Bridging the Language Divide: Wild Horse Training After Adoption

By the time Trey and Divine were ready to leave the facility, they were primed to play, engage and learn. They were still young, still learning what it meant to live in a human world, but they had learned something that was life altering. They learned that humans were trustworthy. And, they still had each other. They were doing it together. 

I was grateful for that first place and for the people who helped them through those fragile months. I was also clear about what came next. We needed to be able to communicate in a language we each understood. I don’t speak horse. They don’t speak human. But, there are bridges across these two languages that humans have been using for thousands of years. 

What bridge was right for us?

At the time, I had three other domestic horses. They were all trained in the same style of natural horsemanship. This made it the obvious choice for us. 

So, before they came home, they visited a talented, incredible trainer named Micaela Love that had worked with me and all my other horses. At her facility in Auburn, California she was willing to work with them both even though she had never met them and had never worked with wild horses.

We were all walking (and trotting) onto uncertain ground. I had no idea how they would respond to a (yet another) new place. She wasn’t sure what she had gotten herself into. What I did know for sure was that her style was a continuance of the type of engagement they had been having (caring, attentive, clear and engaged). I had no doubt that Micaela would connect with them quickly, establish trust and bring out their confidence. 

Trey and Divine were to be with Micaela at her ranch facility for two months. They would be in different pastures along with her and her family’s horses plus horses she was training. They were going to get training several times a week across basic communications between horse and human (ie. responding to a request to backup/move to the side, desensitization around everyday things, trailering, etc). As with all new learners, horse or human, Micaela’s style is to work with consistency and clarity taking step by step progress based on the horse’s readiness. 

I was prepared for very slow growth and having the foundational basics in place by the end of two months. Instead, by the end of week one, Micaela asked me if they had been immersed in natural horsemanship training since adoption. Why? Because they were two of the calmest horses she had worked with. By the end of week three, I get a text that shared how they loved to play with her corgi puppy and how they’d take naps alongside each other in the field. Apparently, they had become part of the family and endeared themselves to everyone!

During the first month, she asked if some of her trainees could also work with them. I received videos of Trey and Divine responding quickly to the gentlest of requests. One video showed them being asked to trot around the arena together (without being on a lead line) and I watched them trot side by side. It looked like water flowing together. Into the second month, I was asked if it would be ok if Trey and Divine worked with a couple of young kids. She was training several kids to work with horses and thought Trey and Divine would be the perfect horses to partner them with. They all loved it! 

When I arrived to pick them up at the end of the second month, we met in Micaela’s arena so I could work with them before taking them home. They were happy, engaged and responsive. Micaela had a pedestal that is used in advanced training with horses where they are asked to put two feet on it. Because they were so engaged, I thought “why not give it a shot?” On my first request, Trey happily put his two feet on it for me! It was miraculous to witness the change from when they began their journey from the BLM to now. 

I used to think the hardest part would be the agencies, the auctions, the paperwork. I didn’t understand yet that one of the hardest parts is what happens after the rescue story, in the quiet places where no one is filming. That is where boundaries matter, and where a relationship either becomes a new kind of harm or a new kind of home.

For Trey and Divine, I chose home. I chose boundaries. I chose the slow work of earning trust over the fast satisfaction of forcing a result. I chose to put people in their life that held these same beliefs. The result was astonishing. It was time to bring them home.

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Image Credit: Micaela Love, Love Horsemanship