Elijah's World

Last year Elijah and his friends from Rivermont school came out to do what we do at the horse lot. Some days that meant riding. Some days that meant clearing land. Some days that meant training horses.

Every day it meant learning, growing, and understanding things about yourself and the world around you that you might not have known before. He was not raised with pastures. He was raised with pavement. He was apprehensive when he first got on Comet. He was apprehensive when he first rode Comet in the woods. He was apprehensive when he first trotted on Comet.

And when it was all done he was proud.

He understood when I told him that the world had so much given up Comet that a veterinarian once called me at the office to tell me that Comet could never be trained--that he was a hopeless rogue and that he should be immediately put down. He understood when I told him how much patience and gentle but very firm leadership it took for Comet to eventually become the loving, trusting horse that he is now.

He understood when I told him that it is wrong to throw away horses and it is worse to throw away people. He understood that Tradewind went from being completely crippled to being National Pleasure Trail Horse of the Year for the Horse of The Americas registry. He understood that learning to trust is as important for people as it is for horses. He learned to take control of his fear by trusting me when I told him that the horse would not hurt him, trusting the horse not to hurt him and, most of all, learning to trust himself to be able to handle the horse in the woods.

Sometime it is what we do not say that is even more important than what we do say. The ancient Hebrews did not have a separate and distinct word for "religion." Instead they generally used the same word as the word that simply meant "living." We need to stop using this term "equine therapy." It implies that one only receives physical and emotional growth from exposure to horses in limited separate and distinct "sessions" with horses.

Every exposure to a horse can give comfort to those in pain, understanding to those in confusion, calm to those in fear, and peace to those in turmoil. Today a fortune will be spent and lost on the sad spectacle of the Kentucky Derby. People will talk about how much those race horses are "worth", foolishly equating sales price with "worth."

How much was it "worth" for Elijah to be able to step off of that world of pavement into a world of pasture while sitting astride Comet? The sins of the established horse world are too numerous to list. The greatest sin that it inflicts on humans is to develop a business model that turns horses into toys for little rich white girls and fungible items of commerce for old white millionaires.

Some people cannot understand why I would love a scraggly old horse like Comet, but everyone who knew Elijah would understand why I could love a warm, smiling, generous kid like Elijah.

This morning at 11:00 Comet will take a kid in the woods--maybe for the first time the kid has ever done so. Elijah's funeral will be happening at the same time. He was murdered last Sunday night in a world of pavement.

The Kentucky Derby happens sometime today, but I really don't care when.