It was a great year for which I feel a ton of gratitude. I have allowed myself 4 images per month to review its texture and richness. I must say I had to leave out so much.I hope you enjoy this glimpse.

* PBS Swan Song , * Two Step Way, REIN Rescue,  Equine Balance, Leatherwood Mule Days, Tryon Equine Hospital

Today, I tried talking to a tree. First, I got present, then I listened to the tree, and the tree said that it liked the gentle wind. The gentle wind made it feel alive and connected. It also informed me that stronger winds were necessary to keep trees healthy. Adversity, like a strong wind, clears out dead wood and encourages new growth.

It seemed a storm might be coming, and the tree was happy, with a type of anticipation of getting something it needed, which was the rain. The tree also told me that it liked everything that was connected and knew that it was. It said to me that it didn’t mind being killed if it was still supporting life but objected to being used in other ways. It felt that humans often lack gratitude for all that the trees, plants and animals provide them with. They sense humans have a lot that they might have forgotten.

Trees really enjoy the company of other trees. They love the connection of sharing the wind, rain and sun. They know how to endure and how to thrive when given an opportunity. Soil holds them upright. Soil connects them. They deeply revere it. They said it was important to know and love the things that connect you and keep you upright.

I said thank you to the tree and wished it the rain it was anticipating. I will listen to a tree again. They are wise and full of wisdom lost to humankind because we think it ridiculous to talk with trees and rocks. But behind the wall of imagination lies the truth. The wind blows, the tree limb bows, and maybe this time, you look up and take note. Opportunity is on the breeze that waves the limb. Look up and listen.

We know that if we become fearful or upset, we can significantly amplify our horse's feelings of insecurity and trigger a panic response. What is less known is the effect our calm, present minds can have on our horses. This is particularly true these days with the level of distraction brought on by cell phones and uber-busy lifestyles. There are seldom moments of stillness and presence in our lives unless we are aware and make space and time for them.

Recently, I was helping a client with an active startle reflex get more comfortable being around horses. I wanted her to experience the feeling of stillness and presence, the kind of stillness and presence I like people to have when working with their horses, because it opens up a deeper level of communication and connection between horse and human.

I picked a meditation that Ryan Hallford had given during Shea Stewart's recent Craniosacral course in Fort Worth, Texas. My client and I did this meditation on the deck of my hay barn, which adjoins my horses' and mules' yard. When we ended the meditation, I explained the importance of observing the feeling of presence and stillness created by the meditation and of trying to learn how to hold on to it to use when working with horses. All of my herd laid down and went to sleep, as they were deeply effected by our calmed nervous systems.

A calm mind is a powerful tool for down-regulating a horse. You can learn to use it to help horses relax, rest, heal, sleep, connect, and be well.

If you would like to learn more about how to do this, please contact me.

“Over the past few years, I have really made listening a big part of what I do. Personally, it’s not easy. You really have to change your judgments of every situation, and you also have to be able to lose your expectations. The only goal is to have your horse feel as if you’re on their team, so they know you can recognize when they become concerned and help relieve that concern. In order to listen fully, you must also be more present, and just from that mindfulness, I have seen a huge change in horses that I work with.” Warwick Schiller 2022

“Many people struggle to be in the presence of their horse without doing something. If there’s a problem, they want to fix it. if there’s not one, they want to fiddle and groom and touch… Many times these well meaning owners… are doing a lot of work to try to resolve their horse’s anxiety issues, and many times the incessant fiddling and grooming and touching is part of the problem.
Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is be a human being, instead of a human doing.” Warwick Schiller 2025

These two quotations above from the illustrious horseman Warwick Schiller really sum up the essence of working correctly with horses. It is not, as Warwick points out, “about the doing,” but it is about the being and the seeing. We must be present, and we must be aware of the horse’s every concern and have them know that we are. In these two steps, the horse finds not only the partner he seeks but the security and confidence he needs.
When we look at our horses deeply, trying to understand their inner state, our mirror neurons help us feel and sense our horses in our bodies, which communicates to them on a feeling level that we get them. Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that fires both when a person or animal performs an action or when they observe another performing the same action.Being present helps us to be aware and grounded. We should strive to be our horse’s rock, not their rabbit hole.

“First, you go with the horse. Then the horse goes with you. Then you go together.” – Tom Dorrance

First, you really see your horse. Then, the horse finds security in your presence. Then you have connection and go
together—the Two-Step Way.

