CornerStone Stable Pa

05/29/2026

Story of Ca$h Part 6 (last one!)

05/29/2026

These used to be my favorite boots. Ariat all terrain hikers. I’d buy a new pair annually. But they’re just not made the same anymore. That black toe used to be real leather & kept the wet out. 😕 Any suggestions for a waterproof low heel ankle support boot that can go from walking to riding?

05/28/2026

Story of Ca$h Part 5
Tearful phone call goes like this:

“I have this amazing horse! He’s the best! Very special…..aaaaaaand I think he’s supposed to be your horse(?). I KNOW God put him in my barn. There is no doubt in my mind God’s hand is on this animal and he was chosen just for me when I needed him!! And I think now you need him?”

Kind ranch acquaintance expresses concern, not wanting to ruin our friendship (Please keep in mind while my heart was willing, I was also very, very sad, and the entire conversation is through tears on my end). He mentioned, God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. God had no intention of making Abraham go through with it. Abraham’s willingness to submit was the test. Yes…I’d already thought of that and was hoping that was the case. Ok, maybe I keep horse. Yes, this is my out. I keep him.

Then my friend prayed. It was special. He prayed for me. He prayed for God’s will to be clear. But he also prayed for the horse, “because Lord he is your creature and we want to do what’s best for him.” That landed.

What happened in the next 24 hours was only God. My heart of sadness and a little bit selfishness was replaced with JOY! I was so energized, and I felt honored that I could be used as a part of my friend’s ministry – as part of God‘s ministry. God doing what only He does and brings people to Himself by whatever means necessary. To bring hearts closer to Him.

March 2026, My turn to lecture for BSF. On Haggai. Haggai recap: Israelites have stopped building the temple. God wants them to finish it. Do the thing! Do the thing! Do it. Do it now. Because I asked you to. Stop focusing on what you want, be an obedient servant. Do the thing WITH a good attitude out of LOVE for your heavenly Father…..*sigh* Really, Lord, really? MORE lessons…feeling targeted now ….

I almost laughed at myself. How dare I say “praise God from whom all blessings ….” What, stop? Land right here with me and stay mine? That’s not how the doxology goes. It’s: “praise God from whom all blessings FLOW.” God showed me that ultimately my blessing is relationship with Him. That is the ultimate blessing. And God takes our relationship very seriously. And God will do what He needs to do to move my heart not only to obedience, is that not ultimately an act of love? Bringing people to Himself.

When I pray for friends, I usually ask God for what we want and use good things to reach and teach them. Not difficulty. I don’t like learning the hard way. How lovely would it have been if I could have just read the words in Daniel, Ezra & Haggai and taken them to heart? But that’s not how I needed to learn, and my ranch friend would have missed out on a blessing! A blessing that God wanted to do for him out of love. God walked me through a very painful exercise of listening to His will, obedience even if … & changing my heart. To allow myself to be used to bless others because God loves us so so much. I really feel like I have lived through not just Danield and Ezra now, but also Haggai.

Do the hard thing, even if it hurts, with a JOYFUL heart.

05/27/2026

Part 4 for those of you just joining us, parts 1-3 may be helpful to bring you up to speed

So anyway, Asher and I went on these retreats together and both times I’m thinking to myself, or God planted the idea, this acquaintance of mine who lives at the ranch needs a “Ca$h”. This guy needs a safe, steady, lovely natured beast to invite him back into riding. But, maybe I’m reading too far into things. Maybe this man has oodles of horses at his disposal. Maybe he just needs a break from horseback for a while. Maybe he is still riding and I’m just misreading everything. Maybe everything is fine. Everything is fine. Push that idea aside.

Idea comes back. Send very vague email in June of 2025. Response. Oh, you have a horse… good, good. He might not be best suited for your work…..hum…but you have a horse. See everything is good. Strange thoughts dismissed again.

