01/05/2026
So, this happened today and I feel it is a fantastic real-world demonstration of why our work matters. It was a situation representative of Zak’s work with baby Torin and the stuff that I work on with my own horses and students every day.
Zak was using the big tractor to move one of the ring feeders in the pasture next to the arena. A massive feeder being flipped up on its side is the kind of thing that might trouble any horse, particularly one who is tied. I figured there was a 50/50 shot that Éowyn would either be completely unbothered or that she would demonstrate a species appropriate fear response. Because I know that she understands how to work in confinement, is comfortable changing eyes through her blind spots and has a healthy relationship to contact, I knew that she wasn’t going to get into any real trouble and I decided to film her reaction.
She was troubled. Fair enough! Sometimes 💩 is scary.
Because of our work, Éowyn knows how to move and organize her body in order to contact her environment in a species appropriate way within the confines of the halter, rope and post, even when she is worried. She understands how to interface with the scene around her, and therefore how to allow shifting focus of the primary character (in this case, the feeder) and her helper (me).
Yes, she becomes triggered but rather than going into a fight or flight (pull back) or freeze response and fall over threshold, she organizes her body and mind to work through the situation, allowing processing through movement. She takes charge of her situation and works herself through trouble without ever finding the end of the rope or having to brace against it. While I did perform a measure of coregulation, letting her know through my breath, tone and body language that she was not in any real danger, I did step back and hold space for her to unwind on her own. I offered support, not solutions.
The only thing I don’t love about this video clip is that I didn’t catch the closing of the loop. Once she had looked me up on both eyes and I felt that internal hit that let me know she could See me and was ready to connect with me, I stood up to move toward her and turned the camera off. A shame because by the time I reached her, she had lowered her head, had a big shake and was about to let out a couple of yawns. We then carried on with our grooming as though nothing had happened.
A note on safety- while all of our horses hard tie reliably and we check in with them about it regularly, we don’t ask them to prove it to us on the daily. Here, Éowyn is soft tied using a blocker tie because, in my opinion, it’s never worth the risk to their bodies in the event of disaster to snub any horse to a post, even the gentle ones.
I particularly like how Éowyn demonstrates that she understands the dynamics of the situation so well that she never feels the need to pull on the rope to see if she can get away even though she is aware it would give if she did pull against it.
~ Chiara 💫
