Testing God - UB Gets the Green Light

The Unbelievable had pitched a royal fit the first morning he was made to wear his earplugs to the racetrack. Jerry insisted that he needed to get used to them before he had to wear them for a race, whereas UB felt it was ridiculous to wear them in a situation where he was perfectly comfortable without them.

Jerry won the debate, but UB didn’t go down without a fight. UB, his rider hanging on, ducked and dived and spun his way in and out of the barn several times before finally making it onto the racetrack.

Jerry made UB wear the earplugs and Jeremy, the starter, insisted he wear the dog-chain noseband for a final schooling session in the starting gate, where he stood nicely, even though I could tell he was fuming. Jeremy gave the green light, and Jerry entered UB in a race.

The overnight came out, and sure enough, The Unbelievable had made it into the body of the race. I suppose many trainers would have felt less pressure going into this race rather than more, as no one (except us) really expected UB to behave any better than he had in the past.

I was afraid I had made what might turn out to be a huge mistake—I told Joe about the animal communication techniques that I had been using with UB. From the git-go, Joe never struck me as one to lend any credence to anything like that. In fact, I was virtually positive that he would question my Christianity because of it. As it turned out, he didn’t say much at all, which is always a little disconcerting to me. I just figured that if he thought I was an idiot before, he was now certain of it.

The reason I feared that it may have been a mistake to mention my chats with UB is because many people tend to think that just because you can “talk” to animals, you can control the outcome of a situation. Um, no. It doesn’t work like that.

If I talk to a group of human runners before the start of a race, they will be able to tell me things like “I feel good today,” or “I didn’t get much sleep last night, I hope it doesn’t affect my race,” or “I took a bad step and twisted my ankle a bit.” But they can’t say with certainty that they will win the race, because they can’t know what all will transpire during the running of it. Why would it be any different with animals?

I was explaining all this to Joe, hoping I wasn’t babbling. It’s communication, it’s not magic. And since 4-leggeds can’t use words to tell us things, the communication thing is extremely helpful when dealing with physical or emotional problems.

I told Joe that I thought I understood what was prompting UB’s behavior in the starting gate, but I wasn’t sure that he’d be able to work through it. I promised that we were doing the best we could to help him. And now it was time to see if we were on the right track.

Daily Notes: There really isn’t much to note today, as this is the 3rd day that I haven’t really left the house. Due to snow and ice, not my hermit-like tendencies. Let me rephrase that—I haven’t left our property, but I have left the house as the horses, chickens and goats still need sustenance.

I made a promise to myself that I would do something each day toward a RAK, no matter how seemingly insignificant, even if I’m stuck here in the throes of winter. Clean out closets to find clothes to donate, write notes to people in my life to let them know what they mean to me, or send a ready-to-bake batch of yeast rolls home with a friend whose wife’s health is not good right now. Anything, no matter how tiny, just to keep from slipping backward.

If any of you out there in cyberspace have RAKs to tell of (no matter how small!) it would sure lend encouragement. I hope maybe someone will feel encouraged to post it here!

Today's pic is of Jerry and I shortly after we were married. We had a string of horses stabled at Turfway Park that winter, and I put the camera on a bale of straw and set the timer.