October 2025. Lecturing on Daniel 3 & 4 for BSF (if you are interested in Bible Study Fellowship, I’m a HUGE fan,

https://www.bsfinternational.org/

The three Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace, you know the story, the fourth man in the fire (Jesus) shows up. But even before that, they choose obedience to their God “even if” He does not choose to save them. Wow. They chose obedience EVEN IF they don’t get their desired outcome. Good stuff, Lord, good stuff. Let’s keep that lesson to the old testament characters tho, eh?

December 2025. BSF study of Ezra 10. The Israelites disobeyed God (not a spoiler there) and had to do some really hard stuff to rectify their disobedience. Do the thing. Do the really hard thing. Do the really hard thing because it brings you closer to God. Ouch. Um. That too sounds familiar…. so I call a BSF friend.

“Friend, I think maybe I was asked to do something really hard that I don’t want to do…” Friend says, “What can you do to make it right?” “Oh….well…um. I’m really not interested in that. I’d like some grace. And mercy. And forgiveness please. No hard things. Just sunshine & butterflies.”

Sigh. I could see how God had planned and worked and confirmed to give me a blessing, but when I was asked to give that same blessing, I couldn’t do it. God had asked me to do a really big hard thing and I logic-ed my way out of it. “That” certainly couldn’t be what God was asking me to do…. but through the study of Daniel & Ezra, it was confirmed, that indeed giving this man my (ha! Mine? No, God’s) horse, that’s what I was supposed to do and I had missed it. I didn’t obey even if it hurt me and do the hard thing. I wussed out. “Anyone then who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” Ew.

Send another email to ranch acquaintance. “Hello, remember awhile back I was asking you if you had a ministry horse?….yeah, about that….I’ve had to confront some disobedience on my end that involves you. Call me.”

Days of agony. I think I checked my email hourly.

05/26/2026

Story of Ca$h
Part 3

I was ecstatic. This was happening. I felt as if God himself had handpicked this horse just for me. It took a while for me to have peace in spending the money on myself. It felt a little wrong. But I also felt God saying to me, “First, you are worth it. And don’t I own everything on this earth? What is money to me? Can’t I give you more if I want to? Am I not in control of your finances? Have I ever not taken care of you? And don’t I get to choose who owns this horse?” Life lessons galore.

Sean and I drove out to Ames, Iowa to pick up my horse. MY horse!!! And he was not a disappointment. He was just tall enough. Just wide enough. Majorly kind enough. Safe. Respectful. Curious. I did hop on him briefly before cutting the final check and he did all the things. The bridge things, the puddle things, the pivot things, the canter things. All with an anxious rider who hadn’t been consistently on horseback in years. He was a good soul. Soft. Kind. Forgiving. He was careful and obedient. Such a good boy. Oh, and pretty. A tall dark & handsome gorgeous hunk.

We loaded up and headed home. It was a really fun trip. Both husband and equine were perfect to just go along with my little dream. The dog & I immensely enjoyed being passenger princesses, mostly in charge of snacks.

That horse stayed in the Taj Mahal for our layover in Illinois, Raymond had arranged for a rest stop. It had a water exerciser treadmill, plinky plucky soft music floating through the barn, an indoor track around the stalls. It was insane. The humans stayed at a Red Roof Inn, ‘nough said.

So here I was. Living the dream, I mean the dream. This was it. Sean said we had “the man in black” (Johnny Cash reference) and I busted in laughter; we had found a name! Ca$h with a
show name of “Iowa Few Bucks”. A nod to his home state, how much we had spent, AND that this guy is forever overdue to upset his rider. He is such a good, good boy. I’m sure he owes me a few bucks for sloppy riding that probably warranted a rude response, but he is too good-natured to dish it out (Have I mentioned he’s the bestest boy?).

