There is a technique in horse breaking, or horse gentling called “joining up”. It illuminates God’s nature and shows us how we can obtain rest through an intimate relationship with God.
Horses are special creatures to some of us; they are terrifying to others. They are big and magnificent. Imagine you’ve been given the responsibility to get a green horse, unbroken or an inexperienced animal loaded onto a trailer. The horse rears back and snaps its halter. So you take the horse and go to what is called a round pen. It might be a 50-70-foot diameter pen with no hard corners. You close the gate and release the horse. This green horse is going to run away from you as fast as it can. It will be snorting and uptight with its neck high and arched, his ears pointed out. Overall, it is in a defensive posture.
So what’s the next move? Grab a rope, lasso it? Wrangle a 1,000-pound animal to the ground? Do you mount it and see if you can hang on long enough to break the animal’s will? Do you whisper sweet, soothing words to this animal and see if you can go and pet it? None of those are good choices. A technique that has become most widely accepted is using the horse’s nature to come into a state of attack with this animal.
Horses are simple and selfish and sometimes stupid. They are a prey animal, which naturally makes them very scared, very alert, very aware of a threat. But they are also herd animals. That has a couple of different effects on their character. Partly, it makes them want to challenge for position in the herd. So, a horse will show a trainer very little respect until he has worked with the horse because it will be trying to express its dominion, its dominance over the trainer.
However, a horse also has some features of their personality that suggest that it wants to be under authority. Once authority has been established, a horse is comfortable. It seeks rest. And it wants trustworthy rulership over it. Something that is consistent, that feels safe, and it wants to be attached. But first, a green horse needs to move from a defiant defensive posture to one of willing compliance to the trainer’s authority.
There are 4 stages of this yielding process of “joining up”. They are: listening, showing respect, expressing contentment and then drawing near.
The first stage is chasing the horse around the round pen. The trainer is applying pressure to this horse. He is chastising it, making the horse extremely uncomfortable. He might throw his hands up in the air, or hold up a stick with a flag on it. The point is to run the horse around the arena to tire it. Then the trainer makes it turn and run the other direction, building up to faster turns.
The horse is now agitated and upset. The purpose is to get the horse’s attention. It’s chastising the animal to the point that it yields to the trainer’s authority. He is kneading the animal, softening it until it sees him. Its attention is now at the center of the arena instead of out of the arena. Now is the time to get less aggressive in the chastisement of the animal. It begins listening. Over time, the animal will start to show meekness, humility, and respect by lowering its head. At this point, the horse is expressing its willingness to submit to authority.
The next step is to back off even further, to give the horse more space. At that point, the horse may stop. It will start to loosen its muscles and its face will relax. It starts to lick and chew on its mouth. This is an expression of its contentment. It respects the trainer’s authority. Now it’s saying, I’m happy to be under your authority. This is an indication that the animal is now ready to complete the process of “joining up”.
Now the trainer can stop entirely applying any pressure to the animal. He may even turn and face away from the horse. The horse will likely walk up to the trainer because it wants to be with him. Once the horse has come into physical proximity with the trainer, the trainer can walk in any direction he wants in the arena and the horse will follow. The horse has yielded dominion to the trainer and now it wants to be at rest. This is the point the horse is a gentled horse, a horse that has “joined up”. The process of following creates a level of intimacy. There is a joy in that connection, a wonderful intimacy in it that is fulfilling for the trainer and the horse.
Interestingly, members of a church are likened in the Bible to horses: “To me, my darling, you are like My mare among the chariots of Pharaoh” (Song of Solomon 1:9). However, like horses, there are many places where God’s people are described as distracted, self-centered, and self-willed: “The LORD said: ‘Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks, . . .”’ (Isaiah 3:16). We seek our own dominion, we seek self-rule. But as God designed us, we want to be part of a herd. We want relationships. We want that connectivity. We also want to be under safe rule.
God Himself very much wants that intimate relationship with us. He wants His people to be “joined up” with Him. James speaks of the Spirit yearning jealously: “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?’. . . Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. . . . Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:5, 8, 10).
The type of relationship that God desires with His people can be described as a “joined up” one. The way God accomplishes that intimacy is remarkably like the way that a trainer works with a horse. God chastises us; He works us. He pressures us. He puts us in positions until we yield to His authority and come to Him: “I said, ‘Surely you will fear Me, you will receive instruction’. . . I will leave in your midst a meek and humble people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord’” (Zephaniah 3:7, 12).
God wants us to come into a resting relationship with Him: “My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places” (Isaiah 32:16).
So, this natural phenomenon described as the “joining up” of a trainer and a horse is very instructive. We need to make sure that we are connected to the natural environment and observing God’s creation in ways to understand Who God is. But more importantly, it describes and illustrates for us how we can come into a relationship with God. Those steps are many, but in this particular example, they would include listening carefully to God, humbling ourselves, being meek and recognizing His authority, expressing contentment in that place, and then drawing near to God so He can draw near to us.
Staff