Story
It's like the horse is a reflection, almost a mirror of the soul and spirit. . .
When you get yourself out of the way and allow bigger things to be revealed, you'll see the world around you differently. That was definitely the case for me and how "When God Made Horses" came to be.
My daughter had just turned 12 and we were starting to creep into that adolescent-change where the relationship between mother and daughter becomes anything and everything but normal. She wanted to go to the Ft. Worth Rodeo for her 12th birthday and I consented. I couldn't help but watch how excited she got seeing all of the horses moving through the arena at lightning speeds with their riders just effortlessly guiding them. My daughter hadn't gotten that excited about anything in a while. All I could think about was "Why is this so exciting? Better yet . . . what is making this so special . . . for her?" It then dawned on me all too sudden that the relationship that a rider tries to establish relentlessly with their horse is the same relationship that God tries to establish with us . . . emphasis on "relentlessly". I knew instantly that was a thought that I had, but that God gave. I was still in shock during the rodeo from the thought and didn't talk much that night. It felt like God was telling me that this thought He gave will become a song and it was up to me to write it. So I went to bed. . . terrified. Here's where God kept talking even when I didn't want to listen.
So that next morning after the rodeo, I got up first and went down to the hotel lobby to get some coffee. I took my book with me. I had been reading Shirley MacLaine's "Dance While You Can" for a while and wanted to make a big dent in some reading. I made my coffee and sat down at a couch facing the outside and read for a good 30 minutes. I was getting ready to give my eyes a break so I pulled the book down from my face and right there in front of me through the hotel window was a black horse facing right in front of me. I immediately knew. More confirmation. This song will get written whether I wanted it to or not. I thought it was really odd for a horse to be near this hotel. The hotel was located in Ft. Worth, but it was in parts near the city, but out by the interstates so it just felt weird to see a horse there. Deep down I knew though, this wasn't coincidence.
I started writing it that day, but still just didn't know where it was going. A month or so passed on and I was still kicking the can down the road. It's still always in the back of my mind to write it, but I also don't think I'm smart enough to do this. So, my kids, my sister, and I all went on a vaction about a month and a half after the rodeo. We go to Nashville, TN. On one of the days, we took the kids horse-back riding. My daughter had really wanted to try it out and she'd never ridden a horse before. As we all got on our horses, my daughter was struggling a little to stay on her horse and keep it in place. She was just a little unsure of herself. Our trail guide was a fairly young guy, but very stoic. He'd been around horses all of his life and you could tell that he'd mainly only talked to horses his whole life too. He came over calmly to our group and said "whatever you're feeling that horse is feeling it too." He went on to tell us that horses can sense our emotions in a way. It's like the horse is a reflection, almost a mirror of the soul and spirit. Everything he said it was like I could hear God saying, "let's finish that song. You ready yet?"
We got home from vacation and slowly but surely, a little more of the song got written. It still didn't feel done to me though. The rodeo was around the end of August/beginning of September. The vacation in Tennesse was in October. We crossed over the holidays and here it was January and I still hadn't finished the song. I did however have a chorus. The chorus came so easy, almost too easy that I started overthinking it. It was one day in January of the new year that I had finally had the lines going for the second verse. I was sitting on an old couch in my garage getting super frustrated. I started overthinking the chorus again and I felt something in my spirit say "I want the chorus the way that I gave it to you. It's not for you to keep." I knew from that moment that my own insecurities about myself, always trying to push the bar and come up with something better had nothing to do with this song. It was a gift and had to be treated as such.
Finally, the song was almost done. I knew it needed a bridge and the bridge was going to say it so simple that the line would connect what the human heart had inherently known so fast that it wouldn't have time to lie to itself. He sent the line and it was done. This is His story and this is His song.