Horse trainer Paul Daily is sometimes referred to as a horse whisperer. It is a term made famous a few years ago by a book and film of the same name featuring a character whose trademark in horse training was the gentle way he related to the horse. Daily doesn’t particularly like the comparison. It’s too Hollywood, and he’s too down-to-earth.
“You noticed I ain’t whispered a word since I been in here?” Daily asked. “It’s not about whispering; it’s about body language. It’s trust. I can’t just say, ‘You can trust me.’ I’ve got to prove it. Jesus Christ has already proven we can trust Him by what He did on the cross.”
Daily’s Wild Horse Ministries held events Oct. 23 in Montgomery and Oct. 25 in Cleveland [Ala.].
His appearance was sponsored jointly by the offices of Men’s Ministries and Evangelism of the Alabama State Board of Missions. Daily takes an untrained horse who is halter broken but has never had a saddle on it and breaks it — or “gentles it” — for riding during a two-hour demonstration.
As he talks, Daily is doing more than just wooing a horse. He woos the watching crowd, too, with the homespun yet insightful declarations of a self-described “good ole boy who used to serve God only for fire insurance.” Daily sees himself in every unbroken horse and God in every attempt to bring it into a relationship.
For Daily, the analogies to God in horse training are unavoidable — so inescapable in fact that he gave up a full-time job two years ago in Louisiana, where he makes his home, to train horses full time. Since then, Daily and his team have traveled to 16 states and broken almost 300 horses.
“The only thing I want out of this horse is his attention,” Daily told the crowd of some 300 onlookers at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery, and more than 300 more at Big Warrior Arena in Cleveland.
The colt, which Daily described as “a mirror with hair on it,” was provided to Wild Horse Ministries for training. She warily circled the round pen with Daily in steady pursuit. Daily always uses a round pen. “I can’t corner the horse,” Daily pointed out, “and God don’t want to corner you.”
“I want this horse to know me frontards and backard,” Daily said at the Cleveland event. “I have no use for half a horse. I want a whole horse.”
As the Montgomery colt stilled, Daily tentatively reached out a hand.
“God’s reaching out to you, too,” he said. The nervous horse backed off again, then calmed. Daily reached out again. “Now that I’ve got her attention, I’ve got to get her trust.”
When the Cleveland horse turned from him, Daily said, “I don’t want this end of the horse. I haven’t found a halter to fit it yet!”
Soon Daily had a cotton rope in hand, which he flicked gently at the horse. It bolted at every touch.
“See, this reminds me of myself right here,” Daily said. “God chased me for years, and all I done was get myself hot and sweaty. I’m trying to make the right things easy and the wrong things hard. That’s what God does for us.”
The much calmer Cleveland colt responded quickly to Daily’s outreaches. When Daily touched the horse on the neck, the horse ignored him. Then Daily walked away from the horse.
“I blowed his mind,” he said. “He thought I was going to grab him. We think God’s going to ask too much of us, too, but He won’t. He never asks for more than we can handle.”
As the demonstration continued, Daily roped the colt and put her through a series of training exercises, subtly introducing her to patterns of behavior she would draw on in the future. “I don’t want to break her spirit,” Daily explained.
At one point he looped the rope around the horse so it was in an awkward tangle. “I put her in a fix on purpose,” Daily said. “I’m teaching. This is training. Sometimes God does me like that. I’m in a bind — not that I’m saying God put me there — but I say, ‘God, this is Paul. I’m in a bind.’ ”
As the saddle blanket appeared, Daily introduced it slowly to the colt, showing her one corner at a time before he placed the unfolded blanket on her back. “God’s not gonna show you the billboard of your life,” Daily noted. “He’s gonna show you one moment at a time.”
Then it was time for the saddle. As it went on, the Montgomery colt showed her strongest resistance, bucking round and round the horse pen, screaming, as Daily gave her free rein.
“How do you handle an unpleasant situation when you’re saddled with one?” he asked the crowd, many of whom were clad in cowboy hats and boots. “That looks a whole lot like Paul Daily when I’m saddled with an unpleasant situation. I’m bucking and griping and letting everyone know I’m saddled with it.”
Despite the colt’s displeasure, Daily left the saddle in place. “I say you’re a better horse with it on than with it off. The apostle Paul wanted the thorn in his flesh removed. God said, ‘No, Paul, I’m not gonna do that. ‘He said, ‘It’s like this. You’re a better guy with it on than with it off.’” Daily tightens saddles three times, he said, before he gets on and rides “So often we say, ‘God, why do I have to carry this disability?’ He says, ‘You’re a better guy with it on than with it off.’ And along with the burden comes the grace.”
Finally, the horse was ready to be ridden, while the calmer Cleveland horse was ready for riding much earlier. “I’m not saying I’m scared to step up there,” said Daily, who admits to having been run over by more than one bucking horse. “But I’m sure gonna be careful.”
Daily put one foot in the stirrup, straightened up and paused mid-way. “See where I am?” he asked the onlookers. “This is where a lot of Christians are today. Too many of us are riding the stirrup because we fear it might get rough.”
Daily swung into the saddle, easily controlling the spirited colt. After a few lopes around the pen, Daily requested that the gates be opened, and he rode through them. “My friend, the work’s not in here. The work’s out there in the field, and you don’t slack up until the pearly gates shut behind you. This,” he said as he rode back into the round pen, “is just the training ground.”
As Daily dismounted, the crowd broke into spontaneous applause. “That’s for you, girl,” Daily murmured to the colt. “That’s for you, sugar.”
He brushed the horse down to present it back to its owner. “You see, this symbolizes when we come to Jesus Christ and give Him our heart and life. He cleans us up, polishes us up, then presents us to God.”
Before giving the Cleveland colt back to its owner, Daily presented the crowd with a final show of submission on the part of the horse.
“This is complete submission,” he said, “and submission brings ultimate peace.”
Then as the horse stood docilely, Daily showed the onlookers a knotted bridle. The knots represent the 72 people who have accepted the Lord during 2001 demonstrations, said Daily. He extended an invitation for those in the crowd to receive Christ, too. About 10 responded at Montgomery and 12 at Cleveland.
As Daily extended the invitation to come kneel at his saddle, he didn’t whisper his own statement of submission: “As for me and my horse, we will ride for the Lord!” (Malinda McGill contributed)
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