davidbowerkingwood

One Imagines a True Texan as Someone on a Horse!

I was born and raised in Houston, Texas and have lived here most of my life. Although that might qualify me as a true, native Texan, I am somewhat embarrassed to report my experience on horseback has been limited to two occasions: once as a child, and once again as an older adult.

In Houston. at that time, horses were still in use for hauling delivery wagons which means I occasionally saw a horse in the street in front of our house. We had ice delivered to our ice box and on the days we needed ice we would place a sign in the window showing how much we wanted delivered to us that day.

My very earliest memories were of a horse-drawn ice wagon and the giant of a man who would come into our house with a big chunk of ice on his shoulder. He would deliver it to our ice box and then return to his wagon and move on to the next house on his route.

We also had an “Ice House” which would sell block ice and all sorts of household goods, candies and soft drinks; these later became “convenience stores”

The Great Depression

I was born in 1933 and the “Great Depression” had been in effect for several years by that time. Fortunately, Houston was not hit as hard as some cities by the depression and I, as a child, was totally unaware anything like that was even going on.

Life was so different from what we have now that it would be difficult to try and explain all the differences, but there were a lot of them indeed!

Even in Houston, some people had to get really creative on making a living.

One of those more creative ways was bringing a pony to people’s house and letting them buy pictures of a family-member sitting on the pony. This just happened to be my experience as a child, some adult in my family decided it would be cute to get a picture of me sitting on the pony.

The photographer had all sorts of props available to wear for the occasion; some cowboy attire was chosen for me. Those chaps were obviously meant for someone considerably taller, my two-year old legs were no where near that long!

That brought my horse-riding career to a screeching stop; 62 years were to pass before I next sat on the back of a horse. Life has a strange way of setting new priorities as time passes; I have written more on this in the series “Once Upon a Time, I was a Little Boy”

Flying L Ranch Resort and Golf Course.

My wife and I wanted to take our grandchildren on a special vacation; often, it is difficult to think up and arrange a trip with Grandma and Grandpa that would seriously interest grandchildren. After a lot of careful deliberation, we came up with an idea we thought would appeal to the grandkids, a dude ranch.

This turned out to be a great choice as all of us had a wonderful, and memorable time. As a part of our adventure, we went on a trail-ride on horseback; this was the occasion, after 62 years, that I was once again to sit on a horse.

This is me riding “Strawberry”. We rode through some beautiful Texas countryside and all four of us enjoyed the experience and have fond memories of it to this day.

It is easy to see how a deep bond could develop between a rider and his horse. I feel a sense of responsibility to all of God’s creatures; I’m mindful of the original charge given to man, to rule over all of God’s living creatures.

As God’s image bearers, we are the closest thing to their creator these creatures will ever experience. It is our responsibility to manifest God’s loving care to them when we can. While we will never be the owner of horses, we have been privileged by the Lord to be his image bearer to the two rescue cats that he has entrusted to our care.

Addendum to Horseback Riding! The Grand Finale!

This morning, 10-26-2024, it occurred to me that I will have more horse riding in my future; the Book of Revelation reminds me I will be riding a white horse at the time of the Lord’s return at the Second Advent. Wow, talk about a special experience, this one will be once in a lifetime! In Revelation 19:11-16 it is written:

“¹¹ I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴ The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵ Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

King of kings and Lord of lords.“