Trust, motivation, results - something that gives us purpose in life. And sometimes the result is the trust and motivation of working together.
There is a beauty in life to having mentors that arrive when you need them. The leaders that teach you what you need at that time, in that moment. Such was Generators Golden Touch, who passed yesterday from heart failure at 21. But in reality, even to the end, his heart never really failed me, or him.
Trust is a quality not only found in humans. One of the best stories I know of trust, patience and motivation centers around my horse “Mel” (his a.k.a barn name) and my son. Imagine the 9 year old autistic boy, my son, meeting this then 3 year old horse weighing over a thousand pounds. The excitement of this first meeting triggered my son autistic behavior instantaneously. He began moving in an erratic manner, running around in a circles only focused within his inner world (or "dweedling" as our family calls it). And horses, like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park, are always alert to movement. Being prey animals, even the rustling of leaves means a predator is lurking. An animal running around in circles like my son means danger is near by- pay attention - to a horse. This puts 1,000 lbs of muscle on alert and that's something to see.
Both Mel and I took the reins of opportunity to teach this young lad a lesson or two about awareness and body language. I told my son there is a prime axiom with horses: if you dweedle, they dweedle…..He would have to learn to stay still, and pay attention to what Mel was telling him through body language.
So, while my son was in mid dweedle, I handed him Mel's lead rope.
Mel, recognizing his lead horse role, calmly reached out with one hoof and stepped on my son's foot, holding him still. My son, pinned, was shocked saying "Mom, he's stepping on me." "I know", I said, "this is Mel's way of telling you to stop dweedling. Take a deep breathe, Ahhhhh, blow out, be still and see what happens."
He did just that, the deep Ahhhh breath. Mel lowered his head to look him in his eyes and calmly, slowly moved his hoof from his foot.
In that moment, trust was born, between boy and horse. All three of us now had motivation, to bring my son out of autism. And the result, after Mel's passing yesterday, is I have a son who graduated high school, goes to college, drives and has a job.
There are a hundred and one stories after this first one, all trust, motivation and results. Thank you Mel for being the leader, the mentor and the love that brought it all together.