Welcome to Equine Leadership Volume 1.0 2025
We are so very grateful that you have joined us to hear the voice and wisdom of the horse. We offer you rich stories, deeply moving poetry, and exquisite photographs that all, in their own way, speak to the horse~human connection. We have also offered Equine Leadership Explorations with many of the articles for you to expand your connection to the stories and the horses. Please have a read of the Editor's Note to share in an overview of this publication. There is much to be enjoyed in these pages. We hope you take some time out of your busy day to read on, then we hope you share this publication so you may assist in sharing the voice and wisdom of the horse with all. The hard copy of this publication will be out soon. Please stay tuned to our FaceBook page or email: lynda.equineleadership@gmail.com to be notified.
Editor's Note
“Horses possess the inherent ancestral ‘knowing’ of the collective. It’s an instinctive sacred circle of care and safety - a holy and protected space, which they generously summon us into through an interspecies invitation.” Eleni Argy, Sacred Circles
I couldn’t have offered a better invitation to welcome you to our collection. We are so blessed to have sixteen authors from around the globe sharing stories, poetry, insight, wisdom, and the voice of the beloved horse. Each author shares the vision of Equine Leadership. We believe that horses, living as close to nature as possible, can provide a paradigm of living that is clear, authentic, and heart-based....
Read the full Editor's Note HERE
I couldn’t have offered a better invitation to welcome you to our collection. We are so blessed to have sixteen authors from around the globe sharing stories, poetry, insight, wisdom, and the voice of the beloved horse. Each author shares the vision of Equine Leadership. We believe that horses, living as close to nature as possible, can provide a paradigm of living that is clear, authentic, and heart-based....
Read the full Editor's Note HERE
The Herd
Feature One
Debbie La-Haye, UK
I am by your side
Breathing quietly
My head is down, munching a big pile of hay,
and you think I am lost in it...
Read the full feature HERE
Breathing quietly
My head is down, munching a big pile of hay,
and you think I am lost in it...
Read the full feature HERE
The Horse Told Me To Keep Walking
A Journey from Loss to Abundance
Anita La Selva, Canada
The barn is cool and dark. I breathe in the sweet smell of hay and horses, then slowly exhale. Yes. Something about being here feels familiar, like a memory from my life. I am reassured. I approach each Horse and silently introduce myself, opening my heart, patiently waiting to see if I feel a connection, until I come upon a tall, dark brown Thoroughbred. He is standing a few feet back from his stall door and is so still and quiet that for a moment he looks like a statue. His soft brown eyes rest calmly on me, and instantly I burst into tears...
Read Anita's full story HERE
Read Anita's full story HERE
SACRED CIRCLES
The Protection and Power of the Collective
Eleni Argy, Australia
I have often marvelled at how horses look after each other in the herd. They stand side by side, restfully, in an intentional togetherness. They position themselves mindfully as the protective sentinels watch over their herd members, allowing for essential rest and respite within their band. Horses possess the inherent ancestral knowledge of the collective. It’s an instinctive sacred circle of care and safety; a holy and protected space which they generously summon us into through an inter-species invitation...
Read Eleni's full story HERE
Read Eleni's full story HERE
The Three Grey Ponies
A Story Written in the Stars
By Jac, Pixie, Jojo and Georgie McBurney, UK
“It does not surprise me that you have horses in your life. You are Sagittarius, the centaur, you are half-horse” astrologer, Lotta Stenbacka revealed.
As a child, I wished on many a star for a horse. I attempted to fulfil that wish through various careers, but they led me down other paths. By the time I was middle-aged, those directions included...
Read Georgie's full story HERE
As a child, I wished on many a star for a horse. I attempted to fulfil that wish through various careers, but they led me down other paths. By the time I was middle-aged, those directions included...
Read Georgie's full story HERE
From Doing to Being
Kelly Jones, U.S.A.
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~Rumi
The black mare gazed towards the horizon, and each of the other mares in her small band joined her, silently watching the coyote trot across the pasture, moving north. As the coyote disappeared over the hill, the mares returned to grazing, calmly enjoying the fresh grass provided by the recent rains. This event was something they experienced as it unfolded, and the response was appropriate, calm, and intentional...
Read Kelly's full story HERE
The black mare gazed towards the horizon, and each of the other mares in her small band joined her, silently watching the coyote trot across the pasture, moving north. As the coyote disappeared over the hill, the mares returned to grazing, calmly enjoying the fresh grass provided by the recent rains. This event was something they experienced as it unfolded, and the response was appropriate, calm, and intentional...
