Equusoma: Horse-Human Trauma Recovery

Stimulus Stacking and Biological Completion:
Activation, Deactivation, and Connection in Grief

There is a moving viral video being shared on social media that depicts a goodbye ceremony where someone is spreading the ashes of the deceased rider of a grey horse. It appears to be an incredibly special and touching moment for everyone involved, and I extend my condolences to the loved ones of the person who passed away.

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[There does not appear to be a way for others to share the video along with my reflections, so I've added a link to the video in the comments of this post as it appears originally on the Equusoma: Horse-Human Trauma Recovery page along with a link to a book chapter that discusses a related topic (**Note: these links will not be in the comments of other pages where this post is shared).]

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What piqued my curiosity were the comments from many of the viewers of the video on social media: the responses are largely about how amazing animals are, how the grey horse can sense what this ceremony is about, how the grey horse is giving the spirit of its owner one last ride, etc.

However, if you back up the video and follow the progression, the trajectory maps onto the activation cycle:https://equusoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The-Polyvagal-Defense-Hierarchy-2021.pdf

The grey horse responds to the steadily increased stacking of stimuli coming from a number of things:

...the rider of the chestnut horse (who is having to manage two horses, his own safety, and the release of the ashes, to shake the container, and also potentially contend with his own feelings of grief and loss for his friend and the honour of being the one to release the ashes, and the potential pressure to get it right in front of other grieving loved ones who wait in anticipation, because he only has one shot at this)…
..the chestnut horse (who responds to its rider and to the spreading ashes and backs away into the grey horse to try to create distance from the ashes)...
..and the shaking container and spreading ashes themselves.

The two horses' nervous system responses progress up the activation cycle curve to a peak within the amber zone (survival physiology). The rider times the release of the lead rope of the grey horse to when the ashes are all out of the container, which also occurs around the peak of the activation.

No longer restrained, the grey horse then has the opportunity to use the built up thwarted energy to fight (buck) and flee. The grey horse completes its responses and deactivates. It then rejoins the chestnut and its rider, as the stimuli that led to the stacking also resolve and everything settles back down into the green zone (sustainable physiology) where connection is once again possible.

The humans' trajectory appears to rise and fall along with the experience: the grieving observers are quiet as things begin to stack and as the ashes start to spread during the goodbye. Then their spontaneous shared laughter bubbles up and releases when the grey horse also experiences release and deactivation. Laughter is a natural and spontaneous response to a build up of charge within an activation-deactivation cycle.

This is not to say that metaphysical and spiritual phenomena are not real. There are many things that science can't yet explain, and sensing the presence of a deceased loved one is not what is in question here.

It's that the behaviour in the video has a much simpler biological explanation that isn't necessarily as magical or inspiring, but this explanation is no less meaningful:

What was steadily going up was getting thwarted (an "I can't" experience for the horses, resulting in more stacking), but then the grey horse was able to use the energy for its intended purpose (an "I can") and was able to come back down and reconnect with the others. Whatever wave of emotion rose in the humans also had a chance to be expressed and shared and settle together during that portion of the ceremony.

Knowing about the biological trajectory of the nervous system doesn’t take away from the meaning of the mourning ritual taking place in the video. Nor is this information being shared to criticize those who organized the ceremony, who are grieving and may not have realized the stacking that might occur.

Rather, being able to recognize the many nuanced layers playing out in a given moment can increase curiosity, connection, and empathy in the midst of complexity.

And it can also help us as viewers or consumers of social media to recognize and avoid the seductive lure of pseudoscience and the fallacy of feel good explanations.

There’s a fine line between holding respect for grieving humans and recognizing the (albeit temporary) stacking and resolution of that stacking for the horses... and objectifying horses as mystical beings while disregarding evidence of their discomfort (again, however brief). Connection is the goal here - connection with our own feelings and sensations and that of others in the midst of a difficult moment, and supporting the conditions for those feelings and sensations to resolve. Objectification of horses as magical unicorns does not support that intention and further distances us from ourselves and others.

If your initial response to this video was to immediately go the route of objectification and "inspiration p**N", see if you can be gently curious about what was happening in you just before that. Objectification can be a form of bypassing of uncomfortable feelings and sensations that may not have been adequately supported in the past when we were smaller, that we learned to manage through some form of distancing because that was the best option possible.

