Chapter 19: Of Horse Training & Day Tripping

Treeya worked with the captured horses almost day and night for two weeks straight, feeding, watering, talking to them, and most importantly, even getting them familiar with Dugut and Nugut so they wouldn't panic every time the two wolves came around. Occasional she asked for and received help from Sheel, and then a week later Treeya informed us that she felt ready to attempt the next step with the horse training.

The following morning Treeya explained she had discovered that when a horse puts its ears forward, or drops its head, or licks its lips, it is open to communication, and that if you approach a horse head-on it will frighten more easily than if you approach from the side, with your head down. She also told us that the best way to act around a horse is to be neither aggressive nor submissive.

"If you're too aggressive, you with disconnect with them, but if you give in too much you will also disconnect," she said earnestly. "Somewhere in the middle of conveying strength, combined with kindness is the only way to really communicate with a horse."

Then Sheel, Roya and I watched with keen interest as Treeya, with the help of Dugut and Nugut isolated a light gray mare by driving her into the back pen. Immediately the mare kept trying to crawl under the pen fence in an attempt to get back to the others.

"Yah!" Treeya hollered. "Yah!" The mare broke into a trot. Eventually, she stopped and her ears pricked forward, looking at Treeya.

"That's the kind of look Treeya wants," explained Sheel. "Now when the mare's ready to communicate she'll drop her head."

Sure enough, that's exactly what the mare did, but as Treeya approached, the mare turned away.

"Okay, I'm going to make her run again," Treeya called out to us then she yelled, "Yah! Yah!"

As the horse trotted past us, Treeya walked closer and explained, "I'm making it so the horse can only rest when she's paying attention to me, and I'm also letting her know that I'm not in here to hurt or threaten her in any way."

"And she's a smart horse too isn't she? She's in there thinking. Right?" Sheel commented.

Treeya nodded affirmation.

Within an hour, Treeya was stroking the wild mare. Next, she looped a long, thin, braided, length of leather over another length of braided leather, which she had very tightly suspended across the pen between two tall poles. The other end she tied around the horse's muzzle and neck.

I was amazed. Not only with Treeya's ability to communicate with the animal but the cleverness to have come up with the line attached to the tall poles was remarkable. The mare was tied just tightly enough so she could stand comfortably only when directly below the suspended line. If she stood off to the side, or reared, or otherwise resisted, the taunt braided leather pulled her head uncomfortably. The looped line had the added benefit of being far enough away from the fence that she wouldn't hurt herself if she made a fuss. After some wrangling, the horse stood as alert and relaxed as could be.

Then Treeya stroked the mare with a strip of leather tarp attached to a long pole.

Sheel explained that Treeya had told her that the noise and feel of the tarp would prepare the horse for any human-caused movement, flapping of clothes and the like. The mare twitched at first, but soon got used to it. That done, Treeya petted, leaned against, hugged and draped herself over the mare. Then much to my shock, within three hours of picking the untamed mare out of the group in the pen, Treeya did something I would never have even dreamed of, she jumped onto the horses back and was riding around on her.

I was transfixed. Not only by how quickly the mare had started to trust Treeya, but that she was riding on its back! I had not even considered the prospect, but now seeing it with my own eyes I realized how much ground we could cover on horseback and the almost endless other possibilities that Treeya had given us.

I had learned that nothing would dissuade Treeya and the next day, things progressed even more smoothly, and soon Sheel was mounting a second horse. Treeya's directions to her blonde mate took on the repetitive nature of a chant. "Keep her calm Sheel," she said every time the horse flinched or spun. "Get back on Sheel," she said every time Sheel fell off.

The horses had to learn to accept us and that we wouldn't hurt them, the infinite possibilities the horses offered and the repetition bled away my internal arguments, and I myself mounted a third mare, but when I did all bad things under the Earth Mother broke loose. The horse reared up and I starting to fall backward so I quickly jumped off and landed on my feet. I said, "I'm not afraid of her." At least that's what Roya said I said. I don't remember that, but I do remember what came next. Treeya said, "Get back on her Dac. You can do it." And I did. A few minutes later, I rode the mare for half a turn around the pen, but it had taken me, all told, four hours to ride a wild horse.

It became plainly obvious that Treeya had some higher-level connection with the horses that Sheel, Roya or I were not privileged to have. Treeya was able to direct the horses with very little effort, however this was not the case for her three mates. The horses allowed us to sit on their backs, but if Treeya was not close at hand, getting our animals to walk, turn left, turn right or even stop, once the started walking was difficult if not impossible.

Through trial and error, we learned that in general a horse moved in the same direction as its head was pointing. So, the trick was to gain the ability to turn its head. Eventually Treeya and Sheel came up with a braided leather harness that fit behind the horse's ears, across its forehead, then down the length of both sides of its jawbone, and eventually tied under its chin. This worked reasonably well, but was vastly improved upon when Treeya replaced the braided leather strap tied under the horses chin with a carved out bone. We bored holes through both ends of the bone then affixed the straps running the length of the horses jawbone to it, along with two longer straps which we had access too when sitting on the horses back. With this gear affixed to a horse even Sheel, Roya and I were able to direct the horses' movements by pulling back on either the left or the right long braided strap.

We made fur pads, which could be tied under the horses belly for riding comfort, then throwing all caution to the wind, all four of us mounted up and rode out of the pen. Treeya led us out of the pen and onto the Plains. Our horses followed Treeya's horse, in a single file line, pretty much nose to tail. Dugut and Nugut took the lead running this way and that making sure nothing bad surprised us.

For the next four hours, we all got plenty of practice in controlling our mounts. Treeya kept the pace quite slow for the most part and we found riding on the fur pads to be relatively comfortable. Occasionally, however, Treeya would quicken the pace from a walk to something a little faster and this was somewhat uncomfortable. I thought I might fall off if we maintained that pace for more than a few minutes at a time. Fortunately, I did not.

We passed thru some wooded areas, crossed the small river where we learned how to let our horses take a drink and began to acquire an appreciation for the animals upon whose backs we were riding. Witnessing how seemingly effortlessly the horses handled steep grades, I saw how we could easily come to depend upon horses for transportation, sitting on a horse certainly would be much less strenuous than carrying a heavy load by hand or even pulling a travois.

We returned to the pen four hours later, running the horses at a fast pace part of the way, dismounted, tied up our horses, took off the fur pads, and then took off the braided leather steering harnesses.

Treeya looked at us and while smiling she said, "Your horses' need to be petted and reassured some. You know, we should thank them for carrying us around."

Turning toward the horse I had ridden, it did appear as if its head hung a little. Her eyes stared dully. Only then did I realize how exhausted she was, and how terrified she must have been. I brushed her with my hand, hugged and petted her while, following Treeya's example I spoke softly to her.

As I stroked the little mount seem to come back to life, and I came to appreciate, and even care for this gentle yet wild animal, her and I had been through a very scary experience together, without either of us getting hurt.