments put away enough to produce a nice big area for riding in and then the arena was watered. Karin and I also brought the 2 weanlings, Violet and Tatiana, into the stalls to dry off  as we had people coming to see them. Evan was then brought into the indoor for some training. He had a blast getting out of the rain and galloping around the arena waiting for his cues.

Karin is pleased with how he is progressing. He is learning to be respectful and watch his handler. Karin had Rhoda walk him through his tricks.

 I was actually impressed that he went down on both knees then stayed there until Rhoda gave him the cue to lay down.  Then he held the sit until Rhoda released him to stand. Smart boy!

Evan was put away and Emily brought Valiant in for a training session. Valiant will be going to the IL Horse fair in March and Emily needs to know he is going to behave and perform on demand. While she was working him, Angel arrived with her 2 children to see Violet. They spent some time with her in the stall then walked through into the indoor arena to watch Emily and Valiant at work.

 Above she is asking him to sidepass along the gate and below she is asking for a bow.

Valiant lays down on demand then will sit until Emily gives him the cue to stand. 

 After Valiant was put away, Violet was brought out so Angel could see her movement. Violet has a most impressive trot, she floats! Once she was back in the stall Karin brought in Oksana and worked her. The rain slowed some of the time but never really stopped falling and is still coming down. Anna and Oksana had to be taken off the field today, the ground is just too soft, so a bale was moved into Raven's old paddock and both mares were put in there.