Amanda on Chief and Brooke riding Sweetie
Brooke, our 11 year old, loves riding and working with our horses. Her and Landon, our 9 year old, ride them every chance they get. They like to ride them fast, which can sometimes make us nervous and the horses tired!
We have two horses and a pony. Chief is our gelding horse who has a quiet manner, but loves to go. Sweetie is our mare who doesn’t like to go as a fast, but has more opinion and spirit about her. Chief is real predictable and reliable. Sweetie is part Arabian and you never really know who she is going to be on a given day. Though, overall she is very gentle and sweet. She is good with the kids and makes for a good horse.
Brooke prefers riding Chief and Landon will ride the pony on most days. But this was leaving Sweetie out. So Brooke decided to start working with Sweetie too. Sweetie on the last couple of rides had wanted to kick a little to show her reluctance to do what the rider was asking her to do. Brooke decided she would work with her. She is great with understanding and working with the horses. She has such a calm, yet firm way of working with them. She had Sweetie doing great in no time. She was jumping over her low jump and cantering beautifully.
At the end of the day, her mom asked her how Sweetie did on the ride. Brooke replied, “Oh she did really good for Sweetie. She didn’t do as good as Chief, but for her, she did great.”
It occurred to us that Brooke’s assessment of Sweetie, should be a good pattern for how we deal with other people. Why do we always want to compare others and look down on them when they are not at the level of someone else? We need to understand everyone is dealing with their own set of challenges and experiences. We are all coming from different starting points and differing talent levels. We do people a great disservice when we expect them to be like someone else. We should rather seek to see the accomplishments they have made for themselves. Let’s allow people to be who they are and not pigeon-hole them into being like someone else. Let’s expect growth and give them time to mature.
Brooke had a great time riding Sweetie and was proud of her. She wasn’t Chief, but she didn’t expect her to be Chief, after all she saddled Sweetie! Why do we not apply the same thought to those in our paths?
“But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.” (2 Corinthians 10:12 ESV)
