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to the Landy Peaky Peak and I am thr in each
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Podcast. I'm your host and friend, Landon. Thrilled to have you join me. In each episode,
we will explore what makes life truly fulfilling. Happiness deep self-discovery. Together we'll uncover that happiness is a way of living.
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connections and
Not a destination, but a
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There is something about
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About
a wild horse that captures the human imagination. Maybe it's because they represent freedom. Maybe it's because they represent power. Maybe it's because they remind us of something that we have forgotten. Welcome back to the Landy Peak podcast. I am so thrilled you're here. I am Landy Peak. And I are training a wild Mustang yearling, and I shared that on the last couple podcasts, and we're doing it through Wild Rose Mustang Advocacy Group. And today is a
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Maybe because
Ferries.
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Special
episode because we are opening our email from Wild Rose.
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Sharing
which Mustang we are paired with for the summer. Make sure to listen all the way to the end because I'm gonna share a little bit and then I'm gonna have Tegan come in and we're gonna re live so that you get.
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So maybe
And we're gonna read our email.
the
full response ⁓ for both of us get and excitement as we get to start our journey. And I do want to do my diligence. Started our journey, I feel me and Tegan focused experience. And I want to take it to a broader and deeper
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Due to So as I have s like there has been a very mean
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view of the world of Mustang. As I have really stepped into the world of Mustangs, I am fascinated not only by the horses themselves, larger conversations surrounding them. Because we sit at this interesting intersection of beauty, history, conservation, politics, ethics, and human emotion. Many people know the romantic version of the story.
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So I
I found myself both.
But that there is a lot
Wild horses s
Yeah.
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Horses running across an open landscape, the symbol of the American West, the spirit that refuses to be contained. But the reality is a lot more complicated.
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The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service both
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Both have
responsibilities in managing certain herds. And if they're managing the wild horse populations across millions of acres of public land under the roaming horses and bureau act of nineteen seventy-one, the goal is to maintain healthy horses on healthy ranch lands. And when horse populations exceed what the land can support, your wild
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And as
Just like with other people, few
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Animals, how can we create a balance? We don't have enough food that the land can support the numbers. So traditionally, gathers are used to remove horses from the range. And this is where the conversation gets a little sticky. Many ranchers, wildlife managers, and land managers argue that
Population control is necessary to prevent starvation, drought related suffering and and ecological damage.
Huns, many horse that helicopter gathers are traumatic, dangerous for the horse, and that utility control should be used more extensively instead of large scale removals. So once the horses are removed from the lands, they are put into holding facilities our nation, and many horses then live.
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Advocates argue.
Yeah.
What's the
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out years in these holding facilities. Many of the horses are available for adoption, but it becomes even stickier because a lot of people, while they may love horses, they do not have the skill set to be able to train a horse that needs to be living and roaming free as wild, untouched by humans, often have not had any experience really with humans.
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And
You see?
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And so it's not like just going out and adopting a horse that has grown up around humans, that knows behaviors, that knows the expectations, and just any regular horse going from the beginning baby stages of first halter to being able to have somebody on your back balancing that movement, horses are prey animals.
And so having something sitting above you.
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Triggers that
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Fight or flight, because the only thing in the wild that would be above you is a mountain lion, something of danger. So really the skill level to train a horse is extremely high. And many people don't have the resources, the space, the time, special setup to be able to train a wild horse to be able to have them as companions for the rest of their lives.
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Resources.
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So with Wild Rose's mission really the story and n as horses have been gathered.
To train and educate and be able to adopt out these incredible animals. Because if we don't have the services and supports for the animals that are already gathering, as of early, the BLM Bureau of Land Management reported that there are more than 63,000 wild horses and burrows in off-range holding facilities. And there's an estimated
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So early twenty twenty six.
Eighty five plus thousand.
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Wild horses and burrows that remain on the range. So no matter where we stand on the issue, one fact is hard to ignore. We have 63,000 horses and burrows living in government holding facilities. These aren't just numbers. They're horses that once lived on a range. Some of them are being born in the holding facilities, and their existence is part of a much bigger conversation. So
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Yeah.
