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Everything Horses and Livestock Magazine
blended families, children going through divorce and
other life traumas. Through learning how to care for,
ride, and connect with these horses, children learn to
trust in the comfort these animals bring.
Lobo in 1981 giv-
ing my son Danny
his first ride. I was
19 yrs old.
Why Horses? It’s
proven that abuse
kills your true
sense of trust.
Often times these
young people
can’t discern if
somebody loves
them or wants to hurt them. Horses communicate
through body language and practice the social skills
of acceptance, tolerance, kindness, honesty, pa-
tience, understanding, forgiveness and compassion.
Horses also read human body language. If you’re
angry, impatient, grieving, stressed or worried---your
horse will know. You can’t hide feelings from them.
Take my horse “Lobo”: when I got him I couldn’t trust
anyone. Lobo didn’t know me, all he knew is what he
saw when we met. He didn’t want anything or ex-
pect anything from me. I didn’t have to talk about my
feelings and he was okay with that. He opened me
up. When I realized he started to trust me it was the
first time in my young life that I can remember feeling
such love and acceptance. Horses will always see,
feel and respond to your true emotions. This action
of love can be seen in horse’s direct response to the
child in front of them. You will see a horse walk up to
a child and gently lower its head to the child’s level
or gently nuzzle a child welcoming them. Through
their gentle nature horses have the ability to heal
human hearts. Not only are children’s hearts opened
to trust others, they begin trust in themselves.
This leads children to begin the healing process as
coping skills are developed through the uplifting ther-
apeutic interaction. We couple this with the truth of
God’s word empowering them and helping them with
a renewed hope for their life.
At the current time I am running Living Life Ranch
out of my home. I have a few volunteers who help
and bring hurting children to my home on the week-
ends where we spend an hour here or there min-
istering to them through hands on horsemanship
experiences that I mentioned above.
I feel at this time that Lord is calling me into the full
time ministry of developing Living Life Ranch to its
fullest potential. That is why I’m telling you my story. I
need your help. At the current time my full time job is
financing all the expenses and activities of the ranch.
Continued on Page 28
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Everything Horses and Livestock
27
Joshua Rushing is a profes-
sional farrier in the Mo-Kan
region south of Kansas City.
His 15 years of service
has been spent working
with mostly performance,
ranch, show, and trail
horses.
Although most of Joshua’s time is spent underneath a horse, he can often
be found atop a horse training, competing in cowboy challenges or offer-
ing horsemenship clinics.
Look for upcoming article:
“To Shoe Or Not To Shoe?”
Featured Writer ~
Josh Rushing