10/09/2026
💜Mentor Moment Spotlight💜
"I start each session asking for the Lord to lead and guide; for it’s His work after all that we do. I also pray that the horse would be used by Him to touch a young life and heart. Does He answer? The answer is a clear yes!
"For this Fall session, I have the joy of working with a 7-year-old little boy who chose Gabe as his horse. It didn’t take long (the first two sessions) to see that my mentee truly loved Gabe but was intimidated when Gabe was outside his stall. When we brought Gabe out and cross-tied him to brush him, any move from Gabe made my mentee jump back, a bit fearful. (It makes sense, really. Gabe is a very big horse next to this little boy!) The first two sessions when we went out to the arena, my mentee felt comfortable ‘leading’ Gabe as long as I was between him and the horse. So, in actuality, I was leading the horse while this boy held the end of the lead rope. He had been saying that he wanted to ride Gabe but I could see he just wasn’t ready because of not being truly comfortable with his horse yet.
Our third session, we went back out to the arena and I encouraged my mentee to actually lead Gabe, but I would be right there with him. I told him that this would help him learn to trust Gabe, and Gabe to trust him. And . . . . he did it!
The next step was the ‘connection’ activity that we often do with mentees. He was to lead Gabe a bit, then walk away to go sit on an obstacle in the arena and give Gabe a chance to walk up to him. Did Gabe cooperate? No! He started toward the boy then got distracted and walked over to the fence. But it didn’t end there!
I had brought three tennis balls and using a half barrel in the arena, told my mentee we were going to play a game. I would ask a question, he would answer, then he got to try and throw a ball into the barrel. We had barely started the game before Gabe’s curiosity got the best of him and he came walking over to investigate. Instead of a fearful response, my mentee was delighted and was laughing at Gabe who was sticking his nose into our business. His curiosity kept him right there so close to us that I had to gently nudge him away a few times. He kept getting in the way, but it was perfect. I think Gabe’s casual saunter over to us and his involvement in our
game helped this boy to see that he didn’t need to fear this horse when he was out of his stall.
My mentee overcame his fear and loved his horse so much more by the end of our time together that day. So his fear subsided and trust grew. Next week, I told him, he can ride Gabe!" ~Cheryl Keiper (of her Fall mentee)
