Kids of Faith Online Magazine

It had been a long day. I was tired, and ready to go home, but as I started to walk towards my car, another one drove up and parked next to it.

As I got closer I realized it was an unfamiliar face. Since I was the last one leaving the barn, I decided I should investigate.

“Can I help you?”

The man had just stepped out of his car, he had brown hair and looked to be in his mid 40′s. He smiled before answering.

“Maybe. Can you tell me where I might find a Miss Springlin?”

Outwardly I appeared calm, inwardly I groaned.

“I’m Miss Springlin, what can I do for you?”

“Oh, well in that case, my name’s Justice. I came in response to your ad, the one for a horse trainer.”

I looked him over. “You train horses?”

“Yes Ma’am, I do.”

“Are you good?”

His grin widened. “I try to be.”

“Well, you’re going to have to do more than try if you want to break this one. Come on back, I’ll show you who you’ll be working with.”

I led him back towards the stable, then continued walking further back towards the round pen behind the barn. As we approached, the dark mustang inside trotted towards us and waited by the fence.

“This is Shaniko. He’s a 5 year old mustang, and I’ve been trying to break him to saddle for the last year.”

Justice nodded. “What’s the problem?”

“He does fine till I put the saddle on, then he turns wild again, rearing and bucking up a storm. He does it every time and I just can’t figure it out.”

I  cursed.

“I was just locking up so you can’t work with him today, but if you can come back tomorrow around 10:00 you can start working with him.”

He shook his head. “That won’t work for me, I’ll be at church by 10:00.”

I rolled my eyes. Great, he was a religious nut. I just hoped he wouldn’t start preaching at me like all the others I’d met.

I sighed. “Same time Monday then?”

He nodded. “That will be fine.”

“Great, see you then.”

That Monday I was exercising my little quarter horse mare, when I looked up and saw Justice leaning on the fence.

I pulled the mare to a stop in front of him. “He’s in the same spot, you can find a saddle in the tack room.”

“Okay, thank you.”

He turned and walked back to the barn, whistling as he went.
I continued with the mare, although my mind was on Justice and Shaniko. Half of me expected him to come running back in a few minutes saying the the horse can’t be trained, just like all the other hot shot trainers who had tried. Then again, my other half told me he was not the kind to give up easily, give up at all for that matter.

It turned out to be a busy day, as I was locking up I realized I hadn’t seen Justice since that morning. I walked towards the corral, thinking he had left without telling me.

I was astonished to find Justice still with the mustang, simply standing next to the horse, scratching its scruffy neck.

As I drew closer he looked up and smiled.

“Did you get the saddle on him?”

He laughed. “I haven’t even tried yet, we’ve just been getting to know each other.” He looked around. “Is it closing time already? I hardly noticed it was getting late.”

He patted the horse one last time, and gathered some of his things.

“Good thing I’m not paying him by the hour,” I mumbled as I drove away.

Justice continued to come the rest of that week, I didn’t see much of what he was doing, but I heard from a few of the girls that he mostly just sat with Shaniko, petting and whispering to him.

Nine days of this passed when one day as I was locking up and realized Justice had not come to tell me he was leaving.

I smirked, he had probably given up and had been to ashamed to come tell me he couldn’t break my horse.

I decided to go see how Shaniko was doing, but as I approached the round pen I almost fell over in surprise.

Justice was cinching up the saddle. He had just finished when I walked up. The mustang stood calmly and I could hear Justice telling him what a good boy he was.

“How did you do it?”

He turned and just like all the other times, smiled at me.

“He’s a wonderful horse, I didn’t have any trouble at all.”

“Sure took you long enough.”

“Yeah, but I had the time, and it worked. I built up his trust in me, before I asked for more. I made sure he was ready to take the challenge.”

He smiled again. “I work just like the trainer who broke me.”

I was confused. “What do you mean?”

He led the mustang around the corral as he explained.

“By my trainer, I was talking about God. Before I was saved I was the worst you could get, but God walked in one day and started whispering to me. He kept it at a whisper for along time before He asked me for more. After 34 years of riding bare back with the world, I put on the saddle of God.”

The whole time he was talking I kept telling myself to walk away, or interrupt him. I don’t know what, but something was stopping me.

Maybe it was how perfect that saddle looked.