Two important concepts to think about when introducing something new and potentially frightening to a horse are titration and pendulation. Both terms were coined by Peter Levine who developed Somatic Sensing, which has become a popular therapy for helping people overcome trauma. Titration, when applied to horses, is a way of introducing something scary or novel to a horse in a piece-by-piece way that will not overwhelm him. Pendulation is the concept of moving between a feeling of activation and one of safety to broaden the horse’s comfort zone.
The following video gives a nice little example of both titration and pendulation as it applies to horse training. In this video, I am working with a previously wild Mustang named REIN’s Infinite Hope. Fin for short. I am helping him to get more comfortable with haltering.
You can see in this video that I have broken the haltering process into small pieces so as not to overwhelm him. Fin is not comfortable with having someone stand at his side and stroke him, so I do that for just a moment, keeping him within his tolerance. I step forward to engage him. I am only asking him to stick his nose in the noseband of the halter and allow me to rub the sides of his nose with it. This is enough for now. When I started with Fin, I only rubbed him with the halter. Then, when he was fine with that, I asked him to put just the tip of his nose in it. Now he puts his whole nose in the nose band and lets me rub the sides of his face. He is not yet entirely comfortable with this step, so for now, we will just do this step until he gains more confidence, and then we will continue slowly. This is the titration.
Notice how Fin puts his nose in the halter for a while and then withdraws it. I allow him to pull his nose out of the halter and go back to where he feels safe. He then tries again, putting his nose in the halter, by allowing him to remove his nose whenever he wants. I am helping him to build his trust and confidence in the haltering process. This is an example of pendulation. Going slowly and using these concepts in your training can make all the difference.

The horse is a flight animal with long legs to carry him away at speed. In the wild, he flees from danger, only fighting when he is trapped, for a resource, breeding rights or seeking dominance. He is a vigilant animal with wide-set eyes that enable him to see predators approaching. He has a big nose with wide nostrils to help him smell things on the wind. He has a long neck and tall ears that help him get information about things approaching. He is a herd animal and relies on his nervous system and the nervous systems of the animals around him to keep himself safe. Everything about his biology, physiology and behavior is primarily there to keep him safe from danger.
He is always aware of his safety. That’s what makes a horse so sensitive to pressure. A direct gaze or a straight-line movement towards him is enough to move him away or freeze him in place if he has nowhere to go. The activation of the fight-or-flight response in a scared rider’s nervous system can also really unsettle a horse and make him want to run away.
When we have a horse on a rope, when we are riding or when we are holding one in a contained space, we are taking away their feeling of mobility, which they rely on to feel safe. We are taking away their main way of protecting themselves from perceived danger. They do not have unconditional access to their legs or to their flight. This immobility makes horses feel vulnerable and fearful until they have learned to decouple fear from the feeling of being restrained. We often forget to consider deeply enough what this feeling of vulnerability must feel like to them.
We can help our horses learn to decouple fear from the feeling of immobility placed upon them by our ropes and bridles by making sure we are aware of where they are in their nervous system when we are working with them, by making sure we take the time to keep them below their threshold of fear for tolerating new experiences and objects. We can help them by making sure our nervous system is anchored in the present moment, a place where we are grounded, nonjudgemental and not overtaken by strong emotions. We can help them by letting them know we are paying attention to their feeling and going with it enough for them to understand we are with them. We can help them by being patient and remembering that if they are not “getting” what we are trying to teach them, we need to change how we teach them. We can help them by being clear with our asks and our responses to their tries. We can help them by titrating their exposure to something that scares them instead of overwhelming them with too much all at once. We can help them grow by pendulating between increasing exposure to the thing that they find frightening and a feeling of safety.
If a horse becomes too panicked without being able to flee or fight for their safety, they disassociate, they freeze. They do not learn anything new in this state. They are truly incapable of it. If they are forced to do this too much or for too long, they shut down. The energy that is generated for them to flee gets stuck in their bodies and minds. This can make them mentally and physically sick and lame. They can become tense and hypervigilant, or they can become depressed and shut down from what is happening around them. Their eating habits can change, and they can develop coping behaviors like cribbing, head swinging and stall walking. Their minds withdraw, and their postures change as they struggle to deal with their stress. They become disconnected and unable to really trust people or their environment.
It’s important to understand that force is never the answer. Not only can it truly break a horse’s nervous system, but it will also break their spirit and their trust. We know so much more than we once did about the mammalian nervous system. We understand that tonic immobility is often a big part of the development of PTSD in people. Why should it be any different in a horse, an animal that was born to run?

The most excellent cowboy horseman, Tom Dorrance, used to say that he liked to let the newborn foals approach him and make the first contact rather than walking up to them. He described how first after a few days old they would start to shyly look over at him from the far side of their mother. Then, a day or two later, they would be brave enough to come around the other side of their mother for a better look. Finally, one day, on their own decision, they would walk up to him and make the first contact by reaching out to touch his hand or sniff him on the head if he was bent down. Tom Dorrance said that this subtle difference in allowing the foal to approach first on his own time made for a much better horse, one with more confidence and interest in humans and the human relationship as they grew up to be riding horses.
By letting the foals approach him first instead of going right up to them and touching them, Tom was letting them find their confidence and curiosity enough to want to engage with him. The foals were coming out of their sympathetic nervous system state (flight, freeze, flight) from the novel experience of his presence and entering the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system that is responsible for social engagement as well as rest and digestion.

By waiting for them to build their confidence in his presence, he helped them to want to engage with him. If he had approached them, perhaps they would have tried to get away, or they might have frozen with fear as he made contact. The experience of the first contact would have looked much different for the foals had he not waited for them to approach him first. They would have felt fearful, stiffened by the action of their sympathetic nerve, and they would have remembered this experience and associated it with him.