Read Kelly's full story HERE
The Journey from Separation to Connection
Paths to wholeness guided by horses
Judy Brightman, Australia
“It’s easy for us to feel separate from other people and from other forms of life, especially if we don’t have a reliable connection to our own inner world.” ~Sharon Salzberg
Disconnection is an issue that is rife in an over-connected world full of technology driven, and often derived, information. Overwhelm is commonplace, and a sense of separateness, lack of meaning and loneliness lead people to unhealthy coping strategies that often exacerbate these feelings. Horses can model a more cohesive way of being...
Read Judy's full story HERE
Disconnection is an issue that is rife in an over-connected world full of technology driven, and often derived, information. Overwhelm is commonplace, and a sense of separateness, lack of meaning and loneliness lead people to unhealthy coping strategies that often exacerbate these feelings. Horses can model a more cohesive way of being...
Read Judy's full story HERE
Freya’s Last Gift
Tina Turner, Canada
“Life doesn’t feed on life. Life doesn’t nourish life. Death feeds life….
Our deaths can, in every sense the word can be meant, feed life –
unless we refuse to die, or fight dying, or curse dying, or spend all our dying time not dying.”
~Stephen Jenkinson, Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul
The horses were late arriving. It was 10 pm, dark, and still no word. I expected them hours ago, and it was only supposed to be a six-hour drive at most...
Read Tina's full story HERE
Our deaths can, in every sense the word can be meant, feed life –
unless we refuse to die, or fight dying, or curse dying, or spend all our dying time not dying.”
~Stephen Jenkinson, Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul
The horses were late arriving. It was 10 pm, dark, and still no word. I expected them hours ago, and it was only supposed to be a six-hour drive at most...
Read Tina's full story HERE
To One Self Be True
The H.E.A.R.T. of Standing in Your Authentic Power
Wendy Firmin-Price, UK
When did you last betray yourself?
Think about it. When was the last time you said "yes" when you meant "no," smiled to keep the peace while your insides screamed, or shrank into silence because speaking your truth felt too risky? Would you agree, we are all now living in a world that often pressures you to conform, follow the norm and not buck (pun intended) against the system? Sadly, this betrayal can become second nature, so subtle, you hardly notice until its effects catch up with you. But deep down, you know: every compromise chips away at your self-esteem, your confidence, and your ability to stand in your power...
Read Wendy's full story HERE
Think about it. When was the last time you said "yes" when you meant "no," smiled to keep the peace while your insides screamed, or shrank into silence because speaking your truth felt too risky? Would you agree, we are all now living in a world that often pressures you to conform, follow the norm and not buck (pun intended) against the system? Sadly, this betrayal can become second nature, so subtle, you hardly notice until its effects catch up with you. But deep down, you know: every compromise chips away at your self-esteem, your confidence, and your ability to stand in your power...
Read Wendy's full story HERE
Murray's Message
Feature Two
Murray Bruce, UK
Murray Bruce is twenty-three years old and lives in Oxfordshire, England. He was diagnosed with autism when he was three, is non speaking and has apraxia.
Murray’s message
Do people know how important horses are to mental health issues?
When I am with them, their heavenly, free outlook on life inspires me to calm myself.
Their intuitive understanding of people like me who have panic attacks and have additional needs is the most saving thing they can do...
Read Murray's full message HERE
Murray’s message
Do people know how important horses are to mental health issues?
When I am with them, their heavenly, free outlook on life inspires me to calm myself.
Their intuitive understanding of people like me who have panic attacks and have additional needs is the most saving thing they can do...
Read Murray's full message HERE
Ibérico and I
A story of contraction and expansion
Patrycja Linden, Portugal
With my internal world feeling crowded beyond my capacity to hold and contain it, combined with the relentless stimuli of a big city, I felt squelched and desperate for respite. I had been forced out of the productivity race years ago due to deep traumatic injuries and needed to find an entry back into society in a different, more balanced and healthy way. I needed to escape being in a constant state of reaction rather than truly living.
A few years ago, I started to experience an awakening of a felt sense of connection and safety through equine facilitated therapy with a herd of eight. These glimmers of felt sense would appear here and there in therapy and sometimes in my daily life...
Read Patrycja's full story HERE
A few years ago, I started to experience an awakening of a felt sense of connection and safety through equine facilitated therapy with a herd of eight. These glimmers of felt sense would appear here and there in therapy and sometimes in my daily life...
Read Patrycja's full story HERE
Harmony Leads the Way
Horses are Relationship Masters
Suzanne Carter, U.S.A.
My beautiful Harmony left her physical form in November 2021. Her hooves are no longer on my hearth, but who she truly was will always remain in my heart. I especially loved being able to spend time with Harmony when she lived on a thousand-acre ranch in Evergreen, Colorado. I learned so much from her and her forty other herd mates. Their greatest wisdom was around relationships. They truly are relationship masters.
