My three youngest children recently acquired pets which have become an exciting part of their homeschool education. Did I say pets? I meant livestock. Yes, Meghan (eight going on nine), Ethan (ten), and Aidan (twelve) are now the proud owners of three beautiful foals. Normally I would never recommend giving a child a young horse, but this is a highly supervised elective and my wife and I have the assurance that the Lord was in it (He has been known to do some rather surprising things, hasn't He?). The story begins about two and a half years ago, but I'm going to spare you many of the details and only go back to August 2007. Hopefully, I'll be able to tie it all together by the end of this article.
A neighbor of mine breeds, raises, trains, and shows Paint (spotted) horses. It is a family business, you might say, and they are quite successful with several national champions to their credit. Last month the owner called me up and told me he had three foals which he wanted to give to my three youngest children. He had watched my daughter and sons show their ponies at the county fair and something he saw made an impression.
During lunch break on our second day of class, three nervous weanling foals were unloaded from a horse trailer into a pen in my backyard. The babies were not used to being handled and they were now in a strange environment making them even more fearful and skittish. It would require lots of patience and gentleness to transform their fear into trust. The process is not new to me, but the results are always amazing.