Done the waiting way, the foals were feeling curious and friendly. They enjoyed the engagement and remembered it as a positive experience with a relaxed muscle tone. When minds are calm, and the sympathetic branch of the nervous system is low enough for social engagement, learning happens. Tom was choosing to start his foals from a place of finding their will instead of just their surrender or tolerance. This is an important concept when working with horses. It always makes a better connection, bond and partnership when you have their will.

We are often in such a rush that we may not be aware how much of our horse’s will we actually have on a daily basis. A good place to test this is when haltering them. Does your horse come to you, or do you go to him? Does he look at you when you approach, or does he look away? Does he tip his head towards the halter, or does he move it away, put it in the air or tip it to the side?

Altering your haltering practice can establish a better relationship with your horse. If he comes to you and tips his head right into the halter, you have his will; if not, you have some work to do. The moment your horse so much as looks away as you approach him with the halter halt, stay still for a moment, make sure that your energy is low and that you are present without a lot of agenda. Wait for the horse to look back at you. When he does, you can take another step towards him. If he looks away again wait. Keep doing this until the horse has either come to you or allowed you to approach all the way by not looking or moving his head away from you.

Open the noseband of the halter and invite him to put his nose in. If he moves his nose away, retreat by moving the open noseband away by the same amount of space. This will cause the horse to draw towards the noseband again. Keep playing this game until the horse puts his nose in the halter. If he starts to pick his head up away as you try to bring the halter up towards his ears, wait and slide the halter back down by the same amount he has moved away from it. Do this until he allows for the haltering without any objection and by actually making it easy for you to halter him.

This method of haltering really helps to build connection, as the horse understands that you are aware of his feelings and are taking them into account. This feeling of security switches on the horse’s social engagement and makes him want to interact with you.



This simple haltering method can change your relationship. Your horse will start to respond to your presence and interactions from a place of will and curiosity rather than just compliance. You can add this way of interacting to all the things you do with him, not just haltering. Let your horse know you see and respect the being inside of them by taking the time to wait for them to be ready to engage with you.

When I was little, I had a wonderful aunt who lived far away from us. We lived in Vermont, and she lived in London. She was my dad’s older sister. On the rare occasions that she came to visit, I remember being very excited, anticipating the gift she would bring for me and my brother. She always came with one gift for each of us. So every time she came, I remember suffering through her perfume and lipstick as she bent down to cuddle and squeeze us. I could barely stand all the grown-up talk and fawning over us, which would have to take place before she would present her gifts.

I hate to say, I remember the beloved gray sweatshirt she once gave me more than anything she ever said to me. She was a fascinating, larger than life character, a play producer on the London stage, a world traveler and a very dramatic person whom my parents and others had many great stories about. She was adored.

Yet to me, she had grabbed at me and tried to hold me too close. She smelled strongly of perfume, which made my eyes water. She was loud. She did not really see me. She did not see my hesitation. She did not release me when I squirmed to be free from her hold. She planted wet kisses on my cheeks that I hated. But then there were her presents, and they were wonderful. In my kid world, my lovely aunt was totally overshadowed by her gifts.

I wonder what personal memory I could have had of her, my namesake if she had slowed down. If she could have seen me. If she could have waited for my invitation to hug. If she could have waited for my curiosity about her to overcome my shyness. I wasn’t very shy. I wanted to be an actress. I know I would have been truly fascinated by her life and her stories of the stage and all the famous people she knew. I wonder what I would remember of her if there had been no special gift to lift the spotlight from her and shine it instead upon the gift.

I think about my aunt and the beloved gray sweatshirt she gave me every time I think about giving treats to horses and how this can quickly shift their focus from the meaningful to the distraction.

Treats are tricky, as they create a dopamine rush in the recipient and make them associate your presence with the treat instead of with you and the company you have to offer them. This creates an expectation as soon as they see you approaching. If this association does not immediately get answered by receiving a treat, they get frustrated, and their cortisol levels rise, which is actually stressful to them.

The other negative thing that happens with treats is that the feeling of a dopamine rush is addictive, and the craving increases so that they seek a higher dose each time. This is why the behavior ramps up. If you then do not treat they get super frustrated with you and your lack of understanding of coming through with the treat; at this point, they either walk off or pin their ears and try to bite you, which makes not only the horse feel frustrated but you as well because of the lack of connection.

Humans treat animals because we are looking for a way to connect and to do something nice for them, as my aunt did with me and the gifts. People think to make a connection with a horse through a treat or a caress. The caress is a better connection than the treat, as the association is with you and your touch, which does build trust and connection.

What is even better, though, is knowing how to be a true and valuable companion. This is what I teach my clients with the Two Step Technique: a way to be with horses and how to really see them, how to spend time with your horse in a nondemanding, nonjudgmental, very present and deeply listening way.

A horse does not have to give another horse a treat or a caress in order to create a great bond. This is where the being and the seeing of my Two Step Technique comes in. You bring a feeling of peace in your nervous system to share with the horse through being present in a meditative way. Your nervous system is saying to the horse, “Right now, you can be peaceful,” and you bring your awareness that you truly see what is concerning him and what worries him. This says to the horse, “I see you and your concern.” When one feels listened to, one feels better in the presence of the listener.