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We're looking at one problem, which is often the hot ticket problem, and that is how horses gathered off the range, and if they should be gathered off the range, right? One specific problem. I want to focus more on there is a secondary problem of we have 63,000 in holding facilities. Horses aren't gonna go back on the range.
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A lot of horses.
Those were
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And there are things that we can do to support those horses, train those horses, and help those horses live outside of a holding facility in safe connected spaces with humans. And the big thing, and I don't want to get into a political debate, I really want to just be mindful of I see and know the bigger conversations going on. And
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With
this particular
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Summer, I am focusing on one. I understand both sides are passionate, both sides care deeply, both sides believe that they are protecting the horse. And there's probably more than just two sides. And somewhere in the middle, those horses are stuck. And so I don't have the answers. I wish I did. And
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Protect.
Sides, right?
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One thing that I know as I go through the summer that back to so much in what I do in my life and my work is the story of the starfish. And so
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And I come
So many of you have probably heard the
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Story of
a starfish before. And it's something I often come back to in my own life and in my own work. A man was walking along a beach after a storm. And he noticed that there were thousands of starfish washed up on the sand. And in the distance, he saw a young girl picking them up one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. As he got closer, he called out, Why are you doing that? There are starfish. You can't
Possibly save them all. You can't possibly make a difference. The girl bent down, picked up another starfish, and tossed it into the sea. Then she looked at him and said, I made a difference to that one.
And as there is the big story around wild horses, and I cannot change the history of each yearling that has come to Wild Rose. I can't change their story. I can't put the horses that are in government facilities back on the range. I can change the future of one particular horse.
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Thank you.
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And so while the numbers are overwhelming, the conversation's emotional. This summer Tegan and I get the opportunity to show up for one horse, to create and build a relationship, because every horse matters. And this is how we can make a difference. As long as horses have existed, horses have survived by reading the environment. A horse
That missed a subtle shift in energy did not survive. A horse that failed to notice the tension of the herd found itself separated from safety. A horse's nervous system evolved to detect incredibly small changes in movement, in breathing, in posture, in tension, and emotional state. This is how they read the herd. And how they survived.
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Fall
They don't
survive.
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By
ignoring information. They survive by paying attention, which is different than a lot of us humans do. Many of us humans, our survival pattern has actually been to turn down our own experiences, our own opinions. We are hyper-aware, I think, of others, but we often
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Right? So for
Yeah.
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Ignore information because we have our cognitive reasoning overlaid in I don't want to hurt someone's feelings. I want people to like me. And if I'm gonna do something that is gonna make people not like me, I'm gonna kind of turn down, right? I've talked about this before in as a pelvic health therapy. So many kids and adults have learned to kind of turn down the signal.
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Okay.
Right.
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That they have to go to the bathroom because it's inconvenient for other people. And we've learned this in a society that really values everybody kind of falling in line and doing what they were told. So horses are really fascinating. And as research is beginning to explore the physiological relationship between horses and humans, because our nervous systems are not that.
Different, if anything, our nervous systems are not different than a horse's nervous system, right? We are all wired for survival. And horses and humans have an incredible ability to co-regulate. Co-regulation is where we are spending where we are in the same vicinity as another being.
Animal and human, and I believe environment. And it's like that metronome that goes tick, tick, tick, and the entire orchestra can find in sync with that beat. That doesn't mean that they're all playing the exact same music. It means they're all synchronized. So co regulation doesn't take any
energy from one being to another being, it's just like there's a metronome that we can sync. So studies have demonstrated that synchronization patterns between horse and human heart rate variability and other physiological signals happen during an interaction. It happens with humans too and dogs and cats. But in this space, horses. So
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I'm talking about
Research.
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Describe a bi-directional relationship where a horse and human nervous system influence one another. We also influence other humans and dog nervous systems in the same space.
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And cats and all animals.
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Horses are extraordinarily sensitive to our physiological state. And while research is amazing, you don't need research to experience it. If you spend enough time around horses, you start to notice something. And you can check out my video on Instagram with me and Maddie the Clydesdale from Wholeheart Ranch in Wellington, Colorado.
