A fine, warm spring morning in northern Indiana – just right for remembering and sharing good stories about life on the farm in America back in the days of the Great Depression of the 1930’s—or even before—and at the same time mulling over these accounts in the light of life in God’s true Church.

Three senior sons of the soil (farmers, then retired) came to our house that Sunday morning for a buckwheat pancake brunch with all the tasty trimmings and good, strong, fresh-roasted and brewed black coffee. They were part of our northern Indiana congregation, at that time in Elkhart.

In his early 90’s Clyde was the oldest of our “crew.” He had a long career in breeding, training, and farming with massive draft horses in north-central Indiana.

He told us about training a very promising young colt back when he was a young fellow himself. It was a beautiful spring day and the “colt”, in harness with its mother, was plowing a corn field to prepare it for planting.

His first season in harness, the colt was now big and strong (already virtually the size of the mare), pulling his weight and more. Everything about him was promising. Clyde had a lot invested in this young horse.

Into the pit!

How often in life does this next kind of circumstance happen? Just as he held the reins and strode behind the plow, savoring all the planning and effort he had put into the colt – disaster struck!

The mare suddenly disappeared! It was as if the field had swallowed her! And the full-grown colt was standing in a sink hole up to his withers. The mare was lying on her side with her legs beside the colt’s massive shod hooves. One panicked stomping by the young horse would break the old mare’s legs – and the sink hole would become her grave! This was a critical moment for Clyde.

The family farm was a “muck farm.” Part of their fields had been a bog when the pioneer generation arrived. Typically, the bogs were drained to increase the acreage for farming vegetables and grain—like corn in Clyde’s case.

From time to time the dense amount of organic material in the bog would spontaneously combust beneath the soil. As the underground fire burned the combustible material, it left a hollow shell of soil on the surface. It was often the fate of the farm’s draft animals to “discover” these muck holes. Depending on the depth of the hole, sometimes the severely injured draft animal was simply shot and buried in the unwelcome grave.

That was a jolt for those of us listening to the story. Warming to his dramatic farming tale, he continued the unfolding events…

A still small voice

Clyde ran to the colt standing upright in the sinkhole. He grabbed the face harness and calmly spoke to the younger horse. His voice also calmed the mare who lay in peril below the field’s surface.

Clyde then systematically disconnected the colt from the plow harness. All the while gently urging the horse to remain still. Back in the day, draft horses were routinely trained to respond to specific, human voice commands. It was in an emergency such as this that an experienced professional horse handler’s calm, confident voice and encouraging touch became absolutely critical!

At last, the disconnect was done. Now, the rescue…

Leap to safety!

Holding the colt’s head harness, Clyde quietly prepared the younger horse for the jump up and out of the sinkhole.

This was a great test of Clyde’s draft horse skills and careful training techniques! Continuously speaking commands, the mighty muscles of the powerful young horse began to tense, little by little, until they were coiled like a spring. Only then did Clyde give the command for the colt to jump!

Up and out of the “muck hole” in one clean, fell swoop the grown-up colt launched and landed on solid ground! Finally, the old mare, still uninjured, was able to rise, gathering her feet beneath her for the climb out of the sink hole to safety.

The Master’s voice

The obvious spiritual lesson we draw from this true story is that the two horses had faith in and responded to their young master’s commands. We must learn to always be ready to have faith in our own loving Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The question is – how well do we listen?

All of us present gave a great sigh of relief as Clyde finished his horse rescue story! After appreciating the well-told lesson, Bill, a mule-man, and Hoover, an ox drover, each proceeded to tell their stories about farming in their youth. But that’s fodder for another story soon to come…

– Commentary by Randy Stiver

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