Amanda Hunt

With help from a trainer, 3-year-old Lyndie Seale grasps the end of the rope attached to the horse’s muzzle, shaking the rope as a signal that the animal should back up.

Cali, an adopted wild mustang from Nevada, quickly responds to Lyndie’s motions with a few steps back, and the grinning student from Siskin Children’s Institute immediately drops the rope so she can clap her hands, delighted.

Lyndie was one of about 20 students from Siskin who on Wednesday visited the Chattanooga farm that is home to Cali. The horse is deaf but nevertheless has been trained easily through hand signs and body language, her handlers said.

Siskin teachers believe the children will relate to the horse’s ability to function just as well as a hearing horse with just some slight adjustments on the part of her trainers.

Trainers demonstrated to the students, ages 3 to 5, how to direct the horse’s motions non-verbally, and then gave the children a chance to try it on their own.

“Her handlers showed how this horse has adapted to its disability,” said Seth Seymour, spokesman for Siskin Children’s Institute, which serves young children with and without disabilities in Chattanooga.

The students are learning that “just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you can’t reach your full potential, and so this is a fun way to really see this lesson in action,” Mr. Seymour said.

Lyndie, who has some speech and motor delays, has attended Siskin for one year, her parents said.

“I really think it’s good for the kids to understand that it’s not just humans that have disabilities, but animals,” said her father, Chris Seale.

Not long after Cali was adopted, the horse’s trainers could tell something was different, they said.

“Horses are very sensitive to noises,” trainer Pam Hamilton said. “And she wasn’t. Things would drop, and she wouldn’t look or shy.”

Likely due to a head injury in the wild, Cali has no hearing and some limitations to her peripheral vision.

But training Cali wasn’t all that different than training a hearing horse, using the so-called “natural method” of training, said one of her handlers, 24-year-old Amanda Hunt.

The natural method emphasizes body language and sign language — to which all horses are very attuned — as opposed to methods that use strong-arming and verbal commands, she said. Natural training can be underscored by sounds such as clicks and words, but with Cali, “you really have to accentuate the body language and sign language part of the training,” she said.

Cali responds to facial expressions, as well as hand motions and her trainer’s stance, her handlers said. For example, standing with one’s weight shifted forward, purposefully, will encourage the horse to back up, or standing with one’s body leaned back, accommodating, can compel the horse to approach.

Siskin student Charlotte Barron, 4, said after petting Cali, “Horses are my favorite farm animal, and kittens are, too.”

Charlotte, who is developing typically, has attended Siskin for two years, said her mother, Andree Herbert.

Charlotte “has no idea that a child with special needs is different from her,” Ms. Herbert said. “It’s just the idea that it doesn’t matter what your challenges are; we all have challenges.”

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