And I was able to go out and spend some time with Amy Bud at her ranch with her Clydesdales and did an exercise called joining up. So horses don't respond to what you say, they respond to what you are, who you are being in that moment.
So when someone walks into a space with a horse, the horse is so attuned to what is going on inside of us, and your horse can tell that you're calm.
Or if you're broadcasting tension. And we are really good as humans of showing up and having a way that we present ourselves align with how we are feeling inside. Fake it till you make it, right? You cannot fake it with a horse. They can tell if you're confident.
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That does it
And they know if
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pretending
to be confident while your nervous system is screaming uncertainty. The horse listens to the truth, not the story that we're spinning around. And so I've watched horses interact with people and people who want connection, but potentially are upset or not fully present. And if you're one, go out and try to catch a horse
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Particularly
Horse, person, or if you have seen someone.
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When you're angry, they'll like, hell no, and they're going off on the other side, which only makes you upset even more.
And I've also watched horses soften and have those bids for connection when someone finally stops performing and becomes authentic, when we're truly aligned with who we are inside is who we are presenting on the outside. Horses gauge without saying a word. For both humans and other horses, are you safe?
Are you congruent? Can I trust you?
Are you available to be a partner? To be a leader? Horses are looking for that relational aspect. And humans have those questions too, right? We meet a new human and we're coming in, connecting. Inside, even if we're not consciously aware, we are subtly gauging.
Other people's body movements, their facial expressions. Can I trust you? Are you friendly? Are you okay? Can you be someone that I can be with? Do I need to fear you? And as humans, we often kind of turn down this intuitive conversation that's going on inside of us. And we don't honor it. But when we do, we're a hundred percent right. Right?
Follow that intuition?
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If you get that
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⁓ Get out of there.
So we become experts at managing our ex our appearances and say we're fine when we're not. We know how to look confident to appear calm and in with a horse because they're not caring. Appearing. They're caring who you who you are beating. And
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We know how to say.
And that all goes away.
How Europe?
Wild horse.
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has an incredible attunement with their environment because they've needed it for survival. A horse that has been raised around humans also does, but they have a little bit of that dulled sense. They haven't needed to rely on it. The hay comes every
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Day.
And as
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We work with horses, and if you watch the Instagram video, and I really invite you to watch it, Maddie the Clydesdale, she really challenged me. She is a lead mare, which she is top dog. And she wasn't going to give me what I wanted. She asked me to step up to be someone who she could trust to lead. She's really good at leading.
And you have to be someone that she can respect and trust before she's gonna say, I'll join with you. And so when we do an exercise around joining, we send the horse or ask the horse to move in a specific direction. Now the horse does not have any lead ropes on. Maddie had a h, but there is no connection to me. She's in an arena. So a
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True.
She is free inside a big space
where she can easily
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Move away from me. And she's a Clydesdale. She's 2,000 pounds. She's huge. She built her to say, F you, I'm not playing this game. And she so as her to move in one direction, said, Well, I'll move, but I'm moving the opposite way. I did that.
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Very well has the ability to say that.
She did. As I asked.
And as she that
and she made me run for it, because as she is galloping around the arena
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In the opposite direction, then I asked her, I've gotta run and beat her across the arena to get ahead of her, to give her the cue to go around. And she was like, ⁓ fine, I'll do it. And there were several times in the I got to work with her that she would turn to me and look at me and say,
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What's your end?
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Energy.
Her to join up, but she wasn't giving it to me because I asked.
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So as each other and we are assessing each other and saying, How's this gonna go?
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We stood there facing.
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The first few she turned.
She saw something in me that she's like, No. You're there. And sh so I would ask.
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You're not.
She would disengage.
Now the thing that she was no sing me was that little bit or
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Notice.
Of fear
doubt more than fear of
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Is she really gonna come? Cause there's an audience and I really want her to come. There's my performance person coming out. And until I could take that big nice exhale.
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Really focus my energy on her and say, Yeah.
