general Archives | Honor in Horses

2023 Life Update! Lessons are back!

Kadima and Shasta at our recent family photo session! Quick life update here! Once again, I’ve fallen behind writing like I’ve hope to one day do. But, I’m going to embrace that and enjoy the times I do get time to sit down and type. A lot has been going on; deep lessons learned through parenting, horses and the passionate pursuit of truth! I hope to share in depth soon, as these lessons have been precious in my life. Many of them have come out of my taking lessons from Pippa Callanan (pippacallanan.com), a French Classical Dressage trainer with true heart and passion for the horse and their rider. I’m typically not a tech person (hello, flip phone!), but I caved and ordered a Pivo Pod Silver to enable me to take lessons from Pippa while she is on her home base in France. What a blessing to be able to do this! I’ve grown so much as a rider and person, and I believe this is the restoration and refreshment I was needing before offering to teach others again. With that, I’ve finally opened up my calendar (as it allows, anyway!) to join others along their barrel racing or

Restoration through Riding? Pippa Callanan Clinic Review

This Sukkot season I had the pleasure of attending a clinic taught by Pippa Callanan. Going into the clinic, I had little knowledge of who Pippa was. I didn’t know where she was from, her background, even what she looked like. All I knew was some respected riders learned from her and Jeff Moore (equine physical therapist) said we were very similar in our love and respect for horses and that I should go, and that was enough reason for me.

Tribute to Major Debut “Rosie”

Standing in her pasture today at 29 years beautiful, you wouldn’t be able to recognize all that has filled her years.
You wouldn’t see broken arena records, tens of thousands of dollars in earnings, horse trailers won and saddles nearly too numerous to be counted.

You wouldn’t see how she carried herself and an over-entered ten-year-old to their first reserve-victory in one of the most elite races in the country.
You wouldn’t see her giving the precious gift of believing anything was possible to that little girl through the years of her honesty and heart that always gave 110%.

You wouldn’t be able to count the years spent teaching that little girl about life, respect, teamwork, trust and about try. And you wouldn’t be able to count the opportunities she had, because of her.

Healing from Serving: Goldendale Rodeo Bible Camp 2019

I had the blessing of instructing for the 5th year at the Goldendale Rodeo Bible Camp (wow, does time fly!) 5 weeks ago, Rocki sustained a very serious eye puncture and it’s been a long journey for us both. It’s amazing to me that it is during the times when we are most drained that it is hardest to look forward to the very things that will bring us refreshment and restoration. I am thankful that despite my tiredness, the Father brought me to camp, where there was evidence both in Rocki’s life and my own of the healing that comes from serving others for God’s Kingdom in contrast to the slow fading away of life when we are hyper-focused on our own battles. To my lovely barrel girls who blessed me so much throughout last week: Thank you for being each one of you. Thank you for showing me strength, determination, humility, childlike fun and kindness. Y’all blew my socks off, gave me chills, challenged me to grow, and gave this tired gal joy in abundance! Thank you to the folks who work hard year round to bring this camp to pass. Thank you Father for Your faithfulness; in and out

There’s More

This is an excerpt from my May 1, 2018 Journal Entry. Boy, do I sit in awe today saying: “Is there ever more.” Yet, still just scratching the surface of His abundant “More.” There’s more. Not in shallow gain or in a selfish sense; but a deeper, more meaningful, ‘more.’ More than the self, more than this world and the things in it, more than what the world could promise you at it’s best. There’s more. There’s more to just riding. Even in mature and wise riding; there’s more. There is something beyond the ride, in the ride. There is more. There is more to just being a believer, a child of Elohim, Adoni; there’s more. Something deeper than all of the surface things. Something beyond my actions. There’s more. I don’t know what all of this means, but I do know there’s more. A very deep desire from God, I believe. A desire to not live like the world or strive in the world, because there’s simply so much more. So much more that even we as believers may be missing. ‘More’ of course, being everything to do with the heart. May 1 , 2018 Journal Entry after a ride

Winning without a Word, Hidden Crutches, & VLOG with Valerie and Dean

This morning, I began listening to a teaching from Dr. Hollisa Alewine, a fellow horse lover, past competitor and the founder of “The Creation Gospel” ministry. The topic was “Spirit Filled Family;” specifically an intro the “Husbands” portion. I wasn’t ten minutes into the teaching and already proclaiming: “YES! AMEN!” in my truck on the way to work. And as usual, I soon found myself relating it to riding. Dr. Alewine read from 1 Peter 3:1, which is speaking to wives, but I believe applies to anyone. Peter puts quite simply that we can have the most impact to others by our conduct more so than our words. “Likewise, wives, be submitted to your own husbands so that—even if some do not obey the message—by the wives’ conduct, without a word they may be won over” 1 Peter 3:1, TLV Dr. Alewine followed up to Scripture reading by saying, “Now women seem to be a bit – well, alot more verbal than men.” And she goes on to explain that because of that, most folks would question and ask: How we are supposed to win someone over without a word and just by behavior? The point that struck me so

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