This horse has never let me down. He is kindness in an equine sack. The true definition of meek. Strong, powerful, capable, but with the gentlest spirit imaginable. A little bit silly, he is a gelding mind you. We’ve done it all. Lazy trail rides. Dressage Tests. Parades. Working Equitation. Driving. Vaulting. Ba****ck & bridle-less. Inviting my 7yo to her first canter, because he knew she was ready for a slow & steady three beat and maybe a little because they both seemed to find vast enjoyment when I screamed for them to stop. He’s up for whatever. And he does it with such a lovely spirit of, “Sure. Let’s do that!” Such the best boy.

*end sidebar

05/21/2026

I had been sort of searching for a horse for myself for about a year. Looking for size, safety, age and price. My bible study girls were praying with me that if I was meant to get a horse for myself (for me ME, mind you, not a lesson horse) that I’d have peace regarding a purchase. Well, God woke me up at an UNgodly hour of the morning and I started scrolling FB for horses to pass the time. Or so I thought. I ran across an ad that really stood out. The size was right. The safety factor was right (his ad said, “if you can hold reins you can ride this horse.”). The age was right. And the price was….well….it was reasonable for what horses were going for back in Covid days. I called Sean immediately. I said something to the effect of, I found the horse. I found him. The one (Should I have said God woke me up to point out this horse? Yes. Yes, I should have). The horse had been posted in Iowa just a few hours earlier, which was like 2am their time (crazy) and the ad hadn’t been seen by too many people…, YET. So, I did the logical thing, waited a few excruciating moments and CALLED the number in the ad. Logic was out the door at this point.

I had a lovely conversation with the seller, who answered all my questions & didn’t seem upset at the unorthodox time of day. I asked for references of people he’d sold horses to “sight unseen” before and had a chat with an equally lovely woman later that day, not at 5am, who assured me the seller was an excellent trainer. I told the seller I needed to pray about the purchase and I’d be in touch. He was receptive to that, amazing in itself. I spent the rest of the day praying and pacing. I couldn’t even wait for Sean to get home, I called him at work quite a few times. Hewas supportive! Later that afternoon, I called Raymond, the seller, again to talk about money transfers and picking this horse up. It just felt right. But… he said he had a lady coming to see the horse that evening. If I wanted to, he would cancel the appointment. I said no. Let the lady ride him. While I really was set that this was THE horse, I had peace with testing the water. If he sold, he sold. That was ok. It was in God’s hands.

Early the next day, I called Raymond, with my bank information in hand. I was desperate to hear if the horse had sold the night before. He had not. She had gone home to sleep on it as well (I later found out she called after I did, intent to purchase). He’s mine then, let’s get this going. Many calls later (do you hear how crazy this is, sending money to someone I’ve never met for a horse that might not even exist), the deposit to hold him was sent and Sean and I had a date to drive out to Iowa to pick this creature up.

Part 3 tomorrow…

05/21/2026

Story of Ca$h Part 1

This post is a long time coming. I’ve had times where I wanted to write it, but just couldn’t, I wasn’t ready. Other times I didn’t want to write it, even though I had finally found my voice. At any rate, this post seems overdue, but in the Lord’s prompting, today is the day.
I was listening to the book of James this morning. Hard stop at the verse that said, “Anyone then who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” That’s where I was a few months ago, but that’s not where our story begins…
Asher and I took a trip to a camp/ranch back in 2023 & again in 2024. I was able to see some people I’d lost touch with since I’d been about 16. It was great to have some God-time away and spend time with Asher, show him my old stomping grounds.
While there, I noticed, or God brought to my attention, a former friend who didn’t seem to be riding much anymore. Boy had I been there! After having babies, I didn’t feel balanced or safe riding. I prayed about that a lot. I WANTED a horse to ride, but was also fairly content being the instructor and caregiver. Animals were always in my life. I know what I’m good at and immensely enjoy what I do. I’m a good teacher and barn manager. I was pretty ok with the roles I had. But I also really wanted to ride again.
*Enter a sidebar story of how I ended up with Ca$h….

05/20/2026

CAMP DATES:
June 8-12. & July 6-10
More info to follow

05/18/2026

Shorts & muck boots. Always a good look.
Said no one ever.

05/06/2026