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I'm okay. That's when she finally came up and approached me. And then she and I could walk off lead through the arena, and as I asked her to go somewhere, she would follow me. We created that respect, connection, and trust. The whole she could choose not to play the game. She had to choose to be my partner. And that
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Created the
I fully knew whole time she
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Is so powerful as we're working with horses. She is looking to see how I'm going to lead because she's a great leader. She's head mare. So she needs somebody that is has the capability to lead for her to follow. Now all horses do this. Some reluctant leaders, just like people.
We're looking for someone safe to trust and guide us. And some are true born leaders, and they are going to establish that dominance, like I talked about with the herd. Those are the leaders coming in, and they are pushing other horses around so that they to lead. We are saying who the respect. And some are slow to trust, and you really have to earn their respect and trust.
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Can earn
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For them to be able to join up with you and see you as a partner. Horses really don't care who you are on social media or on paper. They're reading who you are as a human in this moment. Are you confident? Can you lead? Are you safe? Are you afraid? Are you able to be a partner? A wild horse has survived because of its ability to read the environment accurately.
Trust is not given freely, it is earned. And not through force, not through domination, not through control, but through consistency, through clarity, through boundaries, through respect, and through the willingness to become someone worth following. And maybe that's why mustings fascinate us. They don't need saving. They remind us what authenticity is.
Looks like and feels like. And they remind us what it means to live connected to our internal instincts, to be authentic and aligned with who we are. And we learn to pay attention. As Tegan is learning in that herd dynamic, we are learning to trust our senses and to know when something feels right and when something doesn't.
Rewards disconnection, the wild horse remains fully connected, and perhaps that's why being around them feels so powerful. Today we are sharing the wild horse we have been paired with. And now the incredible thing is as we have been in and around the herd, they are reading our energy, and it is
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That we
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Incredible to see the horses, especially approach Tegan. But who's coming up? Who's interested? Who's curious? Who wants to engage? And who offers those bids for connection? So the horses that came off the trailer are now horses that are a lot more, all of them more confident and comfortable with people. That doesn't mean you can go approach every single one in the in the pen.
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Yeah.
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But it means that they're also learning and reading the horses that are born inside a facility and use to humans. And they're reading them and saying, ⁓ they see humans are safe. And so the ones who did were gathered off the range are also tuning in saying, Okay
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They say they're safe and okay.
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Maybe I will see if they're safe and okay. When you're working with the wild horses, it's not a push, it's an invite. Because if we push them too hard too fast, you're gonna and you're not going to and you're gonna destroy the relationship.
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Gonna go backwards so far.
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And then you have a lot more work to do. So actually four because I couldn't pick three. In to be paired. And I'm gonna invite my daughter Tegan to come and join me. And her email sharing who we got for ⁓ our wild Mustang. And
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We put our three
Top choices
As we read
And
as we do have a first choice place in both of our hearts, first choice horse is death.
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And this definitely
one that we have connected and had to earn trust. She was one that does not
right away. They were ones that we had to build connection and trust. And we're excited to continue that journey as we're building throughout the rest of the summer. So and have Tegan coming. We're going to read email and find out
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Trust.
I'm gonna chef join us read our
Live who is
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Is going
to be our Mustang for the sum.
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This is Landy and Tegan. This is Landy and Tegan. And we just got the email that shares who we get for our money. So nervous. You're so nervous. Okay. Really quick warning. This video will contain s contain screaming. ⁓ yeah. Cover your ears. Okay. Yeah, probably. ⁓ so we're clicking on our email. And
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Yeah.
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⁓ I'm s I'm so scared. So do you remember read the whole thing. So this is our email from Wild Rose Board. I may edit this, I don't know. So this is the email that we got from the Wild Rose Board. The bo Wild Rose Board of Directors have discussed personalities of each yearling, considered the choices ⁓ received from each of you. It is our goal to make sure that pairing is safe, compatible between horse and human, and will provide you with an enjoyable experience this summer.
