Sound? Really?

Anyone who has been around horses for any length of time has likely heard it said just how amazing it is that a horse’s full weight (averaging around 1000 pounds) can be supported on a single leg with an ankle whose size averages that of a man’s ankle. When a horse is galloping, that is exactly what happens. For each of the four beats of that gait, its weight is alternately supported by each of its legs.

My semi-educated quess-timate is that a normal Thoroughbred reaches speeds of around 40 mph in a race. And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that as a jockey, the absolute worst place to be when your horse breaks down is on the lead.

If a horse is running sore—and by that I mean that they can feel some pain—it will often be their good leg that goes when they break down. The reason for this is that they are getting off of their sore leg, and putting the majority of their weight on their pain-free leg. I suppose that at top speeds, this inequitable distribution of weight can’t be sustained for long.

Long before I ever met Mark Johnston, I remember being at a gathering that included many racetrackers, a good number of them current and ex-jockeys. Charlie Woods, a long-time Kentucky rider who had at that point hung up his tack to become a jockey’s agent, was talking about a rider that had just moved his tack back to the Bluegrass.

That jockey was Mark, and Charlie was relaying a story about how Mark had marveled at just how sound the Kentucky horses were. Coming here from Maryland, Mark told Charlie, the difference in his mounts was marked. He said that in pre-race warm-ups at East Coast tracks, horses would sometimes be a little “off.” Sometimes they warmed up out of it, and sometimes the jockeys would call it to the attention of the state vet, who might then have the animal scratched. But here in Kentucky, Mark said, the horses were all so sound!

A few years later, as Mark, Jerry and I traveled around the Midwest racing Joe’s horses, I asked Mark about this conversation with Charlie Woods. He shook his head at his naivety back then.

“It’s not that they were truly sound,” Mark said. “It’s more like they didn’t even know they had legs. And as jockeys, we didn’t stand a chance. There was no chance to feel them take a bad step and pull them up. They were running flat out, and when the leg blew, the horse went down.

Daily Notes: Still examining the possible reasons that our tithing “harvest” may be delayed, Dr. Hood, in Rich Toward God, lists reason number 6 as:

Perspective—For now, let’s simply summarize this reason as “learning the secret to contentment.” Again, you may be doing all the Lord wants you to do but, since he knows all of our hearts better than we know ourselves, he may be seeing an area where we’re not as sensitive to the reality of our blessings as we need to be. Waiting on God will also heighten our sense of appreciation, especially in the area of giving. They story of the widow who gave her two copper coins (all she had to live on) humbles me and shows me that I have a lot to learn about generosity.

Well, amen to that, Dr. Hood! That story is found in Luke 21: 1-4. But I’m going to back up to the prior paragraph, where Jesus is once again dogging the religious hoity-toities. Starting at Luke 20: 45 and continuing through 21: 4, The Message reads:

With everybody listening, Jesus spoke to his disciples. “Watch out for the religion scholars. They love to walk around in academic gowns, preen in the radiance of public flattery, bask in prominent positions, sit at the head table at every church function. And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless. The longer their prayers, the worse they get. But they’ll pay for it in the end.”

Just then he looked up and saw the rich people dropping offerings in the collection plate. Then he saw a poor widow put in two pennies. He said, “The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all!”

I am often guilty of feeling sorry for myself, moping around thinking about all that I don’t have. But never in my life have I been down to my last two cents—and God gets the credit for that! And if I’m being honest, My prayer today is that if I was down to my last two cents, I would find the faith to give ‘my all.’