She went to an auction in New Holland, PA, not too far from my home, in what is commonly called "Amish Country." Couturier describes the horses. "Given the noisy crowd, and the loud stern voice of the auctioneer calling out in rapid-fire succession the back-and-forth bidding for the animals, I did not expect the saddle horses to try so hard to do well. Horses are flight animals; they flee at the unfamiliar; fear is their dominant emotion. But they are social creatures, too. They aim to please because they've learned to trust, which meant that even the strong and healthy horses, of which there were many, obediently did as they were told amid the chaos of the auction: go forward; go back; turn left, now right; stop, immediately; go fast, go slow; stand still."
Carefully Couturier tells us what she observes for the next few hours. It is really, really, sad. The horses are treated poorly and many of the healthiest ones are purchased by "killer buyers." These men are the ones whose business it is to make their living on horse flesh.
When I think of the suffering of the horses, I pray that their pain be taken into the suffering Lord Jesus on the cross. And I pray that the Risen Lord, who is whole, and good, and come to us, be made visible now.
It is hard to trust in the unfolding of time. By that I mean that chronos time is somehow held within kairos time. But I do believe that being willing to be conscious of tremendous suffering, not all of it, not all the time, is some kind of prayer.