Ben’s behavior inside the pen had also been mandated by Tug. He had been instructed to completely ignore the colt, no matter what he did or where he went, unless, of course, the colt tried to attack him—which Tug felt was highly unlikely. If that should happen, then Ben had been instructed to defend himself at all costs. At first, the colt kept his distance from Ben, seemingly terrified of his presence. But as the days and weeks passed, and with curiosity getting the better of him, the colt slowly started closing the gap between the two of them. This was also something Tug knew would happen. He understood the two emotions that control horses from the day they’re born to the day they die are fear and curiosity. He knew a fearful horse couldn’t be curious, and a curious horse couldn’t be fearful. By instructing Ben to ignore the colt no matter how the colt behaved, he figured eventually the colt would get curious and want to get close enough to Ben to smell or maybe even touch him.

The colt had been carefully watching the human that would come into his pen with great interest for over two weeks. His instincts had told him to be afraid of anything that was foreign to him, anything that might be able to cause him harm or death, and there were very few things in his world to date that were any more foreign to him than the human species. For that reason when the human first started coming in his pen he would get extremely stressed and feel as though all he wanted to do was run, which he did.

However, as the days passed it became clear to the colt the human wasn’t there to harm him, and the urge to flee began to dissipate greatly. Eventually when the human came in pushing his wheelbarrow, the colt would walk to the back of the pen and stand quietly to watch the man’s odd behavior. Sometimes the colt would go back to his hay pile and eat, keeping one eye on the intruder. Two weeks after the human first came into his pen, curiosity began to get the better of the colt and in an attempt to understand better what he was dealing with, he haltingly began to make his way over to the human as he scooped up the manure and put it in the wheelbarrow.

A month and three days into his captivity, with the human standing with his back to the colt in the pen, the colt had finally gotten close enough to the human to reach out and touch him with his nose. The texture of the human’s faded Carhartt jacket took the colt by surprise, and he snorted and quickly retreated to the back of the pen. The human’s behavior never changed. He simply continued what he was doing without acknowledging the colt. A few minutes later, the colt had approached the human again, and this time he reached out his head and neck as far as it would go, keeping the rest of his body a safe distance in case a hasty retreat would be in order, and smelled the man without actually touching him.