It’s also to invite curiosity about future similar scenarios. When planning such a ceremony, what could be done to either prevent stacking altogether or reduce stacking (or the potential for stacking) to more sustainable thresholds while maintaining the meaning, importance, function, and beauty of the ritual?

Rest in peace, dear rider.

"Resilience" Is a 4-Letter Word

Many years ago, I was offering a trauma seminar for a remote Indigenous community in Ontario. During the workshop, the topic of resilience came up in discussion.

Within the Somatic Experiencing model, resilience is not defined in the way most people think. A resilient nervous system is one that is able to recover sustainable functioning after a demand has passed. One that is able to flow through stress and survival responses and deactivate the build-up of that charge in order to resume regular course. What goes up is meant to come back down.

This is not the same thing as simply "tolerating" or hanging on for dear life, living in a stuck dysregulated state of fawn, fight, flight, freeze, or collapse and merely accepting that this is the way things are. What goes up doesn't come back down.

Managing this dysregulation through a variety of coping strategies that attempt to down-regulate, some of which may be "healthier" than others, is not "resilience". These may be useful when stress is manageable, but are often temporary at best.

Muscling through chronic adversity while the nervous system is being depleted in the process due to the accumulation of allostatic load is not resilience. Having to grin and bear it and wear stress as a non-desired badge of honour is not resilience. Being taught that the solution to adverse conditions is to develop more coping strategies and and being blamed when these strategies are not working is gaslighting.

Overriding and over-functioning until it is no longer possible to do so is a high-cost way of living. This is not what animal bodies were designed for.

Down-regulation and deactivation are not the same thing.

Exposure to chronic stress doesn't make the nervous system more resilient. It makes it less so. When an organism experiences the kinds of conditions in which it evolved to thrive, and it develops as intended, it has more resilience and capacity to move through stress and recover afterwards than an organism that has been slammed and stacked by adversity without many protective factors from the get-go.

People and other animals who are struggling due to adverse conditions and the results of said adversity in their bodies, minds, and relationships, who are still waking up to fight another day, should not be inspiration p**n. Full stop.

Before I was able to discuss this distinction between "resilience" and resilience, the participants started voicing their feelings about the word.

"Resilience is a 4-letter word for me."

"I don't want to have to keep hanging on without things getting better. It shouldn't be like this. It didn't used to be like this."

"I am exhausted."

Exhaustion is not a sign of resilience. It's a sign of depletion, of a nervous system that is not functioning as intended, of conditions that are not sustainable.

The current world in which we live is not sustainable. And for some, it's even less sustainable than for others.

Many of us learned to cope by sucking it up and doing our best to just "get over it", by learning to disregard, dismiss, and no longer see the adverse conditions we were exposed to, in order to cope with the fact that we couldn't change or escape those conditions. This survival mechanism, as helpful and as necessary as it would have been, makes it difficult for many to acknowledge and see the pain and suffering of others. It can also result in protest or anger when the needs of others are met, when their own might not have been.

Today is Indigenous People's Day in Canada. June as a whole is also Indigenous History Month in Canada.

There are many important celebrations this month that honour communities who have and continue to experience adversity that other groups do not by virtue of their identity. We've shared a few posts about some of them.

Equines are similar in terms of the conditions that many of them experience that are not sustainable. Many equines are praised for being bomb proof, tolerant, "resilient", when in fact they are having a hard time that isn't recognized. Or they are cast aside or blamed when their nervous systems and behaviour begin to show the signs of the stacking of allostatic load as a result of these conditions.

Our mission here at EQUUSOMA is to cultivate conditions where all humans and equines (and indeed, the natural world as a whole) feel a neuroception of safety.

Where needs are met and all beings can experience a felt sense of belonging, thriving, and wellbeing.

Where true resilience isn't defined as tolerating intolerable conditions, but rather reflects a combination of sustainable conditions + sustainably functioning physiology as nature intended.

This is the point of applied ethology.

Resilience -- and, indeed, trauma recovery as a whole -- is both an outside job and an inside job.

Thanks for celebrating the richness of aliveness along with us as we hold the intention for a more trauma-informed and healing-centred world.

From Contraction to Expansion: Lessons from Flowers

I’ve been sitting today with the theme of coming out of contraction into expansion.

The conditions that are needed to feel safe enough to shift out of fight, flight, fawn, or freeze/collapse, into something different.

