Using an image or story to describe how someone is in life can be a great way to help that person understand their true circumstances. Danielle Silvestri provides a metaphor of a horse locked in a stall for 28 years, resigned to a life of bondage, fear and pain. Danielle was this horse. Dancing Hooves is a moving story about learning how to break free from bondage and live life to the full.
The Horse in the Stall
The horse has been locked in his stall for 28 years. It’s not his fault – he was born into this entrapment. With his birth came knowledge only of abandonment, fear, pain and desperation.
The stall looked out to large fields where other horses roamed freely, enjoying the sun on their back and plenty to eat and drink. This horse however, could only dream of such freedom. As long as he was stuck in this stall, life would continue to be an overpowering nightmare.
Silvestri writes that many people live their life like this. They don’t know how to overcome the bondage of feelings of fear, pain and abandonment. Suffering these feelings herself, Danielle writes about this vision provided by God and how it came as a revelation that she was this horse.
Fear is an Attack of the Enemy
A Christian, Silvestri acknowledges words in the bible that speak of God’s plan for each person’s life. She also acknowledges that the devil is aware of these plans. She writes, “the devil knows that if you lay hold of that which has been prepared for you by God, you are going to be a mighty force to be reckoned with and a threat to his work.”
The flattering side of this statement is that every individual is a threat to evil – they have the power and potential to do great things in God. Unfortunately, insecurities and other evils in life can stop people from realising this potential. That is the devil’s goal in life.
The Man with Authority
Silvestri continues the comparison between peoples’ lives and that of the horse in the stall. At a point when the horse is ready to give up on life and die, the Man with Authority turns up with a key to the stall – the key to freedom.
Having only known fear and pain, the horse is uneasy and fearful of what this tall man will do to him. Even when the stall is unlocked and the door opened, the horse is frozen with fear. Only when the man speaks, “You are free indeed”, is the horse released to bolt from his stall.
Dancing Hooves provides a clear comparison between the horse in the stall – people in a life of bondage and fear – and the freedom that is possible through Jesus Christ. A fairly short book of 96 pages, Dancing Hooves is an insightful read and bound to assist people who are struggling with feelings of fear, inadequacy, abandonment and many others.
Source:
- Dancing Hooves, Danielle Silvestri. Princess Publishing, 2008. iSBN 978-0-9581298-3-1
Chris Thomas - C. Thomas has studied and worked with horses since 2001. She teaches horse studies part time and is undertaking an Equine Science ...
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