This being and seeing combined make you a valuable companion for the horse, which makes him feel connected and peaceful. Over time, this builds a true connection, a true bond. The horse remembers the calm feeling and deep listening that come in your presence, not the little sugar high that is so fleeting and demanding of more.

It’s the Buddha or the lollipop. Over time, you will know that the better gift to bring is the feeling of the Buddha, not the fleeting sugar high of the lollipop.

If my aunt had only known this difference, I might have an old photo of us together. Instead, I only have a few pictures of me wearing the favorite sweatshirt she gave me.


* Note: Once a true connection has been created, a treat can be used as a form of payment for a service, but it must be clear to the horse what he has been asked to do and what he is being rewarded for. A reward does not have to be a food treat and must be a reward for an action that was asked for. Treats on their own are never a good way to build a deep connection.

The amazing thing about life is how much communication there is without language. Humans lose sight of this magic because of our strong reliance on words. We are seldom confident in our gut reactions or aware of all the information and communication that is going on around us. We wait for the words even when there is often less truth behind them when they come.
Other social animals tend to tune us out because they realize we are not tuned in. We are fairly unaware of our surroundings and other animals’ attempts to share communication about them. We simply don’t see what they are communicating. We don’t even see or understand if what our own nervous systems are transmitting is authentic to the present moment. We are tuned out.

The more we tune into our digital lives, the further away we sail from the realities of nature, authenticity and truth. So often, we are not “right here, right now”. We are lost in space and in time that has no real relationship to the present moment, and we are fooling our nervous systems into the dramas of our minds and digital lives. Since social animals communicate far more on a nervous system level, we are, at worst, transmitting a “not safe” vibe, and at best, we appear obtuse and unresponsive to them and our environment.

For this reason, we often can’t reach our pets when they panic or make strong connections with them because they have no confidence that we truly see what concerns them or are aware of what is happening in our environment. And if we do see, we don’t often know how to communicate back to them in an appropriate way that lets them realize that, at this moment, all is well.

Security and self-preservation are the number one driving forces for herd animals like horses when they confront novelty, be it a new environment, animal or object. The things they wish to know from the other members of the herd are: do you see what I see? and Is it safe or dangerous? Do I need to be ready for fight or flight, or can I go safely back to rest, feed and digest?

A good herd buddy sees, feels and picks up on this concern. They provide the response information needed. When things are okay, they know how to regulate their own nervous system response so that it can transmit the right message of security to their companions. This is who we need to become to help our horses feel comfortable, connected and safe in our presence. This is the way we can help our horses to learn and accept new things.

Below, I explain how we do this work of awareness and nervous system regulation to help two feral horses who are learning to trust their caregivers and expand their tolerance for touch and handling.

Ivan is a five year old feral draft cross. His only handling by humans was when he was caught, gelded, loaded on a truck and taken to a kill pen. He was rescued by Trayce Doubek and has been living in a pasture and run-in stall with his sister Izzy, who is also feral and was rescued by Trayce. They have been there for two years but have not been handled much.

Ivan is more fearful than Izzy, and we are working to help him get used to being touched. A volunteer named Dauby Fowler stands next to Ivan in his pasture. Every time Ivan sees or hears something, Dauby notices and tries to see with him. She notices what and where he is looking. She notices the tension in his body. She notices the amount of concern on his face. Every time Ivan relaxes a tiny bit, Dauby re-grounds herself in a meditative state that tells her nervous system and Ivan’s nervous system that everything in this moment is fine. What Dauby is doing is helping Ivan down-regulate his nervous system and realize that his environment is not that scary. As Ivan learns that Dauby is seeing everything that scares or concerns him, and is being able to help him realize that he is fine, the more he gains confidence in her and his surroundings.

Ivan begins to turn his head or flip an ear in Dauby’s direction when he sees or hears something. He is, in a sense, asking for her opinion on their safety. He is starting to treat her as a valuable herdmate.
I shout to Dauby that I am about to appear around the corner and ask her to co-regulate with Ivan as I approach them and go up to Ivan. As Ivan hears and sees my approach, he looks at me. He becomes concerned by my approach, but Dauby is standing nearby, seeing Ivan’s concern and feeding his nervous system the information that all is well. I continue my approach slowly, and Dauby keeps helping Ivan by co-regulating with him. The following photos further illustrate how Dauby helps Ivan eventually find the courage to reach out and sniff my hand and then allow me to reach forward and slowly touch him on the forehead. This slow, aware and well-regulated work will enable Ivan to understand that he is fine when people approach and offer a pat. This will eventually erode his old nervous system response of being fearful of humans based on how he was treated by them in the past.

In the corral next door, Trayce has been doing the same work of being a good herd mate to Izzy, seeing what concerns her in her environment and then helping her feel peaceful. This work has gone so well with Izzy this morning that Trayce is now helping Izzy to be comfortable with letting Trayce put a halter on her, wearing it for a while and realizing that Trayce will also take it off her. Izzy has been haltered a few times already but the experience is still a little frighting for her, so we are taking it slow and working at her pace. Trayce is careful to pause whenever she sees Izzy growing concerned. Trayce makes sure that she carefully regulates her own nervous system to help Izzy remain curious and connected to their interaction. By doing this careful work of being present and seeing Izzy’s concerns, Trayce is keeping Izzy’s engagement. The following photos help to illustrate this process.