The external conditions and the internal capacity that allow an organism to move between states and not get stuck.

We are meant to flow. Nervous systems have rhythm. Sometimes, things happen that interrupt that rhythm. Needs don’t get met. We don’t feel safe. Adverse conditions last longer than our bodies were intended to experience sustainably. Things get thwarted. Our systems adopt different rhythms that reflect the imprint of these difficulties. We blame the organism for the challenges it faces due to these conditions and its distorted rhythm. This is true regardless of species or social group.

Today is Juneteenth. If you don’t know what that is, here’s a cool resource: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth

May all beings know a felt sense of safety and the liberation of moving out of stuck states and contraction into more expansion and aliveness. May we remain curious about the conditions that thwart this aliveness and work to supporting different conditions for all to thrive.

This moving TEDx talk on the teachings of flowers for humanity and indeed all beings brings me hope today. https://youtu.be/gXDMoiEkyuQ?si=hOCX4F6ZyBpbCxQ6

Gratitude | Louie Schwartzberg | TEDxSF Nature's beauty can be easily missed — but not through Louie Schwartzberg's lens. His stunning time-lapse photography, accompanied by powerful words from Ben...

Holding our intention at EQUUSOMA to cultivate conditions where all humans and equines feel a neuroception of safety. Where needs are met and all beings can experience a felt sense of belonging, thriving, and wellbeing.

Dr. Steve Peters and I have our online Focus Course on the ➡️Neurobiology of Learning⬅️coming up on June 15! If you haven't registered for the course, there are still spots available.

🎥**All our courses are recorded and the recordings are available after the fact**

✅If you purchase access to the Focus Course and our upcoming Equuscience Master Class (starting in November), you get 25% off the entire purchase! Enter coupon code EQUUS25 at the check out.

Register now: https://equuscience.com/courses/the-neurobiology-of-learning-june-2024/

Have you seen Steve's and my interview on trauma-informed horsemanship yet? If not, have a watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uthdVvz_PwY

Trauma-Informed Horsemanship - Episode 8 - Interview with Dr. Steve Peters ***Enter promo code EQUUS25 at the checkout to get 25% off when you register for our upcoming Focus Course on the Neurobiology of Learning and our Equuscienc...

Context about the bear vs. man debate

For all the blokes in my mentions this week. Words by Clementine Ford.

Edit: Many have been requesting the option for a poster print. I've made a free digital download of the original high-resolution art for you to print as you please here: https://bit.ly/4dpivb1

I've offered the option to make a donation to Djirra (using the drop-down menu at the top of this listing), should you have the means. They work in the prevention and support of Aboriginal women experiencing family violence in VIC.

Donations can also be made directly to them through their own website: https://www.givenow.com.au/fvpls

Buy 2 get 25% off!

Did you know that if you purchase access to our upcoming Neurobiology of Learning course taking place on June 15, AND access to our upcoming Equuscience Master Class starting November 2, you get 25% off the cost of registering for both? That's a $257 USD value!

*This deal expires on June 13 at noon Eastern time.

*If you haven't registered for either one, yet, now's your chance!

*If you've joined us before and are interested in reviewing the material, you're welcome back anytime.

*We've extended the access of the recordings to a full year after the end of each module.

The Neurobiology of Learning June 2024 - Equuscience™ Saturday June 15, 2024 8am – 11:30am Pacific Daylight Time (3.5 hours) This class will be recorded so you can watch after the fact. Join us as we focus our attention on understanding some of the science behind how horses (and humans!) learn. This class will cover the connections between emotion an...

Calling it a snow day officially; it just keeps coming. Level 2 Practice Module 1 Day 4 is moving to Zoom as long as we don’t lose power (about 30,000 homes across the region are without, so fingers crossed).

This is a first: having to call a snow day during a Level 2 EQUUSOMA practice module (day 4) due to an unexpected dumping of snow out of nowhere (still blustering now, rural road conditions unsafe, power outages in various spots around the region). We’ll re-evaluate in a few hours to see if we will do a half day or not. This is a far cry from Australia last month! ❄️💨

Level 2, Practice Module 1, Day 1 is about to start!