Ultimately we hope each one of these yearlings will thrive from your personal care and commitment to training them to be wonderful, solid young horses, and that they will be very adoptable at our showcase at the end of August. As always, you the trainer have first right to adopt your yearling. Each one of these amazing mustings deserve a loving forever home. We are so excited to have each one of you help them get there. With that being said, we are pleased to announce the following pairing. So we're only just tal just ⁓ show pairs.
Okay. We are only going to read our pairing. We do have everybody who is being paired, but we are only going to read our pairing. Okay. So Landy and Tegan, number four, two, four, four.
Would you care to share and I'm
Okay. ⁓ if you guys don't know, the buckskin is my personal favorite. And I got the one I wanted and I dreamed of and I want and I hope and I love we will be adopting. You're gonna have to talk to Dad on that one. Dad Dad didn't have a say in all the chickens. Why do why does he have to have a say in the horses? Dad at least knew the chickens that we were going to getting the buckskin. Okay, just
Right here put a picture of buckskin. Okay. Boom. So Buckskin. So we have Denny as our yearling Mustang. And the hard thing is, we were out mucking and feeding tonight and there were two board members out there who fully knew which horses fully knew were everybody was getting. Yes. And refused to give us even a hint
about who we were getting until the official email came out. We wanna thank everybody on the board from Wild Rose Mustang ⁓ for your for this opportunity that we got, for ⁓ having us in as part of the Mustang trainers and for giving us our number one choice because they're so so excited. So so so so and it's hard because we just got home from feeding a mucking so we can't like turn around.
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Right.
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and drive back out because it's eight o'clock at night. ⁓ as we're recording. So tomorrow morning. I'm I'm going. We are scheduled. You better wake me up. Wake me up an hour early because I just need that. I'm not getting up an hour early. So we feed at six in the morning. ⁓ I'm not waking up an hour early. I don't want to wake up an hour early to get up. I don't want to wake up early. But I'm doing it though. We will share more as we do go out in the next couple days.
And really get to start working with our actual new Mustang. And the big debate will now be do we keep the name Denny or do we rename I am for keeping Denny because Man from Snowy River was one of my favorite movies as a kid. It is your favorite movie. It probably still is my favorite movie. It is definitely my comfort movie. So having a Denny of my own.
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Mm-hmm.
Okay. ⁓
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Pronounce the name when we get the name, trust us. We will be recording our podcast every week as we share our details. So we will update you as we go and as we go out. But we are so excited that we get Denny. Yes, and we are gonna have a name name. We will also have pictures all over Instagram of our cute little So I think we should probably go share with Dad and Isaac since I'm sure they heard. The brother and the father.
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New breaking.
speaker-1 (32:27)
So I'm sure My father, not her father. My father and my brother. Yes. Just in case you were confused. Her husband and her son. I think. Let's go share the news. And then when we go out and see Denny tomorrow, we can record and add to it. ⁓ We'll do a name the horse. And then we can figure out and we'll figure out how to do the name the horse. Can we do a name the horse? And we'll figure out how we're doing it and then we'll announce it.
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Ha ha ha
speaker-1 (32:57)
What did I sign up for? Okay. You're keeping that in the video. Okay, so we get Denny and we're so excited. And as we go, we're able to really start to engage and figure out a
speaker-0 (33:13)
To engage your name,
we will let you know. I want to thank you for showing up, for doing something incredible coming along on our
speaker-1 (33:20)
Incredible for you for the
journey. I really appreciate it. And I want to wish you
speaker-0 (33:25)
all the
happiness that today can bring and I will talk to you on the next episode.
Yeah. It's a little bit illegal. This educational purposes only. It is not to replace any expert advice from your doctors, therapists, coaches, or any other professional that you would work with. It's just a chat with a friend, me, where we get curious about ideas, thoughts, and things that are going on in our lives. And as we're talking about friends, if you know someone who would benefit from a conversation today, please share. Because I think the more that we open up these conversations.
speaker-1 (34:12)
Yeah.
speaker-0 (34:13)
The more benefit
we all get. So until next time, look from me and stay curious, because that's the fun in this world.
speaker-1 (34:17)
Give yourself a big hug.