The work of being present and really seeing the horse is so important to building connection and for helping horses to be comfortable in their environments and with new and novel experiences. If you would like to learn more about this method and my services, please visit my Two Step Technique page.

Mistakes teach. I wanted to re-shoot this little video I made about Magneto’s progress with the saddling and unsaddling process. Then, I realized its teaching value was greater by showing the mistakes I made in this video.

Magneto has a bad trigger around saddling that is improving. When I finally realized his trigger, I gave him a year off and decided to restart him in a completely different way and even in a different location.

This time, I did the whole process loose and invited him to participate with a few treats as payment. I wanted to work totally off his will to join me in the process.

Look for the moments when I race him and do not respect his concerns. See if you can catch them. After the video, I have posted still shots where I could have moved slower, gotten present, and waited until he did not object or react by increasing his concern.

All in all, I am very pleased with his progress in getting over what was a really bad fear of being saddled. He used to shut down in a frozen state, with a completely frozen look on his face, frozen eyes, clamped in tail, and a super tense body no matter how gently one put the saddle on him. He was also scared of the bridle and the rein coming over his head. The slightest brush or noise after saddling could unglue him completely, causing him to fly into a series of bucks whether you were on the ground or in the saddle.

When I finally understood that his response was born of a deeper place than the conscious brain and that he was reacting from a set nervous system pattern to a traumatic experience around saddling, then I began to make progress as I addressed healing his nervous system instead of trying to “train” the reaction out of him.

To do this, I am careful to stay below threshold and to bring his mind back down every time it starts to come up too far. If I can keep him calm and far from a freeze response, he can begin to make new associations with being saddled, and that is what is happening. The advice to myself is to keep my focus on the horse and to slow down even more. Wait out that last bit of concern and resistence.

 Bernie and I both participated in the Mustang Summit and Equus Film Festival in Aiken, South Carolina. It was a lot of fun to hang out, watch and participate in the various programs being offered over the three days. On Saturday I gave a talk about deepening connection to your horse with the Trust Technique and Bernie's film the Lost Sea Expedition was the 7pm feature film on Saturday night. It was great to see the Lost Sea Expedition back on the big screen where it looks so beautiful. It was also a blast to meet this years group of mustangers and to watch them work with the lovely yearling mustangs they drew. All in all a really great weekend so well organized by Lisa Diersen. The best part for me about the whole event was to see how relaxed and well cared for the young mustangs were. A truly lovely event from start to finish.

Change is in the air. Fall is upon us. Autumn is a transitional season. I see the changes in physical ways, the coats growing longer on our animals, their metabolisms ramping up, the colder air that makes them frisky, the lower light in the mornings and evenings. This time is also reflexive for me as I think where we have come from this summer and where we stand now in relation to that.

Many of my equine clients have come miles due to the lovely mindfulness practice the Trust Technique offers and their dedication to helping their horses with it.

I think of Rebecca’s horse Ali, who when I first met him early this summer, stood in his stall giraffe-like in his hyper-vigilant, sleep deprived way, who has relaxed so much that the difference in appearance when one approaches his stall is so evident that it gives me goose bumps. Rebecca has been so dedicated to working with the Trust Technique with Ali that when he does still get freaked out by something in his pasture he runs to her instead of his pasture mates.

Ali has learned through Rebecca’s use of the Trust Technique that she is aware of him and his concerns and that she will help him to be calm with the things that worry him. Trauma takes a long time to fix all the way but Ali is definitely on a healing path. He is sleeping. He is eating better, and he is relaxing more and more and not always hyper-vigilant now. This is a lovely thing to witness.

To read two earlier articles about Ali’s journey click the links below.
Unfreezing Ali's Nervous System With The Trust Technique: Re-balancing The Sympathetic And Parasympathetic Branches
Two Different Vagus Nerve Responses To Longterm Trauma In Horses And How The Trust Technique Is Helping Both Horses To Re-regulate Their Nervous Systems

About a month ago I was asked to help Trayce and her borders gentle and halter train to feral horses named Izzy and Ivan, who Trayce had rescued out of a kill pen two years ago but had not done much work with besides caring for them. Read their initial story here where I present a slide show of the first work with Izzy. Building Trust With Ivan And Izzy Using The Trust Technique

Izzy and Ivan have come a long way in a very short time. Izzy now takes her halter peacefully and is starting to lead and have her legs picked up. Ivan the shyer, wilder sibling has progressed too. He is now accepting pats and is allowing people to come up to him in his pasture. We are going at just their pace and every step is full of peace and respect. I am so proud of the great job that Trayce and Dauby, Karen and Sue and the rest of the team at Renovatio Farms is doing.

Below are some pictures of the work with Izzy and Ivan and two little videos of the first work with Ivan and Izzy. Their progress speaks for itself, the dedication of their human support team and the effectiveness of the Trust Technique approach.