We are so thrilled and grateful to be up here in Woonoongoora, traditional territory of the Wangerriburra and Yugambeh people, also known as Beechmont. The Wagon Stop - Wellness Farm is our location for the Level 2 program this week! Our hosts have an incredible two properties that have been in their family for generations (their ancestors were the first White settlers here). The amazing ficus tree was planted as a fig by Warren’s grandmother and has since grown into this impressive and expansive being. We are 600m above sea level, up a winding mountain road, and the ocean is visible from the other direction. There are also wallabies on the land here (a little family of 3 keeps appearing), laughing Kookaburras, social Willie Wagtails hanging out with the horses, and such a sense of beauty and abundance.

FACT CHECKING, CRITICAL THINKING, and… trauma?

This is a great infographic, and it is important to move through all the points in the list and not examine just one or two.

This is especially true with point number one, which could go both ways. If new information triggers strong emotions, it could be a sign that the information is intended to manipulate for a particular intention and is therefore something to be suspicious of.

➡️ i.e., the information and/or source is problematic, and the individual’s activation is a cue about a legitimate external “danger” and to proceed with caution in relation to the information/source.

But it could also be that the strong emotions are evidence of discomfort in the individual because of encountering the limits of their own beliefs, underlying shame or guilt, unresolved trauma or unmet needs, fears of what might happen if they accepted the new information, and/or cognitive dissonance.

➡️ i.e., the information/source are valid and the individual’s activation is a cue to proceed with caution and curiosity in relation to one’s own inner response as opposed to dismissing the external information or protesting against it.

In the first case, the red flags are external; in the second, they are internal.

Being able to differentiate between the two can be difficult.

Sometimes, the response to certain cues of potential danger is to assume the source is on the outside when it might not be (false positive). This makes sense when the source of harm (especially in the past) was indeed external and others did not take responsibility; the tendency can be to continue to respond from that place, especially if it wasn’t possible to have a voice in those circumstances. Finding one’s voice and fight response against harm is empowering, but can be complex if the current protest is projected towards the wrong “target”. The fight response is not wrong, it may simply be misdirected.

Other times, actual external cues of danger in the present might be missed because it wasn’t safe or possible to act on those cues in the past, and ignoring or disregarding actual cues of danger (via “freeze and appease”) was necessary to preserve relationships and survival when we were little (false negatives).

Being faced with the possibility that one’s perception is inaccurate (which is normal and to be expected if that perception was driven by an activated or shut down/disconnected/dissociated nervous system state) can feel destabilizing, especially when holding a particular perception of oneself and reality functions to prevent emotional overwhelm and distress.

One response can be to contract in defensiveness: “This is my truth, I’m being persecuted” might become a battle cry, even if that truth or aspects thereof might be inaccurate. Or the individual might claim they’re being gaslit, when that might not be occurring in the moment (but true gaslighting may absolutely have happened in other circumstances and is not ok). How could it possibly be true that their perception isn’t trustworthy when others were the untrustworthy ones? How could they possibly be acting in a harmful way when they were harmed? This is incredibly delicate. The goal here is not to paint every instance with the same brushstroke or to discredit those who have experienced legitimate harm. Rather, the idea is to invite curiosity about important nuances in titrated ways that don’t upset the apple cart but that allow for more careful exploration to try to tease things apart.

Another response might be to shut down in collapse or defeat. If this was the first time the person was starting to connect with their fight response after years of shame and suppression, to realize that it might be coming out in a way that is a bit disorganized and inaccurate might result in more shame and suppression. “Why bother expressing my voice if it’s just going to be a problem for others, the way it was in the past? I can’t trust my body, so why listen to it? I’m wrong and there’s something wrong with me.”

Either way, familiar re-enactments might occur. Polarized thinking and responses (you vs. me, us vs. them, black and white thinking, all or nothing thinking, etc.) and confirmation bias (seeking out information and others that have a similar bias/pattern for comfort and connection, even if inaccurate, which may point to a thwarted “find” response) become powerful ways to cope. These are understandable, and come at a cost.

This dilemma regarding perception is known as the proverbial “snake or stick” proposition (Ratey, 2008; Kain & Terrell, 2018). Is it a snake, or is it just a stick? How do you know?

Porges refers to getting these categories confused as “faulty neuroception”. We prefer the term “misattuned neuroception”. The individual isn’t defective, and there are good reasons why the detection of safety, danger, and threat has become skewed. Neuroception can actually be recalibrated to be more accurately attuned, through intentionality, curiosity, and working somatically to grow one’s nervous system capacity beyond the various mechanisms that were necessary to survive. This is bottom up work that can’t be completely addressed through top down willpower and reframing alone.

