How I Got My HighJoy Horse
A typical summer's day ride in those "good-old days" would be 20 miles, round-trip, barefoot, bareback, with no $$$, foraging for food from the trees and fields, and stopping to swim 2 lakes along the way! Life was no longer a matter of survival: that reality was left behind at The Barn. Life, on the road, was a "A Natural High!" Sheer, pure adrenaline and opiates and endorphins and imagination... all stirred up while set on a lively horse immersed in an exhilarating natural setting... with miles to go before I had to return to The Barn and the family! Really riding a horse, not just meandering or showing in a ring, but really riding WITH A HORSE IN THE WILDERNESS can build character in a young person like nothing else! And so, my life was flavored by the sound, the touch, the physical challenge, the smell, the companionship, the love, the respect, the ruggedness, the adventure of a horse in The Great Outdoors! When I left the husband at age 30 in 1976, I entered into "horse-withdrawal" that lasted 20 years.
September, 1996, T.C. Fry died. And I was sinking fast. I had not been laid completely low yet and had not yet been brought into full surrender, wherein I asked The Lord to take over completely. That came when I went to Canada, August, 1998. But I knew that I had to give up GetWell and The Revolution, or I had to get strong. By December of 1997, being awake had become painful. Not "The People," not The Revolution, not The Lord, nothing at that time mustered me up enough for the recovery and Revolution work that lay ahead. My good-old enthusiasm for helping others had been long lost to workaholism and financial despair and depression. I still heard The Calling but due to low Nerve Energy, it was hard to hear, faint.
God worked in His mysterious way and gave me a very clear message, nonetheless. He brought a horse back into my life, after 20 years of horse-withdrawal! And it was just the merry-making medicine my soul needed! Judging by my exhausted Nerve Energy supply and depleted Nerve Energy reserves, I knew this message was also my last hope for getting well: "GetWell or Die!" I was to go back to that which had been "the great escape and recreation of my youth," to that which had kept me physically active and exceedingly fit in my youth. And I was to relive late 1990s facsimilies of those fresh air, outdoors experiences until I had rekindled and inflamed the passion that had once burned in me. And I was to keep this horse in my life, as The Health Revolutionist, so that I never made the dreadful, deathful mistake of "all work and no play" again!
The message sent to my soul was not a vague vision or a barely auditory mumble: It was an explicit directive: "Go out and find the most exciting, inspiring, imaginative horse you have ever had! Get a small horse, the horse you will want when you are well! And then get in condition to ride like the wind and with the vigor of your youth! Then, when you can ride with the strength, the balance, the co-ordination, the endurance, and the flexibility and the JOY and the sense of adventure and the perseverance of your youth, THEN, you will know in your heart that you are
ready for whatever is needed of you or whatever befalls you in leading The Great American Health Revolution!"
Thank God, I acted on this directive! The Lord knew exactly what I needed to get me out of my deathbed and to re-inspire me! Soon thereafter, I got High! At age 51, hobbling around with a hip joint popping out, both knees hurting to walk, having to go up steps one and a time, huffing and puffing at 270 pounds, I followed this order. I was led to a 3 year old, pure-blooded, dapple-grey, small Arab stallion, never halter-broken and never ridden and unbridled with a passion and a curiosity for life far beyond any horse I had ever known! Well, I had never become acquainted with the Arab! This Arab, at any rate, lives in another dimension, full of wonder. He is smart! He is curious! He is playful! And he's brave! And he's inspiring!
Heading out The Barn Driveway on August 1st, 1998, I could not lift my foot up to the stirrup, much less pull my body weight on. ( I still use the saddle I got new when I was 18.) Once in the saddle, my stomach pushed against the horn and my rear spilled inches over the back. It hurt to twist and turn in the saddle. I got cramps up and down my legs and feet. My heart did not feel right with a trot or canter because of all the weight. Certainly, these were not the rides of my youth! Today, I easily lift my foot to the stirrup, either side. I can pull my body weight up, although it is not a bounce yet. And there are 7" between me and the saddle horn, with just a little spilling over the back. I can twist and turn in the saddle with just a little soreness, and the muscle cramps in the legs and feet are finally gone. I'm still too fat and bounce in the saddle. But I truly am much closer to the riding vigor of my youth and am pushing HighJoy and myself with each ride to get a really good workout!
So many of you have expressed delight in the pictures sent in recent packages, I offer you today, a formal introduction to Captain HighJoy America! This, my friends tell me, is the happiest picture of me they have ever seen taken! You can see that High and I just finished a "joy ride." Note the sweat marks from the saddle. And he is giving me my massage and getting his rub down at the same time. It's a welcome, end-of-the-trail ritual on both our "parts" literally!
Bottomline Lesson: Some Health Seekers may need to go back to their "youth." ("Youth" is defined as "any day prior to today.") Some may need to search those youthful memory banks for those experiences that turned them on, lit them up, and inspired them! Want to GetWell? Fasting may not do it. Raw Food and Exercise may not be enough. Some may need to "Wake Up!" to their own playfulness and ZEST in order to GetWell! Of course, you do not need to: "Get a horse!" But JOYFUL MOVEMENT is a huge part of The Program. If you are physically able but just don't feel like moving, "search and find" that which inspires you. And so, for some: "Getting... Really High!" is just a matter of "Getting... Really Re-Inspired!"
