The Wild Horse Sanctuary: Shingle Town

God has made many magnificent things in this world and wild horses are most definitely one of them.   The wild horses near Shingle Town, California are incredible.  Their strength and beauty are absolutely something to behold.  

When we arrived on the first Saturday I thought that we would be told to stand outside a gate and view the horses as best we could.  However, to our surprise, we were told that we could venture out among them.  We were told not to move too quickly, not to attempt to pet them, and all would be fine.  Jill, one of the leaders at the Sanctuary, told us to just make sure to close any gates behind us and that she trusted us completely.  She also told us that the horses would not harm us and we would be fine.  I never ever expected to be told that we could walk in the midst of them!

So, I opened the gate and ventured out, with Robin following closely behind.  In a matter of seconds we were surrounded by about 70 horses!  We were among incredibly powerful animals that could do whatever they wished to us if so inclined.  However, they watched us, attempted to draw close to us,  and seemed fully at ease with us being near to them.  When they would come too close to us we both would attempt to persuade them, by the flailing of arms and telling them to shoo,  to stay at a distance so they would not get too used to humans.

 However, there was one in particular who wanted to get as close as possible to Robin.  She raised her arms, attempted to shoo him away, but he would have none of that.  He kept on getting closer and closer to her and would not leave her alone.  So Robin turned around and began walking away from him in order to discourage his advances.  I was startled when I suddenly heard a loud shriek coming from off to my side where Robin was standing.   The horse had not liked the fact that she was turning away from him so he decided to push her between the shoulder blades with his muzzle, as if saying, "Hey turn around and pay attention to me".   He in no way was being aggressive to her,  A short time later I was concentrating hard on photographing the horses when all of a sudden I felt a warm breath  on the back of my neck.  I was startled and my heart most definitely jumped a beat.  It was one of the horses curiously sniffing me.

We found this experience to be both thrilling, yet humbling.  God has recently opened doors that for a very long time appeared would never be opened.  I had initially contacted the Sanctuary about 2 years ago, but never seemed to be able to get everything arranged. This was one of those things on our bucket list.   It was most definitely a door that Jesus opened.  It was truly one of the most awesome experiences we ever had.  To be allowed to stand amongst wild horses and to be able to photograph their majesty was simply wonderful. We were allowed to come up on two consecutive Saturdays, driving three hours each away at 4am in the morning.  It was most definitely worth it.  All we can say is Wow.  Not many people have this opportunity and we were allowed to have it on two separate occasions.  Just amazing.  We are so grateful.  Diane and Jill were so gracious to us, along with all of the volunteers.  Everyone was so warm and welcoming.  Robin and I want to thank them very much.

Thank you Jesus.  Blessed to be a blessing.