Horses are prey animals who have a heart that is five times larger than our human one. To feel safe, a horse continually gauges movements of other beings that move around. Finding belonging in a herd is how horses create safety for themselves. I have been invited to work together with experts at Equellness, an amazing center for personal growth and wellness, where continual learning and professional attunement is an enriching experience to me. As an equine assisted facilitator, this directly benefits my clients. Finding like-minded people who welcome me to work with them is a way to become better at listening, to learn from them and the horses who live with them, to recognize my shortcomings and to practice continual improvement. Safety through finding friends and belonging in the herd.

A horse can see in a wide arc, 340 degrees around in fact – except exactly in front of her, since her eyes are on the side of her head, and except exactly behind her. A horse listens with both ears – turning around in different directions when something calls their attention. He will sense the electromagnetic waves emitted by other horses’ heartbeats and can read the emotional state of beings that are near enough to sense, with his resonating heart. Through the pulsing “frog” that is pushed with each step under his hooves he can feel tremors, telling of a large or heavy movement on the earth’s crust. With his skin sensing the lightest touch, a fly that lands on his haunches is quickly flicked away by the whip of his tail or a shiver of his hide.