Hatha Equus

Hatha Equus Co-Creational Horsemanship for aspiring Guilt-Free Horse Owners (our other page got hacked)

02/27/2025

If you want to inspire down regulation in your horse, here’s what we believe you need:👂Active listening skills (like, not just with your ears! All of your senses and more!)🧰 A whole toolbox of co-creational down-regulating tools, to pick and choose fromWe teach them in our Foundations of Co-Creational Horsemanship online library, which is currently bundled with our online course “The Rehab & Riding Prep Playground”. Comment “Riding Prep” below if you’d like for us to DM you the info!

Let’s get one thing straight. When we say “soft,” we don’t mean weak, permissive, or lacking in boundaries. We’re talkin...
02/12/2025

Let’s get one thing straight. When we say “soft,” we don’t mean weak, permissive, or lacking in boundaries.

We’re talking about:
*𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘆: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another being
*𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆: Being highly attuned to subtle cues – body language, energy shifts, emotional states.
*𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: A commitment to ethical, kind, and respectful interaction.
*𝗘𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: Recognizing and managing your own emotions, and responding appropriately to your horse’s.

Also known as: 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘀.

It’s about refusing unnecessary force, choosing understanding over dominance, and allowing yourself to feel with your horse.

Horses are masters of enhanced perception and subtle communication. Their survival depends on it.

As a highly sensitive human, you have a unique advantage. You’re already wired to pick up on the subtle cues that others might miss. You’re speaking the horse’s language – the language of feeling, intuition, and nuanced communication.

This is the deepest possible access point to opening communication channels with a super-sensitive animal. If we’re aiming for “communication among equals,” we need to meet them where they are, in a space of heightened awareness.

Kindness and empathy aren’t just ethically sound; they’re scientifically proven to be more effective for learning.
I’d love to go down the rabbit hole of explaining how with nervous system and more, but that’s what all of our love and online is for.

For now, here’s an invitation:
Let’s create a horse world where feeling 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 our horses is the norm, not the exception.

A world where empathy, understanding, and co-creation are valued above all else.

Yours truly, in Science and Soul,
Hatha Equus

02/06/2025

There’s one participant spot left for our upcoming Co-Creational Horsemanship clinic in Louisburg, NC (Feb 21-27), and plenty of auditor spots.Comment “Louisburg” below and we’ll DM you the link with all relevant info 🤗

If “just trail riding” is uncool, consider me the happiest uncool rider ever.For some reason, there’s this whisper in th...
02/01/2025

If “just trail riding” is uncool, consider me the happiest uncool rider ever.

For some reason, there’s this whisper in the equestrian world that trail riding is a “lesser” pursuit.
That recreational riders “just” trail ride.

Ehm…someone explain the “just”, please?

I mean, let’s not pretend that trail riding is some walk in the park (pun intended).

A happy, sound and safe (for themselves and for humans) trail horse is:

🚚a happy loader
〽️a happy traveler
🧗🏼an athlete who can handle varied terrain for hours…while carrying a human weight
🎯a confident partner who doesn’t freak out at every rustle in the leaves

That takes serious (awesome!) work to get to…together!

And even if it 𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓮 easy…who cares? 🤷🏼‍♀️

The whole point is to find what makes you and your horse happy, right?
Isn’t that the dream we’re all dreaming, anyway?

How about we stop trying to fit other humans, ourselves or our horses in 📦boxes📦 made from bits and pieces of other humans’ definition of happiness?

Let’s saddle up, hit the trail (or the arena, or wherever your and your horse’s hearts lead!), and ignore the noise.

You be you.
And you’re amazing.

There are two participant spots and plenty of auditor tickets available for our upcoming clinic in Louisburg, NC, Februa...
01/14/2025

There are two participant spots and plenty of auditor tickets available for our upcoming clinic in Louisburg, NC, February 21-27, 2025.

Info: QR code in the slides 👇

01/10/2025

There are still two participant spots available for Hatha Equus' Co-Creational Horsemanship Clinic in Louisburg, NC. Only in the weekend session, though (February 21st - 23rd) - the following 3 day session is sold out for active participants.