The learning started as soon as she arrived....
Read Suzanne's full story HERE
The learning started as soon as she arrived....
Read Suzanne's full story HERE
Only the Horses Can Bring Us Back Home
Mena Canonico, Canada
It’s a song lyric in Only the Horses by Scissor Sisters. And in my experience, it’s TRUTH.
My love affair with horses began when I was six. We had moved to a hobby farm, and I would admire the neighbour’s horses across the fence. Then, I read Black Beauty. “Mom, Dad, can you buy me a horse?” I persisted relentlessly and was overjoyed when Dad brought Lady home one day. As someone who believed I was unlovable, I felt LOVED. That changed after a traumatic experience with Lady. Feeling powerless and abandoned, I withdrew. At eighteen, my parents divorced and sold the farm, severing my connection with horses...
Read Mena's full story HERE
My love affair with horses began when I was six. We had moved to a hobby farm, and I would admire the neighbour’s horses across the fence. Then, I read Black Beauty. “Mom, Dad, can you buy me a horse?” I persisted relentlessly and was overjoyed when Dad brought Lady home one day. As someone who believed I was unlovable, I felt LOVED. That changed after a traumatic experience with Lady. Feeling powerless and abandoned, I withdrew. At eighteen, my parents divorced and sold the farm, severing my connection with horses...
Read Mena's full story HERE
The Felt Sense of Connection with Horses
Michaela Slade, UK
The breath moves in and out. In a long, slow, and deep rhythm from his beautifully soft nostrils, I feel the warmth of the breath in the palms of my otherwise cold hands. I can feel the depth of the exhale that is drawn out without diluting its power, reflecting the capacity within.
He stands with me for what feels like hours; time fades away, disappears from my awareness; it becomes irrelevant, a concept that is not felt in this connection of oneness, holding and presence. I feel a deep sigh as I let go into this warm, safe connection in the cold winter air. I’m young and life feels upside down and inside out...
Read Michaela's full story HERE
He stands with me for what feels like hours; time fades away, disappears from my awareness; it becomes irrelevant, a concept that is not felt in this connection of oneness, holding and presence. I feel a deep sigh as I let go into this warm, safe connection in the cold winter air. I’m young and life feels upside down and inside out...
Read Michaela's full story HERE
How Time Works
As Learned Through a Lifetime with my Horse
Stephanie Sawtelle, U.S.A.
Dear fellow time traveler,
My first horse, Downey, taught me how time works.
Time drips, freezes, stretches, and stops, but there's even more to it than that.
By way of explaining, allow me to start at what I once would have called the end.
I sit across from the medium, a tangle of anticipation, excitement, and fear. I want a message, proof, some piece of tangible evidence that tells me life isn't over when it's over...
Read Stephanie's full story HERE
My first horse, Downey, taught me how time works.
Time drips, freezes, stretches, and stops, but there's even more to it than that.
By way of explaining, allow me to start at what I once would have called the end.
I sit across from the medium, a tangle of anticipation, excitement, and fear. I want a message, proof, some piece of tangible evidence that tells me life isn't over when it's over...
Read Stephanie's full story HERE
Their Bonded Hearts
Two Herds Connected through Intimacy
Lynda J Watson, Canada
“This was a bond that neither space nor time could damage. The friendship awakened an eternal echo in the hearts of the friends; they entered into a circle of intimate belonging with each other.” ~John O’Donohue
The horse herd and the human herd have shared a bond throughout millennia. There are the documented and known tales of being side by side through thick and thin, through valor and strife. There are also the stories less told. Those that tell the tale of two herds and the bonded heart they share. It is of the horse~human connection. One which will guide humanity on the path back to their hearts, a path that many have strayed from over time...
Read Lynda's full story HERE
The horse herd and the human herd have shared a bond throughout millennia. There are the documented and known tales of being side by side through thick and thin, through valor and strife. There are also the stories less told. Those that tell the tale of two herds and the bonded heart they share. It is of the horse~human connection. One which will guide humanity on the path back to their hearts, a path that many have strayed from over time...
Read Lynda's full story HERE
Divine Intimacy
Feature Three
Pat Hutchinson, Canada
DEAREST HORSE:
On this cool, breezy, sunlit day
We come together in a sand-padded sacred space,
As if drawn together by an unseen force.
You stand so very close and breathe.
I feel the heat of your body and the warmth of your breath at my side.
You gently rub your soft, furry face on my arm...
Read Pat's full feature HERE
On this cool, breezy, sunlit day
We come together in a sand-padded sacred space,
As if drawn together by an unseen force.
You stand so very close and breathe.
I feel the heat of your body and the warmth of your breath at my side.
You gently rub your soft, furry face on my arm...
Read Pat's full feature HERE