TORRINGTON – On Tuesday, June 22, Wild Horse Ministries visited the Goshen County Fairgrounds to demonstrate the parallels between training a horse and the Christian faith.

“Our number one purpose is to draw people to the Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul Daily, who presented the demonstration, said. “To help them see that training horses is a resemblance of what God wants to do with us.” He also said he hopes to encourage believers who might be going through struggles.

Over 200 people attended the free event, which started with a flag presentation at 6 p.m.

The horses Daily works with are provided by community members. At the start of the ministry, Daily said he just asked for any horse. After a few too many incidents with older studs and aggressive mares, Daily started requesting young horses, from 18 months to three years old.

“If you have too bad of a horse, it just takes away from what our message is to share with people – I have to try to stay alive too,” he said.

Daily said before the event, he had no idea what kind of horse he was going to see and no idea how he would work the horse.

The demonstration horse was a two-year-old filly, provided by Dave Walker.

“If God’s willing, I’ll be riding it before I quit,” he said.

Daily walked through the ten parts of what he calls “the round pen of life,” which he explained while training the horse. The ten steps are also outlined on the ministry’s website.

“The calling

Horse – Today has been selected for this horse to begin training for future use.

Man – Today, God has selected you for use in His Kingdom.

The expectation

Horse – I do not expect this horse to be any more than what he is right now, an untrained wild horse.

Man – God does not expect us to be or do more than we are capable of.

Trust

Horse – In order to train this horse, it is necessary that it trust me. God created them to flee from danger, so I am careful not to threaten or harm him in any way.

Man – God also desires a trust relationship with us. He loves us more than we can imagine and does not want to harm us.

Desire to please

Horse – I want this horse to work because he wants to, not because he is being forced.

Man – God wants us to serve Him because we want to, not because we have to.

Demands full attention

Horse – I will ask for this horse’s full attention so we can work together.

Man – God wants our full attention so we will not be distracted by other things.

Seek understanding

Horse – I want to present my wishes in a way that the horse will understand what I am asking of him.

Man – God wants us to seek His will and way.

Learn to accept the truth

Horse – Learns that I am his friend and will help him.

Man – God wants us to seek His will and way.

Trials and troubles

Horse – We expose this horse to all kinds of new things, like ropes, blankets, saddles, etc., to help him learn to cope and work things out.

Man – God prepares us for our tomorrows by helping us through our trials and troubles today.

Accept, not rebel

Horse – We teach the horse this by making the right things easy and the wrong things difficult.

Man – God rewards us for our obedience and chastises us for our wrongs.

Full release

Horse – Accepts all. Rope, bridle, blanket, saddle, rider.

Man – When we accept Christ as Master of all our life.”

After doing several exercises to gain the filly’s attention and expose her to ropes, Daily saddled her. Though she took off bucking around the pen, Daily focused on making the right things easy and the wrong things hard.

Not long after, Daily got on, and again the filly bucked. Soon, though, they were trotting circles.

Daily said he has been doing demonstrations for 24 years. The first was at his ranch in February of 1997.

Daily said he had worked in the oil field all his life.

“That was my bread-and-butter money, and that’s how I raised my family,” he said.

Having been around horses his whole life, when Daily wasn’t working, he took on horses to train at his home, in central Louisiana.

“I started taking in outside horses. Never did know a whole lot about what I was doing – I still don’t. Still fumbling around in the dark,” he said.

Wild Horse Ministries began from one moment Daily remembers well.

Daily had a day off of work, so he decided to work with a horse that had never been handled before.

“I hate to admit it, but I used to be pretty rough. They didn’t do what I wanted them to do, I’d beat and bang, jerk and snatch and all that kind of stuff,” he said. Daily said his approach has changed a lot since.

Daily worked the horse in a round pen and tried to rope him.

“I was fixin’ to show him who was boss,” he said.

All of a sudden, Daily said a voice spoke to his heart. He remembers the following conversation.  

“See this horse?”

“Where did that come from? Yeah, I see this horse. He’s in my round pen.”

“What’s he doing?”

“Can’t you see? He’s running from me, trying to jump the fence.”

“That’s what you’re doing with me.”

Daily said this moment is when he knew God was speaking to him.

God said, “what do you want to do with this horse?”

Daily replied, “well, I want to train it and make a valuable horse out of this worthless old bucking bronc trying to jump the fence.”

“That’s all I want to do with you,” God said. “But I’m not going to make you serve me. I want you serving me because you want to, not because you have to.”

Daily said he did not tell anyone about what had happened and kept working. From then on, with every horse he worked with, Daily learned more about what it looks like to follow God.

“Finally, the Lord said, ‘I want you to show someone else what I’ve shown you through these horses,’” he said.

Daily and Joanna invited the local youth groups out to their home. Ninety-two people showed up. Daily said he used a wild horse to demonstrate lessons he had learned and was riding the horse in two hours.

After getting several requests, he did the same thing a few weeks later. In another few weeks he did it again. More people came each time.

After three months, crowds of 300 people would travel to Daily’s house to see what they had heard about by word of mouth.

Daily said, “I didn’t know half the folks, but they would show up and say, ‘what is this we’ve been hearing about?’”

In 1997, Daily received requests to demonstrate in other locations. The requests continued pouring in and Daily traveled for demonstrations by using vacation time at work.

Daily quit his oil field job in 2000. He continued traveling to put on demonstrations around the country. When his daughter Lenora reached eighth grade, she began with homeschooling, and went with. Later on, Joanna quit her job, and the three traveled together.

“It started out as a one-time deal and now we’ve done over a hundred a year,” he said. Daily said they have done more than 2,400 demonstrations total.

“I ain’t nothing but just an old backwoods country boy and if God can use me, he can use anybody,” Daily said. He emphasized all the credit going to God.

Torrington was the tenth stop on their 27-stop trip. Daily and Joanna plan to return home on July 10.

The ministry takes demonstration requests year-round. Joanna is in charge of scheduling and planning their trips. Though they cannot travel to all the locations requested, they try to schedule a trip to a missed location the next year.

“God gets all the glory, all the credit. It ain’t me, it’s God,” he said. “There’s more about a horse that I don’t know than what I do know. As we go, we just take it one day at a time.”

Daily and Joanna were married for 16 years before having kids.

“I didn’t think we would ever have any,” he said. When Joanna told him, they were going to be parents, Daily said he could not believe it.

His daughter, Lenora, now also does demonstrations for the ministry, along with her husband and two young sons.

Daily said his son also is able to do the demonstrations, but currently works as a flight attendant in Pennsylvania.

The family has traveled together for years, being away from home about two thirds of the year.

“I’ve never regretted a day of it. God has provided for me and my family.” Daily said his experience in the last 24 years has taught him how to really trust God. Because the events are free, Daily said his family lives out of a donation bucket and some merchandise sales.

“I really don’t know where my next pay is coming from, but God’s got it. He has taught me how to totally trust in him.”