The Joke Was On Him This Time...

I have a beautiful golden-colored palomino horse at home. His name is Joe. Through the course of his life, he’s shown more of a sense of humor than most people.
We were expecting him to be born around the middle of April, 1997. So April Fool’s morning, I woke up and thought I’d play a trick on my mom. I looked out the window, grinning, and said, “Oh, look Mom! There’s a new baby colt!” She came to the window and saw what I saw: nothing. “April Fool!” Ha ha. The joke was on her. But when we got up to the barn, we were both surprised. There was an ornery bow-legged colt standing behind his ma, blinking his brand new eyes at us. The joke was on me.
I remember when Joe was an awkward, long-legged yearling. He somehow tangled himself up in a barbed-wire gate. When I saw him standing in the wire, I panicked. “He’ll be sliced to pieces!” I thought. But as soon as I got close to him, he gave me that look that said, “Ha! Fooled you!” and sprung out of it like a deer. Not a scratch on him. The joke was on me again.
When he was a two-year-old, I started riding him. On the fifth day of his ‘kindergarten’ training, we were going up a rocky hill. Joe thought it was fun to go really slow, so I reached back and spanked him with a rein to tell him I wanted more speed. Without warning, he and I were up in the air. When we came down, he sucked backward and I had nowhere to land but right on my head. My not-so-graceful landing had knocked the wind out of me, and while I was gasping for breath, he stopped and gave me that look again. If horses could chuckle… When I finally caught the prankster, he was sorry. But I could see a little satisfaction in his eyes that his prank had been a success.
But you know what they say, “What goes around, comes around.” Joe, apparently, is no exception to that rule. One fine morning in late March, the horses came in for their grain. We have five saddle horses, and they are all big buddies. But that day, they were giving Joe plenty of room. He couldn’t get close to any of them and as a result he was pretty offended. His friends were giving him the cold shoulder. I thought this was a little unusual, but when I came within 30 feet of him, I understood why. The prankster had somehow gotten sprayed by a skunk. The joke was on him this time!
Sometimes we learn a lesson best by noting someone else’s mistakes. So take a lesson from Joe and remember what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”