The Soul of a Horse by Joe Camp Read Free Book Online Page B

for others in the herd to get some sleep. The men, if they did come looking, would not find them, would not even be able to see them until morning, and by then they’d be gone, once more on the move.

8
    The Wild Horse Model

    O ur new natural pasture was ready. Not a pasture in the
green grass
sense of the word. This one was dirt and rocks and virtually straight up and down. Very steep. But in those ways it actually matched our research on the
wild horse model,
which, in essence, is an attempt to imitate the way horses live in the wild. And it was the best we could do with the virtually unusable acre and a half behind our house. It was surrounded by an inexpensive electric fence inside a perimeter fence of chain link that was already in place.
    And now it was time to try it.
    We were worried.
    Was it too steep? Would the horses like it? Were there too many rocks and boulders? Would they hurt themselves? Would they all get along in the same pasture?
    Scribbles was first.
    He’s the quiet one. A gorgeous paint, but not long on charisma. He’s the one most likely to be found standing in a corner, seemingly motionless, for hours.
Lazy
would be a merciful understatement. He has the best
whoa
of any of our six, because it’s his favorite speed. No reins needed. Just sit back a little, then hold on for the screech of tires.
Can we stop now?
is his favorite question. He leads like it’s an imposition to ask him to move.
Oh, all right, if you insist, but you have no idea how much effort this is.
    Which is why his first venture into the natural pasture left me with my mouth hanging open in astonishment. As the halter fell away, he spun and was gone like a bullet. Racing, kicking the air, tossing his head, having the best time I’d ever seen him have. This was not a horse I had met before. He went on for a good ten minutes, with me just standing there, grinning like an idiot.
    I could imagine that somewhere inside those two brains he was screeching
Whoopee! I’m free! I’m free!
Finally, he trotted back over and in his own begrudging little way said thank-you. That was the beginning of a new way of life for Scribbles and his five herd mates.
    Horses in the wild, on average, are healthier and more sound and, under decent conditions, live longer than horses in domestic environments, say Dr. Strasser and natural hoof specialist Jaime Jackson, among others. That doesn’t mean we should turn all our horses loose. It means that we should exert every effort to care for them at least as well as they care for themselves in the wild. To pattern their care after the wild horse model rather than after the human or dog model. In effect, to replicate as much of their lifestyle in the wild as is humanly possible.
    As the logic of that research sank in, Kathleen and I often found ourselves looking at each other through astonished eyes. Either our discoveries were truly amazing or we were certifiably nuts. How could so many people be so wrong for so long? It simply didn’t make any sense.
    “But we began the same way,” Kathleen said one day. “We were right there, buying into the same things.”
    She was right. When we began this journey, I’m not even sure we realized that wild horses still existed. We certainly didn’t know that they had been around for fifty-five million years. So, like most people, we had given no thought to how they had survived all that time with no assistance from humans. We had never read Dr. Strasser, so we didn’t know about her research, which concludes that horses in the wild today can live up to twice as long as the average domestic horse. So, of course, it follows that we had no idea why. We simply had no knowledge of any of it, so how could it apply to us? Which, unfortunately, is the case with most of the folks we’ve run into.
    Now, when we start spewing all this information at some unsuspecting horse owner, eyes widen and jaws drop. And some of them rush off to get away from the weirdos.
    But many of