I was recently asked to help with two feral Clydesdale-TB cross siblings, Izzy and Ivan, who have not been fully gentled. The mare, Izzy, is a five-year-old. She has been haltered a few times in the past (not consistently) and has been led a few times. The gelding, Ivan, six, has only been handled when he was gelded and when he was shipped with Izzy from the Bowie Kill pen in Texas, where they were found facing slaughter two years ago. Trayce rescued them.
 
Trayce is a busy woman with a full-time business running a boarding barn, training horses, and teaching clients. She also had health issues that required medical attention when she took Ivan and Izzy on. For that reason, the two have not had much handling but have otherwise been well taken care of. They need to be gentled so that they can get their shots and have their hooves trimmed. So far, they have been lucky that their hooves have worn down enough on the surface of their paddock not to need trimming.
 
My work with Ivan and Izzy will be to teach Trayce and some of her boarders, who have volunteered to help, how to work with Ivan and Izzy using the Trust Technique to get them used to being handled, haltered, lead and worked with.

I notice the light is changing. The ponies and mules are shedding again and getting ready to start growing their winter coats. The summer is moving on. We are in mid August. I wanted to reflect on the wonderful summer we had on and off the farm in a little photo essay. I like every now and then to slow down enough to appreciate the beauty of living here and the enjoyment we get from this life together with animals and friends. What's more beautiful than a fresh peony in a glass jar? What more poetic than the Strawberry moon in a cloudless indigo sky? What more cozy than a couch shared with animals?

Co-regulation is a way for a horse owner to help support a horse who is nervous about his environment or situation or to help a horse who is stuck in a long-term response to trauma. To co-regulate in a calming way with a horse who is nervous or traumatized, an owner or caregiver pays close attention to the shifting emotional and physiological cues of the horse while also regulating their own emotional state.

The caregiver must be attuned to the moment-to-moment regulatory needs of the horse as it reacts to its environment. This means that the caregiver will not only pick up on the horse’s emotional state and energy level but will also match it and, when appropriate, help to down-regulate the horse’s emotional state by bringing down their own thinking levels, thus inviting the horse to calm down with them.

The Trust Technique provides a beautiful set of tools to help co-regulate a nervous horse. The Trust Technique practitioner oscillates between holding a space in the present moment and mindfully regarding the horse. Below is a photo essay of me assisting a horse named Eli with the Trust Technique. Eli goes from anxious to calm in a brand new environment in which he has just arrived as heavy rain pelts the metal roof of the shed we are standing in.

The last photo in the series shows the difference in Eli as his owner is being taught how to help him using the Trust Technique. The feeling is almost always stronger when the owner or regular caregiver is doing the co-regulation, as the horse already has a certain level of trust and connection built up with them.

A big, big thank you to Nancy and Bill Sluys who hosted me at their beautiful Triple C Ranch over the weekend of July 20th and 21st. It was so interesting and exciting to be able to help each participant and their equine with the Trust Technique. Many have expressed an interest that I return to that area of Va., so I will keep you posted of further dates for Trust Technique sessions to be conducted at the Triple C Ranch, near Independence, Va.
Below are some photos from the weekend at Triple C Ranch.

When I am off to a new Trust Technique consultation, I never know what to expect. The caller, a nice, woman named Rebecca explained that she would be interested in my help with her new, six year old horse, Ali. She was hoping I could help her settle him a bit more and help them improve their connection. She wanted him to be her next dressage partner. She described him as flighty, unsettled, sometimes running from something as benign as a leaf.

She explained that she had started all her horses and wished to do one more. She had bought Ali unbacked from the farm he was born and raised on. He is a Frisian Arab cross. He was shown in halter classes and had done well. Rebecca explained that he had been almost exclusively kept indoors in a stall and turned out in an enclosed arena. She suspected his flighty behavior was due to his breeding with the Arab blood and also the fact that he had not yet in his life seen very much.

Ali was offered to Rebecca at a price she could not refuse. She liked his underlying personality, which seemed playful and friendly, so she bought him as an unbacked six year old in November of 2023. She arranged for him to go straight from the farm she purchased him from to a trainer she admires and his assistant. She left him there for three months, and they did some groundwork with him. Rebecca flew out a couple of times to work with the trainer and Ali. On the last visit she backed him, and she was able to put on the first couple of rides. He seemed to take the riding in stride and never offered a buck. He still hasn’t.

In March, he was shipped to her farm. She has been riding him since and was just beginning to canter him. She told me sometimes he was starting to get stubborn and was being cheeky and kicking out when she was asking for the canter. She also told me he was a bit underweight, did not eat great, had trouble getting fit, had loose stools, and was having a difficult time building muscle and getting a nice top line.

Her biggest complaint, however, was his spookiness and their connection. She felt that when he got nervous about something, he disconnected from her. Being a large horse, this was a scary feeling. He could run her over on the ground or perhaps take off with her under saddle, although he never had.

It was early June when I first went to see Ali and Rebecca. I met Rebecca first outside the stable. She seemed calm and friendly, and she had a bunch of large, sweet-natured dogs around her. She immediately did not strike me as the kind of high thinker who would make her animals on edge and nervous. The dogs were friendly and comfortable with people.

