OUR BACKGROUND
JOEL AGUILAR
Co-Founder, President
Joel is a lifelong horseman with over 15 years of experience rescuing, training, and rehabilitating horses. Joel has a unique gift for understanding equine behavior — a skill shaped not only by experience, but by years of quiet observation, patience, and immersion within a wild horse herd.
During college, Joel spent all his free time visiting a nearby band of wild horses. Instead of approaching them with traditional training methods, he approached them with curiosity. He watched how they communicated, how they established hierarchy, how they resolved conflict, and how subtle shifts in energy or posture changed the entire herd’s behavior. Over years of observation, he learned to emulate their language — mirroring their body cues, timing, and intention. In time, the herd accepted him. Joel earned their trust to the point that he was able to gently catch and train one of the mares, eventually riding her back out into the wild herd as her “plus one” to spend time among them as an honorary member.
This immersive experience shaped Joel’s approach to training: one built on communication instead of control, understanding instead of force, and partnership instead of pressure.
Before founding The Rescue at Flathat Ranch, Joel served as the live-in caretaker and head trainer for one of the largest horse rescues in the region, where he spent five years refining his natural horsemanship skills while working with a wide range of behavioral challenges. He discovered that his deepest fulfillment came from helping the “tough cases” — the horses others had given up on — to find calm, confidence, and trust again.
That passion and experience form the foundation of The Rescue at Flathat Ranch. Every horse that enters the program is approached as an individual, given the time, clarity, and relationship-based training they need to uncover their potential. Joel’s wild-horse-rooted perspective allows him to connect deeply with misunderstood horses and help them transform into willing, safe, and adoptable partners.
Raissa Wilkes
Co-Founder, Treasurer
Raissa grew up on a small farm in Colorado, where her love for horses began almost as soon as she could walk. When she was a child, her family bought her first horse — a dream come true. Later, when her family had to relocate unexpectedly, there wasn’t time to find her horse a new home themselves. Instead, they turned to a local horse rescue, trusting it to provide the care, time, and attention needed to place her horse with a loving family.
That experience stayed with Raissa. She felt grateful — grateful that rescues existed, and grateful that her horse had a safe landing. It inspired her to someday give other horses that same opportunity.
As an adult, Raissa followed that calling and began volunteering at her local horse rescue. Over the next six
years, she helped support day-to-day operations, observed the inner workings of equine rescue, and discovered the deep fulfillment that comes from helping horses in transition. It was there that she met Joel, and together they formed a shared vision for starting their own ranch and their own rescue.
Professionally, Raissa brings 17 years of administrative expertise to the rescue. She oversees all back-end operations, including finances, budgeting, bookkeeping, donor relations, marketing, social media, and record-keeping. Her organizational strengths ensure the rescue runs smoothly, sustainably, and transparently.
For Raissa, every horse that comes to the ranch is a reminder of the safe landing her childhood horse received — and a chance to pay that gift forward.