SILVER CREEK — Wherever Mark Bolender goes, his horse follows.
Forward, back, circling to the left or right — the elegant, reddish-brown steed follows in a steady gait, whether Bolender is in the saddle or walking alongside him in the dirt pasture behind his home in Silver Creek.
Bolender will often remove the bridle from the face of Checkers, his 6-year-old quarter horse, and their movements will remain synchronized.
Bolender switches directions — three steps forward, two to the right — and Checkers stays in tune, never stumbling or balking.
They have to be this precise because Bolender and Checkers have teamed up for one of the most unusual ministries in Southwest Washington.
Bolender rides Checkers into churches full of surprised and excited congregations to demonstrate the horse's obedience to rider, which, in Bolender's mind, is a metaphor for a Christian's obedience to God.
"It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen," Darrell Beebe, pastor at the Mossyrock Assembly of God, said of Bolender's visit to the church a few months ago.
About 160 people attended that service, Beebe said, nearly three times more than the usual number. One elderly couple came to the service for the first time in their lives, just so they could see a horse in church, he said.
"I would recommend it," Beebe said. "The message about trust and obedience is just fantastic."
But Bolender, who has delivered his 45-minute presentation called "Choices" to 12 churches in the local area, never set out to become a horse minister. He'd ridden a horse three times in his youth; twice he was bucked off, and the last time the horse turned around and headed home against its rider's wishes.
Bolender's children became interested in horseback riding when they were teenagers, so he went out and bought Lady, Checkers' mother, 10 years ago.
He had even less luck riding that horse. Lady bucked Bolender off, breaking his back.
"These things are the most pathetic, dumbest things I've ever seen," Bolender thought at that time. "They were a terrorist to me."
But all that changed when he took Checkers to a Mossyrock Horse and Rider clinic put on by renowned horse trainer Pat Parelli. There he learned the "mother-in-law look" — staring down the horse to let it know who is the boss.
Once Bolender recognized that he must take control because a horse sees only hierarchy, not equals, the relationship suddenly started working. A symbiotic union formed, according to Bolender, when horse and rider understood who was boss and what they could accomplish together.
Bolender and Checkers' first performance was not for a church congregation. Eric Pelz, chaplain at the Maple Lane School for juvenile felons, asked Bolender if he wanted to be a mentor for some of the boys there.
"I don't feel God's call to be a mentor, but I'll do a chapel service with a horse if you want," Bolender told Pelz.
The program was a hit. Bolender remembers boys glued to their chairs, including one from Los Angeles who admitted he was afraid of horses. After the program, though, the boy came up to Bolender and asked if he could give Checkers a hug.
The fear, it seemed, was gone.
That was in 2002. Since then, Bolender and Checkers have delivered the program to churches and Christian schools in Tacoma, Randle, Centralia, Chehalis, Vader and Salkum.
Bringing a horse to church is not always the cleanest endeavor, though. About half the time, Checkers will leave behind a little, um, "indiscretion," as Bolender puts it.
But he always comes prepared. Bolender spreads the rolling plastic carpet on the floor, and has pooper scoopers and Tupperware buckets on hand for any emergencies.
At one church, Bolender said, he enlisted the help of some of the parishioners to remove some of the droppings.
"I told them, 'We're going to clean up the mess because the horse can't clean it up,' " he said.
A former banker who now owns the Metal Mill at Chehalis, Bolender also works with Mossyrock equestrian students, though he never takes any money for his services.
He and Checkers have competed in contests in Washington and Oregon, and Bolender said one of his goals is to make the 2008 Olympic team for the equestrian event reining.
But for now, the warm weather brings more opportunities to practice and to ride, and more churches looking for something unique for their Sunday service.
"I never started out to bring a horse to church," Bolender said. "Sometimes I can't believe I'm doing it. People don't go to sleep, though."
Erik Olson covers education and religion for The Chronicle. He may be reached at 807-8239, or by e-mail at eolson@chronline.com.