I walked into the very clean, well ventilated stable, with a bunch of ceiling fans whirring. I saw two calm horses at rest in their stalls on the right side of the aisle, back hooves cocked, lower lips dipping with relaxation. At the end of the aisle on the left side, I saw Ali.

His head was held high towards the ceiling like a giraffe. His ears were flipped around backward. He had a frozen wide open eye with a heavy V-shaped crease above it. His fascia was pulled so tight he looked shrink-wrapped, and there were dents in his neck, muzzle, and flanks where everything on his body had been pulled in so tight from stress. Here was a horse whose nervous system response seemed to be stuck in a perpetual fear response. When I walked into his stall and stood next to him for the first time, my body felt like it had been given a massive shot of caffeine. I was picking up on his nervous energy.

He circled. He raised his head to its maximum limit. He stared with flipped back ears and tense body into space. Sometimes, he circled and looked out the window with pricked ears and a nervous expression as if something out beyond the window was of concern. Sometimes, he would come back to himself and lower his head with a friendly sniff of acknowledgment. His eyes would blink a little, but then he would return quickly to his wide-opened eyed stare and high neck. He was disassociating from us, his environment, and himself. His nervous system was locked in a sympathetic freeze response, not unlike a human suffering from PTSD. Because he had been operating from this sympathetically dominated, autonomic response for some time, his fascia and muscles were contracted. No doubt his heart rate was higher than it should be. I could feel this in my own body when I stood beside him.

I knew the Trust Technique could help Ali. It is a wonderful mindfulness method that helps an animal reset its nervous system. It works on the relationship between the owner and their animal, recognizing the feeling relationship. It understands that people and animals share feelings, and it provides a tool for the owner to take responsibility for the shared feeling and bring their own mind down to a peaceful state where their nervous system switches into a parasympathetic response (also known as the rest and digest state), with lowered heart rate and blood pressure.

They can then share this feeling with their animal at the animal’s own pace. To share a peaceful space with an animal at their own pace means that the human must listen with eyes and ears and feel why the animal can not be peaceful.

By doing this type of “listening,” which we call mindful regard in the Trust Technique, we can make an animal feel seen, felt, and understood. This feeling makes them feel secure, and through this work of alternating between the peaceful state and listening at precise times, they gain confidence in their surroundings, in their owners, and most importantly, in themselves.

As a daily practice between an owner and their animal, it really promotes trust and confidence and leads to a much deeper connection. It also restores the nervous system to a better state where there is more heart rate variability, which means the horse can increase heart rate when under a true threat but also slow it back down into a rest and digest state as soon as the threat has passed. When the nervous system is working properly, the horse can dump his stress and relax, which means the fascia, muscles, nerves, and organs can also relax.

When a horse is in a panic or stuck in the past from a traumatic experience, they have real trouble evaluating what is authentic and, therefore, can not learn new things or reevaluate their situation. They can become stuck in an automatic fear response (sympathetic, freeze, autonomic nervous system response) when nothing that is fearful is happening to them in the moment. To help horses like this, we need to bring their minds down enough so that they can understand that, in the moment, they are fine, and then they can start to rewire their brain and nervous system to respond differently. It’s like rebooting them. Over time, the nervous system heals as they gain back their confidence in themselves, their surroundings, and in the person who has helped them to be less afraid.

Since peace and unpeace can not be in the same place, most horses who have not suffered any traumatic experiences will go through a fairly typical process when unloading their unpeace with the Trust Technique. They will first lick and sometimes chew a little. That’s a sign they are picking up on the feeling of peace being offered. Then, as the unpeace comes to the surface, they may scratch (they often get itchy), move around, paw, try to mouth things, nip, and pin their ears. Eventually, when they are ready, their heads will lower, their eyes will start to close, male horses will dangle their penis from the sheath, and all of them yawn as the feeling of peace starts to influence their nervous system, and they release the tension they are holding on to (parasympathetic, rest and digest, autonomic nervous system response).

Not Ali. When I offered Ali the feeling of peace, he circled his stall once or twice, sniffed me, and the camera Bernie was filming him through the stall with. He then stared at something in the distance out his stall window that worried him. He moved as far away from the window as possible, licked and chewed a little, and fell sound asleep with his head still high in the air and his eyes frozen wide open. He kept ahold of all his tension except his lower lip, which drooped. You could tell by his breathing and the expressions that came across his face that he was in a dream state.

He stayed just like this for close to 10 minutes but came out of it when I whispered to Rebecca to watch Ali’s face. I wanted her to see his expression, which was reacting to something unpleasant he was reliving from his past. He woke and did an enormous whole-body stretch and went right back to dreaming, with open eyes, a high head position, and still a ton of tension throughout his body and face.

At that moment, I realized that he was totally sleep-deprived, that the sympathetic branch of his nervous system was stuck on like a seized-up emergency brake, that he had also activated his parasympathetic branch, and that he was responding to the feeling I was offering by falling asleep and relaxing his lower lip. His upper lip was still pulled in very tight against his upper teeth.

In the Trust Technique, we judge thinking levels (relaxation) on a scale from zero to ten. A zero is a complete dreamlike state; a one is a head-lowering, eyes-going sleepy state; a five is alert but neutral, a good learning state and a 10 is a full-on panic.