All the more reason to work through all the points in this list as a safeguard if that inner work is ongoing or has yet to begin… to extend compassion and kindness towards yourself if you find yourself resonating with anything about this post… and to cultivate nervous system states that support your curiosity in the face of what can be very complex 😊

Pile on the left: manuscript back from my editor. Pile on the right: material pulled due to lack of space. Next task: reviewing edits and completing segments of material to tie it al together. The book took a major backseat in the second half of 2023 due to being completely sidelined with building our new eLearning platform and CRM for the EQUUSOMA program. The platform is in its final stages (Level 1 and team member access have been rolled out, and Level 2 is being released Feb 23). Once that is done and this manuscript is off to the publisher, I can FINALLY focus on writing the next book (that I’ve been itching to write for ages) and prepare shorter courses that are more accessible and bite-sized.

It’s been a slog. Probably shouldn’t have picked the largest and most complicated projects to do first. But once those are out of the way, there will be space for smaller, more manageable, and scalable projects… and more EASE and room to breathe. Looking forward to finally birthing the remaining babies and moving forward. What a long gestation.

The book "Animal-Assisted Interventions: Recognizing and Mitigating Potential Welfare Challenges", edited by Lori Kogan and published by CABI, is now available for purchase!

I join a number of other esteemed colleagues who have contributed chapters to this collaborative effort, all of which examine different angles related to ethics and welfare of animals in various interventions designed to benefit humans.

My chapter: "Trauma-informed interspecies social justice in AAI" focuses on inspiration p**n in AAI, speciesism and anthropocentrism, the commodification of animals, trauma re-enactments and the drama triangle in AAI, magic unicorn syndrome, and double standards.

https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/book/10.1079/9781800622616.0000

A full list of authors and chapter titles is available at the link above, and you can also purchase from there too, as a paperback or an eBook.

A few examples:

Welfare and wellbeing considerations in dog selection and involvement in animal-assisted interventions (Risë VanFleet)

Equine welfare in therapy and learning services (Nina Ekholm Fry)

The therapy animal's bill of rights (Ann Howie)

Freedom, choice, and consent in the HERD (Veronica Lac)

The three agendas of animal-assisted therapy (Eileen Bona)

And many more!!

Get your copy here: https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/book/10.1079/9781800622616.0000

Animal-assisted Interventions | CABI Books Lori R. Kogan, PhD is a Professor of Clinical Sciences at Colorado State University. She is the Chair of the Human-Animal Interaction section of the American Psychological Association and Editor of the Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin, an open-access, online publication supported by the American Ps...

🎉🎉EXCITING NEWS!!!!!🎉🎉

EQUUSOMA Level 1 training registration deadline Has Been Extended to JANUARY 5, 2024!!....while spots last.

🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎

If you are interested in beginning your journey in January 2024, please check out the details here https://equusoma.com/buy-now-level1/

Here's what you'll get!
✨ access to our online content through our new e-learning
platform
✨ resources, handouts & documents, all in one spot
✨ online Practice Modules & demos with international faculty
and training assistants
✨ connection with your herd

If you have any questions..I am happy to answer. You can reach me at [email protected]

Excited to have you join the EQUUSOMA herd!!

Registration closes January 5, 2024 at 12 pm (noon) Eastern Time (EST). A payment plan option of two payments is still available until registration closes.

buy-now-level1 — EQUUSOMA The EQUUSOMA® Level 1 training program provides a grounding in the principles of trauma-informed care, relevant Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) skills and frameworks applied to humans and to equines, and practical applications of the neuroscience of attachment and the power of safety in relationship...

December Greetings!!
EQUUSOMA Level 1 training registration deadline is December 15/23.... and some of the payment plans close on December 7 at 11:59 pm EST.
If you are interested in joining us beginning in January 2024, please check out the details here https://equusoma.com/buy-now-level1/
And if you have any questions..I am happy to answer. You can reach me at [email protected]
Excited to have you join the EQUUSOMA herd!!

buy-now-level1 — EQUUSOMA The EQUUSOMA® Level 1 training program provides a grounding in the principles of trauma-informed care, relevant Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) skills and frameworks applied to humans and to equines, and practical applications of the neuroscience of attachment and the power of safety in relationship...

