A group of 10 students from around the country and from different walks of life, traveled to a ranch in Redmond last week to attend a weeklong horse training workshop from Anna Twinney, a renowned horse gentler from North Carolina.

The class took place over six days at Safe Acres Sanctuary in Redmond and involved training, or gentling, feral horses rescued on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation by the Warm Springs Horse Network.

Most of the young foals came to Redmond terrified, and had never been touched by a human. The training they received through Twinney’s class will ensure they adjust to humans, acclimate to domesticated life and eventually find homes, said Vicki Bennett, co-owner of Safe Acres Sanctuary, a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing horses in need of sanctuary from abuse, neglect, or facing the slaughterhouse.

The method of training taught by Twinney is about connecting with the horse in the horse’s own language, as opposed to more conventional methods of horse training, which tend to be rougher and perhaps more traumatic on the horses, Twinney said.

A flick of the ear, a slight bending of the leg, a lowering of the head, and a gentle approach are some of the ways horses communicate. It takes time to gain a horse’s trust, but for Twinney and her students, it’s all about learning to communicate with the horse on the horse’s terms.

“We’ve misunderstood them; we’ve misinterpreted them, and we’ve taken away their freedom,” Twinney said of the rescued horses. “What drives me is that interpretation. What drives me is to show the truth of how they’re feeling physically, mentally, emotionally.”

Twinney, who is originally from England, has dedicated her life to working with horses and teaching others how to properly interact with them. She has traveled the world teaching her methods, in places like Singapore, New Zealand, China and Morocco.

In Redmond, Twinney’s students said they were proud of the progress the young horses have shown in the course of the one week class. It was clear that they were profoundly moved by the connections they had developed with the foals.

When Diane Holmes of California first started the class, the closest she could get to young Peaches, a 4-month-old foal, was eating lunch outside of her pen.

Then, nearly a week later, when Holmes entered Peaches’ pen, the horse dipped her head and approached slowly. With eyes welling, Holmes sang softly and rubbed the horse’s head. A powerful connection had been made, Holmes said..

“Anna’s way of gentling is so beautiful. It is a dance that we learn to do to the rhythm of the foal,” Holmes said. “We learn their language, and we respond to them. We thank them over and over; any time they do the least little thing, we close our eyes and thank them.”

“It’s cracked open my heart. I spent half the time here crying,” Holmes added of her time in Redmond.

Vicki Bennett of Safe Acres Sanctuary, a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing horses in need of sanctuary from abuse, neglect, or facing the slaughterhouse, said part of the purpose of the class was introducing the young horses, all of which were untouched mustangs, to humans, and training them for domesticated life.

“It’s hard in the beginning of the week. Most of these babies couldn’t even look at us. They were terrified. They had lost their herd and lost their mother. Some of them are 3 months old,” Bennett said. “And now they’re going to come up and greet you at the gate and be curious to meet you. And so that’s our goal is to help them transition from all of the loss to finding value in their new life and in domestication and where they’re headed.”

Emily Sabatella, an elementary school teacher from New York, said working with horses and learning from Twinney has improved her ability to teach children, as she is more in tune with herself and others. For Sabatella, it is about entering into a partnership with the horse, but first that trust must be earned.

“There’s this understanding that these horses are so intuitive and so sensitive, and so willing to be partners if we can listen to them, and understand their language,” Sabatella said. “And when we take that time to really hear them and know their language, they partner with us in this profound and intense way.”

Britt Keele, a contractor from North Carolina, drove across the country to Redmond for Twinney’s class.

Keele said he came to the class after he adopted two mustangs from the Cedar Mountains in Utah and realized he needed to learn more about them.

“I thought I knew something about horses, and I realized I really don’t know anything,” Keele said. “I started from scratch and started searching for who would be a good trainer/mentor.”

That’s when his search led to Twinney and her methods, which attracted him given their gentler approach toward training horses.

“That’s what she teaches. That’s what drew me to her. It’s not a training modality. It’s a growth model. It’s a growth mindset,” Keele said.

Keele spent the week working with Annabelle, a highly intelligent horse, he said, that took a lot of time to trust him. He said when he took his first class from Twinney in October, he found that working with horses helped him develop his emotional intelligence.

“I told her at the end of the month that I went there to work on my horsemanship and I ended up working on my humanship,” he said, “You learn a lot about yourself standing in front of a horse…learning with them.”