Ali was on two levels at the same time, both a 0 and an 8. His mind was in a dream state (rest and digest), but his body was still stuck in a state of high vigilance. With a horse caught like this between states, one must be very careful not to startle them. The body is already in a high fight-or-flight state, so if they were to wake up suddenly, they could become very reactive.

I watched Ali sleep for quite a while longer, alternating between offering more of the peaceful feeling and observing the tension in his body and the expressions crossing his face. Eventually, he shifted a little, his head got a little lower, and he did some more licking, all good signs that he was coming a little more out of his freeze response.

I taught Rebecca how to deliver the feeling of peace to Ali and how to mindfully regard him so that she could keep working with him for the next couple of weeks to lower his thinking levels and start the work to restore his nervous system. I advised her to work with him during a quiet time of his day when the horses were usually resting. I suggested she start in a place where there was not a lot of extra stimulus, like his stall.

I explained that Ali needs daily work of the Trust Technique like a person under severe stress can be helped by a daily meditation practice. Ali needs to decompress, and the Trust Technique can help him do that. I explained that Ali reacts like he is living in a haunted house; he is so tightly wound that the littlest things can make him jump and overreact. I explained that his nervous system was so stuck in a sympathetic state that he couldn’t sleep because he had too much adrenaline running through his system.

I explained that he does not eat well because, in this state, he does not even feel hungry and that he can’t get fit because there is no room for his lungs to breathe. Most of all, Ali needed to feel relaxed enough to be able to sleep. Since his arrival at her farm, Rebecca had never seen him lying down or any signs that he had, and this is what I suspected.

We made a plan for Rebecca to work with Ali, practicing the Trust Technique every day, and I would return in two weeks to see where things were.

I checked in with Rebecca after the first week had passed. Ali was eating better. He had normal poops in his stall, which he had not before, and she had a feeling that he was a little calmer overall. There was still no sign that he was lying down to sleep.

At the end of two weeks, I returned to see Ali. I walked into Rebecca’s barn and could tell the moment I saw Ali that things were going well with their practice. His eyes were moving around a lot more in his head, and his face no longer looked frozen. His neck was being carried a little lower, and some of the dents in his neck and muzzle had gotten shallower.

Rebecca told me that, indeed, things were going better. He had been yawning a lot when they were doing the Trust Technique. He was, however, still going into the wide-eyed trance when they were doing the Trust Technique. He was also eating better and seemed calmer in his stall overall. Still, there was no sign that he was lying down.

I watched Ali and Rebecca practicing the Trust Technique in Ali’s stall, then suggested I work with him in the aisle of the barn for a while. There would be slightly more stimulus, and we could start to carry the feeling of peace and regard out into a new area to help Ali get more comfortable in his surroundings.

Upon working in the aisle of the barn with Ali, I became aware of the fact that Ali wished to be moved into the stall next to the alpha horse instead of his own, which was alone and separated by the aisle. He kept staring into the stall while I worked with him. I remembered that James French, the founder of the Trust Technique, had told us that when in regard the information from the horse’s behavior always means something. I knew right away that the message Ali was sending me was that he would be able to be a whole lot more peaceful if he could live in this stall next to the alpha horse. Perhaps he would finally lay down and sleep.

I asked Rebecca if she would consider switching Ali and the horse that occupied that stall. She said that would be fine with her if I thought it would help Ali. Upon the exchange of this request, Ali started giving off the biggest yawn releases I’d seen him do. Two days later, I received an excited text that Ali had hay in his tail, and Rebecca suspected he’d lay down to sleep. The news after a week was that he was definitely making progress.

After two weeks, the news from Rebecca was that he was getting frisky when she was trying to lead him out to the pasture. I told her that was wonderful news even if it seemed worse to her, as this was his system starting to unfreeze and feel. He was getting sleep. He was eating better. He was likely going to be more of a handful for a while as his nervous system was waking back up and unfreezing. He was going to probably get more energetic and expressive before he could become peaceful and calm.
Each time I have seen Ali, he has been doing better and better. It is such a joy to see him mending. Over time, I have learned more of his story. I learned that he had really not been exposed to anything as a youngster, and when the old owners needed to show him or control him, they had done it with drugs, which probably scared and confused him and did not allow his nervous system to develop properly.

I pictured how it must have been for him to leave his original farm alone and off the drugs that had sedated him before when things were new. He had not learned any coping skills. Taken away from the horses and everything he knew. He spent a few months at one farm without really settling in, then off to another, with no other familiar horse friends to help him control his fears. I can now totally understand why he had become so spooky, sleep deprived, and insecure, with a body and brain so full of tension. It is a testament to his kind spirit that he held all this tension inside him instead of really exploding and hurting people.

I am so glad that Rebecca found me and that Ali and Rebecca have been able to practice the Trust Technique. Ali will heal, and a beautiful bond of trust, confidence, and connection will be built between them. With each visit, I see more healing.

Update: Sold out!
The Trust Technique sessions for this weekend in Virginia have almost sold out with three weeks to go before the dates. If you want the last slot grab it quick. The remaining slot is July 20th at 2:30pm.