Our Level 1 training starts January 8, 2024!

Level 1 is entirely online and will be delivered through our new student eLearning portal starting in the new year.

Curious? Come check it out:
https://equusoma.com/buy-now-level1/

The deadline to register for one of our two Level 1 Inclusion Scholarships is November 9!

buy-now-level1 — EQUUSOMA The EQUUSOMA® Level 1 training program provides a grounding in the principles of trauma-informed care, relevant Somatic Experiencing® (SE™) skills and frameworks applied to humans and to equines, and practical applications of the neuroscience of attachment and the power of safety in relationship...

Well said. This applies to equines in EAPL and therapeutic riding programs as well. For example, « you can’t do work at liberty, too dangerous, horse needs to be under control on a lead rope at all times, they need to be in a stall and not turned out so they are ready to go for the clients… » - but then the confinement, inability to get away, overriding, overstimulation, misattunements, and stacking that can occur in those contexts at times as a result can result in explosive behaviour reflective of a nervous system that is not feeling safe or that is outside of its capacity to cope. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy and provides confirmation bias: « see? i was right. That’s why you can’t do anything at liberty / why you can’t allow choice / etc. »

It also occurs anytime the behaviour of traumatized animals as they start to come out of freeze and appease, renegotiate thwarted fight, and move through what is stacked in their nervous systems on the way down to more regulation and connection is misunderstood by a new owner, trainer, or equine rescue. When this is written off as evidence the animal is inherently bad or dangerous, it can become justification for negative punishment (e.g., removing or continuing to preventing access to resources or conditions that are essential to the equine not being in those states or engaging in those behaviours in the first place) or positive punishment, both of which increase the risk it will happen again.

This is all unconscious and not usually with the intent to cause harm, and can occur even in folks with the best of intentions.

Changing the cycle so re-enactments become opportunities for renegotiation requires gentleness towards any shame or guilt that may emerge in relation to the new information, and curiosity about the conditions (which includes the patterns and sequences playing out) that may be contributing to what is happening in order to intervene differently with intentionality and self-kindness.

There is a very sick culture in the horse world being enabled currently.

That is, the prevalence with which we see horse people justifying training methods that are shown to cause harm physically and/or mentally to horses if it brings them success. If they get further ahead in training. If they do well at shows.

Unfortunately, this attitude almost always exists in tandem with people who then justify depriving horses of species specific needs; such as space to roam, social turnout, ad lib access to forage. This is often times on the basis that it is “too risky,” especially when referencing reducing turnout completely, only using tiny paddocks and/or never allowing for social turnout due to “risk.”

This industry is perfectly happy to risk horses in the name of competition, while at the same time refusing to allow for said horses to live normal healthy lives for their “other 23 hours” on the basis of risk.

If a horse blows a tendon due to their training regime or in competition, it’s viewed as a “freak accident” or an unfortunate byproduct of training.

If they do the same in turnout, it’s viewed as an unacceptably high risk, despite horses overwhelmingly seeing greater risk of injury due to the demands of competition.

Riding and competition are only for the humans.

Basic needs of horses, like turnout and socialization, are necessary for their health and happiness.

Under no circumstances should it be so common to find it too risky to allow for our horses to live normal, happy and healthy lives if we are willing to put their health and soundness at risk so we can ride and compete them.

It isn’t the risk if this is the case. It’s the fact that humans are only willing to take risks that they feel directly benefit themselves and will stop at almost nothing to jump through mental gymnastics to justify it.

The funny thing is that horses who are allowed to live species appropriate lives are oftentimes much more sound, less predisposed to injury and easier to deal with in general.

But the massive, sweeping industry wide cognitive dissonance prevents so many of us from seeing this.

I didn’t see it for YEARS and now that I have, I cannot unsee the hypocrisy that I used to engage in and that so many still do.

We need to do better for our horses.

Adequate turnout space, the ability to socialize and have access to hay or grass are bare minimums for horse care.

It shouldn’t be as uncommon as it is to find people willing to provide these bare minimums.

It’s no wonder we have so many aggressive horses who “can’t go out with other horses” when we deprive them of socialization and isolate them from the time of weaning.

I would be cranky too if I was chronically stressed, under stimulated and unable to engage in the very behaviours that brought me happiness.

We can do better, but that starts with realistically looking at what our choices and actions say about us and how they feel to our horses.