Which is Best, Hackamore or Metal Bit?
A cowboy’s Spanish produces a rather humorous language. Take the good Spanish word jáquima, meaning headstall, that leather halter you slip over the head of your horse. This word derived from the Old Spanish xaquima. From the Americanized pronunciation of jaquima, the spelling of hackamore entered the written English language by 1850. It usually has reins instead of a lead rope. There’s no bit to stuff in the horse’s mouth. Instead, there’s a braided rawhide nose band called a bosal.
The old vaqueros of California expertly trained horses with a hackamore. Most of them rode well-mannered, sweet mouthed horses that spade bit cowboys envied. You can still get into a pretty good argument around the ranch trying to debate the value of a hackamore compared to a traditional metal bit in the horse’s mouth.
Depends On Your Goal
But somewhere along the line all will agree to the same end goal. You want a horse that quickly responds to your command. Sometimes I get the feeling that depends more on the natural disposition of the horse rather than the training method.
Seems to me, the Lord looks for responsive people too. I think He would love to have us so obedient to His Word that just a little nudge would turn us away from sin. And a gentle nod would direct us back to righteousness. The Bible says, everyone should be quick to listen (James 1:19). Now, the Lord has several alternatives to teach us that lesson.
God’s Options
He starts us out on a light hackamore. Nothing severe or painful, just gentle instructions for wrong behavior. Then He encourages when we
actually do the right thing. Of course, if we don’t want to follow His leading, He can use something more demanding to attract our attention. I wonder if He ever looks down and sighs at what hard mouths we’ve developed. Rebelling at every command, we turn into the kind of people who soon ignore the Master’s words completely. I suppose some become so callous, they wouldn’t know the Lord’s leading if He slapped them on the backside.
Too bad we can’t back up to the beginning and submit to that spiritual hackamore. It sure would have made many of our lives less painful.
Stephen Bly
Circa 1995
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