In a little over two weeks, the colt had gone from panicking and cowering in the back of the pen whenever a human came around, to standing near the front of the pen and watching in anticipation. And Tug Caldwell had carefully planned it all. He knew about wild horses, that the herd they lived in was actually very structured, and it was the structure and stability of the herd that kept the members in a settled state of mind. It was why the colt attached himself to the old-timers instead of wandering alone in the mountains after losing his own herd. He was searching for structure and stability. In captivity, all that changed. The structure of the herd was gone, and he was by himself again. Tug knew just being in a pen instead of out in the open would worry the colt for a while. He knew he would naturally be looking for structure, and he also knew he would need to get used to being around people.

The way the colt was being fed was designed to do both—put structure in his life, and get him used to seeing and being around people. Every morning, at exactly the same time every day, Tug had instructed Ben to toss the colt exactly the same amount of hay. Then, in the afternoon, at exactly the same time every day, he had instructed him to do it again. He knew the colt would worry about the hay being tossed over the fence at first. But he also knew over time, the colt would begin to pick up on the pattern, and thus begin to see the structure in it. At the same time, he could begin to see the usefulness of people, and that they could be a benefit to him, if he allowed them to be.

Two weeks into his captivity, the colt was beginning to settle in and look forward to the human with the hay. It was the same human that would come around every other day at the same time and fill his water tank with a hose. However, up to that point, all of the colt’s contact with humans had been with them on one side of the fence, and he on the other. No sooner had he begun to get comfortable with the human with the hay, when one day the human actually came in the pen with him, pushing a large yellow wheelbarrow and carrying a manure fork. This, of course, sent the colt panicking to the back of the pen, as he had when the hay first started flying over the fence. The human completely ignored the colt and acted as if he didn’t even exist. No matter where the colt went or how fast he ran around in the pen, the human simply picked up manure, tossed it in the wheelbarrow, then hauled the wheelbarrow away when it was full. The next day, at exactly the same time, the human pushed the wheelbarrow in the pen, filled it with manure and hauled it away. He repeated this every day until the pen was clean of the first two weeks of manure, then he continued to come in every day after that to keep the pen tidy.