HoofBeats Correction:

Due to an error that occurred in last week’s issue, 5.24, Pat Murphy’s entire Hoofbeats article was not featured. Because we feel that the article serves the Valley community and our readers, the article is running again, so that our readers have an opportunity to read the article in its entirety. We apologize for this inconvenience and hope you enjoy the article.                                                                -SYVJ Staff 

                       

Do Horses Go to Heaven?

 

After a number of years of interviewing horse lovers, we have been overwhelmed by the number of virtues that have been attributed to these noble animals that have long served mankind. Stories were told of their close friendships and devotion, stories of horses with an uncanny caring for children and such amazing levels of intelligence that allowed them to become part of the family. Often mentioned were the pleasures that people get just being around horses, watching them in a field or being carried on their backs. The sounds of their hooves on a gravel road and how their neighs and soft knickers are like music to their ears. There is apparently a certain magic that defies explanation and a bonding that is different from that between people and dogs. 

 

Mysterious healings of mind, spirit and body have been reported from interacting with horses. Some of the most glowing reports came from our therapeutic riding facility for handicapped people. There, people who are unable to respond to many things in their lives, somehow become animated around horses.

 

 “Horses are also valuable for family counseling,” said therapist Faith Deter, who uses horses in some of her sessions. “Horses really can play a valuable role in healing families. It appears that it is sometimes easier for people who have relationship problems to relate to non-humans.”

 

Since it’s a common belief that good people who are devoted to serving others will go to heaven when they die, we wondered if horses might be headed in the same direction. So we contacted a number of local churches to get their take on this somewhat fanciful question.

 

We called the Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Church and spoke with the assistant pastor Steve Miller who said, “You know, I’ve thought a lot about whether or not animals go on to heaven. I think that heaven is definitely a place and that there’s a place in heaven for animals. But I don’t think there’s a place in the scriptures that deals with this.

 

“If animals have souls they are of a different or lesser quality than humans. However, when the time for the new heaven and earth arrives there will be a place for all beings- animal and human. God created animals and said they were good. It’s impossible to say definitely, but God is just!” 

 

At the Santa Ines Mission, Father Dan Cabot said, “Animals don’t have immortal souls, so they don’t go to heaven. Only humans are made in God’s image and likeness and go to heaven. But animals certainly bring a lot of joy to us on earth, and sometimes we will tell a child, who has lost a beloved pet that it is now in puppy heaven, to comfort them.”

 

We also spoke with Kalim Le Blanc of the Bahai Church. Rather than having a minister, the Bahai congregation is lead by a group of nine people. They meet in different homes every 19 days to study the teachings of Bahaullah. Bahaullah, who was from a noble Persian family, lived from 1817-1892. He turned his back on his family’s riches and worldly goods and proclaimed himself to be a messenger of God. He devoted himself to teaching the unity of mankind.

 

“We are human spirits living in physical bodies,” Le Blanc said. “We are here to develop ourselves spiritually with kindness, love, mercy, justice, honesty, and all goodness. We would seek to unite all the people in the world in these virtues. As we live, we develop. It is similar to how a baby develops in the womb. We believe that at the time of physical death one is simply transformed into spirit form. Heaven is not a place it is a condition.”

 

So how do horses fit into this?

“Well, first let me tell you that I had a horse named Champ, that I loved very much,” Le Blanc said. “We believe that there are different levels or realms and animals have a realm where their spirits go there after death.”  

 

First Church of Christian Science-president, Donna Crowe said there is no doubt that there is something very spiritual about horses.

 

“When my dear mother died, whom I had been caring for, for some time, I went to the stable and got on my horse, Redwing, and rode to the top of the hill,” she said. “Strangely, the other horses followed me and Redwing’s dam came up and laid her head in my lap. I was still astride my horse and it was as if she were trying to comfort me. I felt the love being communicated to me and somehow I knew that this was heaven. It’s here and now if we can recognize it! Around my horses I feel a sense of harmony and spiritual love.”

 

When we reached Todd Lugli, the pastor of the Well Church, he told us, “I believe God created Adam and Eve and all the animals. It was Adam and Eve that caused all the problems! But when the new heaven and earth arrive, animals will be there because God didn’t make a mistake in the beginning, so it makes sense that animals will be in heaven for our pleasure and their own.”

 

Rev. Jarmo Tarkki of the Bethania Lutheran Church in Solvang said, “Lutheran teachings have no official opinion on animals in heaven. They have not stated whether they believe that they are there or not. My personal opinion is that heaven is not a place but a state of being. While we are alive some people are in heaven and some live lives of hell. Horses and other animals are treasured companions and certainly add to our heavenly state.”

 

Dr. Richard Smitley of the First Baptist Church in Solvang said, “Personally, I feel that the Lord gave us animals to help us and be best friends. However, the scriptures don’t say definitively whether or not animals go to heaven. But in the book of Revelations it says that riders on swift and powerful horses carry warriors from heaven to earth at the time of the ending of the earth.”

 

“If you open the bible and turn to the Revelations, you will indeed find the mention of horses of different colors. First comes a white horse carrying a rider with a crown on his head and carrying a bow. He will ride out to conquer in many battles and win the war. A red horse appears and its rider has the authority to banish peace and bring anarchy to the earth. Next a black horse appears with a rider holding a pair of balances in his hand. Then a pale horse comes whose rider is death and another whose rider is Hell. Together the riders cause complete havoc on one-fourth of the earth with war, famine, disease and wild animals. Then finally, as the heavens open up, a white horse appears with a rider named ‘Faithful and True’ (Jesus). But remember that this is the prediction of the ending of the world and it is not recommended that after reading this part of the bible, you turn on the world news. It can be scary.