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Find Time For Treats (Horse Wisdom)

Horse WisdomJune 27, 202662Views 0Likes 0Comments

The farrier came yesterday, and I used my treat bag to make the experience a bit more pleasant. The senior mare (my heart horse) was all about the treats and it was so good to see her asking for more. Likewise, the other horses were very interested in treats, and everyone took time to savor…

How Much Do They Know and the Power of Presence

Horse WisdomJune 20, 202664Views 0Likes 0Comments

We don't know what happens inside a horse's mind, how they process information, how the social dynamics of the herd work exactly. We can guess. We can create theories and judge those theories, test those hypothesis against the horses in front of us and how we perceive their experience. But the truth is, we're always…

a little girl hugging a horse

Horses Teach Us Forgiveness

Horse WisdomJune 13, 202673Views 0Likes 0Comments

The fly mask sat on the table next to the door in my office, ready to go out for one of the older mares who I noticed was having a lot of trouble with flies around her eyes. It's been a crazy week with a cat emergency, which luckily turned out to be not that…

Horses Don’t Mind the Rain

Horse WisdomJune 6, 202689Views 0Likes 0Comments

I stepped outside earlier today to open the gates after giving senior heart mare her lunch and to check and top off everyone's water. It was raining. Only it wasn't quite drizzle and it wasn't quite a steady rain, light enough that for a moment I even wondered if it was raining. It was trying…

Trusting In Something Larger Than Yourself

Horse WisdomMay 23, 2026111Views 0Likes 0Comments

Every day my horses tell me about the power of trust. Whether it's the rescue who lets me love on her after being standoffish and skittish for so long, or the senior heart horse who calls for lunch, knowing that I'll do whatever it takes to make sure she's cared for. The roly poly "baby"…

What Horses Teach Us About Pressure and Burnout/Overload

Horse Wisdom, neurodivergentApril 4, 2026148Views 0Likes 0Comments

I was listening to an equestrian podcast and a horse trainer was on talking about curiosity and getting a horse to think and engage with its world rather than shutting down. As a horse person, I found what this trainer was talking about very fascinating. First, because I've been in barns with horses who had…

stacks of hay bales

Feeding Ourselves With The Changing Seasons

Horse Wisdom, wild spiritualityMarch 21, 2026147Views 0Likes 0Comments

If the temperature outside didn't clue me in that the seasons are changing, or the fact that yesterday was the spring equinox, or the two trips I have to make outside after late afternoon feeding--one to open the horses' gates, the other to shut in the chickens who now go inside much later than they…

How Horses Connect Us To The Natural World

Horse WisdomFebruary 28, 2026239Views 0Likes 0Comments

The more I learn about veterinary chaplaincy and ecospirituality or wild churches, the more I realize something that I've always known. While the deities are important to me, and I have some, including Epona, Celtic horse goddess, that I work with, to me the bigger connection to the sacred is the outdoors and the wild.…

Can shedding happen too soon? (Horse Wisdom)

Horse WisdomFebruary 21, 2026201Views 0Likes 0Comments

It happens every year. The days get longer and there's a rush of warmth, and I start to see the horses shedding. But just as soon as it begins, the weather cools and reminds us that winter will be here for another month or so. We have early narcissus flowers (daffodils) that often bloom around…

Speak Up For Your Needs (Horse Wisdom Edition)

Horse WisdomFebruary 14, 2026170Views 0Likes 0Comments

It was raining this morning when I went out to do morning chores, for which I was thankful because we really needed the rain. One of our horses (Kitty Kash, aka the Diva) doesn't like to eat in the rain. One of the best investments I made was in feed buckets that hook over the…

The Power of a Tiny Drop (Horse Wisdom)

Horse WisdomJanuary 31, 2026235Views 0Likes 0Comments

Hopefully this will be the last weekend of freezing weather for at least a week. I don't know I'm hearing rumors that the polar vortex might "slosh" (puke?) down into the lower 48 mid-February, but that's future me's problem. Today me is enjoying the power of a little drop of water. I've talked up my…

Somatic Work To Release Stress

Horse Wisdom, nervous system regulationJanuary 17, 2026226Views 0Likes 0Comments

Horses instinctively know how to move stress and discomfort through their body. Of course this doesn't mean that we need to stop looking for discomfort or not treat them, but when they are in a stressful situation, such as dealing with a higher member of the herd pecking order, they will often use different movements…

Horse Vices, Horse Stims

Horse WisdomJanuary 3, 2026286Views 0Likes 0Comments

Horse vices are undesirable behavior in horses, and often are determined to be ways of coping with stress. In horses that are often stabled, cribbing (biting down on wood and sucking in air) and weaving are considered ways in which these bored or stressed horses cope with the stress. And studies have shown that horses…

Incorporating Horse Wisdom into Holistic Spiritual Care

Horse WisdomDecember 27, 2025216Views 0Likes 0Comments

Part of nurturing the human-animal bond is incorporating the wisdom that these creatures share with us into our systems of holistic spiritual care. Remembering that holistic spiritual care is care for the whole being, all aspects and on all levels, then we can begin to look around us at the natural world and see how…

Why Horse Wisdom is Important

Horse WisdomDecember 13, 2025278Views 0Likes 0Comments

There is wisdom to be found in the non-human world, and when we are looking to craft our own systems of spiritual care it is extremely helpful to look at those whose lives are not shaped by human-made systems and constructs, and whose lives can be harmed by those same systems and constructs. While many…

Systems of Care According to Lived Experience

Horse WisdomDecember 6, 2025282Views 0Likes 0Comments

We're about two weeks away from the winter solstice, but the horses' coats started getting longer back in October as the light began to quickly fade. Fortune always grows a coat like a teddy bear, long and fuzzy, perfect no doubt for those Iowa winters she spent before our move here about a dozen years…