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RUTLAND RANCH
| Deal With The Lord |
Guy Ray Rutland was a Christian and raised his family that way. He attended church when he could and had faith that God would always be there to help out when you needed him most. He wasn’t one that would be considered your “typical Christian soldier”. His job on earth was to take care of as many of God’s horses as he could and to help those that needed guidance in taking care of their horses. He loved his horses. It broke his heart for one to get sick or hurt. They truly were a part of him. Often times his family couldn’t understand what his dedication and meaning on earth was, as it seemed to take away from their own selfish desires. But his love was never questioned. The day that Guy Ray Rutland passed away, one of the church deacons came by to pay his respects at the home. As he was leaving, he pulled the youngest son, Jeff, off to the side. “I don’t know if you ever knew this or not” remarked the man “but I have to tell you a story about your Dad”. Jeff had never heard the story, but as the story started to unfold, Jeff recognized the event that he was hearing told from the deacon’s point of view. “I was going into the church office one fall day several years ago and met your dad coming out of the minister’ s office”. For Guy Ray to be in the church on any day but a Sunday would be considered rare. Lee went on to say, “We stopped and chit- chatted for a minute and then went on our ways. I went on into the minister’s office and saw him sitting behind his desk with a blank look on his face. I asked him what was wrong”. The minister replied quietly “Oh, nothing is wrong. Guy Ray Rutland was just here. He has left a very unusual offering”. Now, we are going to back up to what had led up to this visit with the minister that day, as Jeff remembered it to be. Sometime in mid-spring, when a day at the Rutland Ranch was anything but ordinary, a special thing took place….. A newborn foal was discovered at morning feeding time, one of about 300 that would foal at the ranch that year. Most all the pregnant mares were brought into the mare barn to foal as their time came close. Since the mares had no green grass and were fed a high protein grain, most colts were given an enema at first finding, in order to get their bowels started working in good order, at the same time their navel was treated with iodine. This happened to be a breeding day. Lots of work and everyone had more to do than would be expected of three people that day. The day brought one problem after the other that needed attention, and as one might guess, the enema for this foal was overlooked. Everyone thought that the other guy had taken care of it and it went undone. The day turned into night and that evening’s feeding began at around 9:00 P.M. It wasn’t until then that the colt was noticed having a terrible time trying to have a bowel movement. By now, he was showing signs of severe colic for a newborn and it was obvious what the cause was. Guy Ray had a full time veterinarian working for him at the time, so he went to work on the colt. All the standard procedures were taken that a good veterinarian would use to deal with the situation. Of course, Guy Ray was not one to necessarily follow “standard procedures” on a lot of things. By 1:00 A.M. the colt was no better, in fact worse. The vet said, “Guy Ray, we are all tired, we have done everything in the world that we could for this colt but he has a telescoped gut from straining too much. There is nothing more we can do for him. We had just as well go on to bed because he is going to die anyway”. Dad agreed with the vet and sent him on home to get some sleep. But Guy Ray went to make some more coffee. The next morning when the boys came in the barn to feed, there sat Guy Ray, asleep, on a bale of hay with an empty coffee thermos and about 20 or 30 empty disposable enemas lying on the ground next to him. A look in the stall showed the colt up and looking fine. The vet couldn’t believe it and congratulated Guy Ray on his perseverance and “hard headedness”. “You saved him Guy Ray. I don’t know how, but you saved him,” remarked the vet. That was all that was ever said. Guy Ray just smiled. It was a new day at the ranch and everyone went about their business of trying to get the days work done. Now back to the story Lee Cain, the deacon, was telling Jeff. “The minister was shocked at what your dad had just told him. It seems that there was a sick colt at the ranch that wasn’t expected to live. Everyone had gone to bed, even the veterinarian after so long, except for Guy Ray, and even he had done all that he had known to do. He had tried all of his old concaucshins and remedies, but was getting nowhere with saving this colt’s life. So finally, knowing this colt needed more help than man could give, Guy Ray said that he just sat down on a bale of hay and said a prayer. Guy Ray’s words to the preacher were “I told the Lord that if he would help me save this colt, that he could have half interest in him. Well, the colt lived and we sold him at our sale in October. He brought $3500, so there is the Lord’s half.” as he handed the minister a check for $1,750. The minister had never had anything like that happen before. The minister, who was fairly new at the church and really hadn’t gotten to know Guy Ray that well yet, was more than surprised to see someone keep a promise like that which they had made “that only God had ever heard”. That was Guy Ray Rutland. His word was gold, no matter who heard it. He never wanted credit for anything. He and God had their own special relationship that most preachers would never understand. He wasn’t able to show up at church every Sunday, and on occasion there would be a naughty word slip out of his mouth, yet he was raised to know where the real power comes from. But he was still a horse trader; he wasn’t going to give the entire colt to God, but he would partner with him and give him half interest, if the Lord chose to participate in his deal. That seemed fair at the time, as it seems fair to this day. Guy Ray always said that a fair trade is when everyone thinks they got the best deal. When that happens, there will be another trade down the road. Always keep that door open. The people that got a chance to know Guy Ray Rutland got a fair trade, no doubt. But God wasn’t going to let man have him forever. After all, there are some pretty good horses in heaven that need some looking after. |
| Jeff Rutland ~ 1047 East College Avenue ~ Independence, KS 67301 ~ 620-331-2485 ~ jeff@rutlandranch.net |