Comment "info" below and we'll DM you the info/sign-up page 🤗

We’re not even going to address the literature about this topic. There is too much out there that’s much better than any...
12/10/2024

We’re not even going to address the literature about this topic. There is too much out there that’s much better than anything we could ever post in a caption, in describing how detrimental it is for the horse’s health and longevity to ride them before the age of 5.

Heck, if you open Chat GPT and ask it “Why should horses aged 4 and under not be ridden?” you’ll read the fundamental basics in a millisecond.

So we won’t even try to support this thesis because it’s a given.

But let’s talk about why.

Why is this happening?

And especially...why is it happening even in equestrian contexts that are supposed to be on the horse’s side?

We can only speculate.

Ignorance? Maybe.

Money? Possibly.

Possible money scenario #1: “It’s an expensive-as-heck deferred dream! I can’t wait that long!”

So you don’t.

You rush it, and you do so at the expense of the lifespan and quality of life of your horse.

And possibly later when they’re in their 20s and they don’t serve your purpose anymore you sell them. Your conscience is clean because you gave them to a family with kids who are new horse owners and they’ll love him so much.

Also, btw, they have no idea of what senior horse care entails or how expensive it is (especially one whose skeletal, muscle and joint development, in their youth, was rushed prematurely into big weight-carrying athletic endeavors).

Likely going to drop him off at the closest auction in a couple years.

The meat buyers will be very glad for the opportunity.

Possible money scenario #2: You work for a rescue and donors like high turnover numbers. They’ll think that your rescue is not doing its job if you don’t rehome a xyz horses per year.
Heck, YOU like high turnover numbers too: however imperfect of a solution, it means that you’re saving more and you’re leaving fewer at the kill pen all together!

At least in the short run 😔

There is no winning, this is just the least worse option: training them fast and training them young, so that they go out to the world knowing the things that most humans are going to need them to know so that they can live their riding dream, and their trip to the kill pen will be delayed by quite a few years.

Which is something.
It is a lot, in fact.
And we are so grateful for all the humans who help immensely this way.

But in the horse world that we envision, this is not enough.

In the world that we dream of (and work towards), there is no need to pressure anyone - horse, trainer or Executive Director - to get “results”.
The only result that matters is happy horses…ideally with very happy equestrians by their side.

“Happy”, here, is key.
Riding is AWESOME and we absolutely love it, but there are sooooooo many ways to have genuine and authentic fun with your horse as you take the time it takes while working toward riding.

Fun with horses is a macro category that includes (though is not limited to) riding. We embody this every day with our horses and we try to show others through our program.

We have to make a collective effort to do more. To do better by horses.

To help this industry shift towards a new paradigm in which it is crystal clear that if you cannot wait for the ride of your life, then the obvious solution is practicing a different definition of happiness with your horse until the time is right for such ride (and possibly buying yourself a motorcycle in the meantime).

Period.

Here’s three hills we’ll die on:
1. We do not take shortcuts at the expense of other beings.
2. We can have an exhilarating time with horses in a million ways. Only a few of those include riding.
3. ⁠You DO need money to have a horse. For boarding, the vet, the trimmer, trainers, fitting tack…and to afford taking the time it takes, whether it’s saving them, rehabbing them, setting them up for long term mental, emotional, physical and spiritual success. And longevity. So make a plan. Be responsible. And if you don’t think you can afford it right now and for a while, there’s a million other ways to get amazing horse time (like volunteering at a rescue).

Let's co-create a better world for horses, folks 🫱🏼‍🫲🏽

PLEASE VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE OPTION🙏🏻👇🏽Context:Folks have been asking us 'Why would I sign up to The Riding Prep Playgr...
11/26/2024

PLEASE VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE OPTION🙏🏻👇🏽

Context:
Folks have been asking us 'Why would I sign up to The Riding Prep Playground" if my horse is in rehab and don't even know whether l'Il ride her ever again?'.

The truth is, guys, that the same science-backed play tools that we've been using for years to get horses eagerly fit for riding...
.are the very same tools that we've been successfully using to support hundreds of humans in rehabbing their horses physically,
mentally, emotionally (hopefully you've been following some of the amazing rehab-ending-in-co-creational-riding adventures that we've shared over the years).

Anyway, the conclusion is...we need to slightly edit the title of our online course! It needs to include 'Rehab' so those amazing conscientious humans who have been struggling to find a course that would get their horse more fulfilled in their body, mind and soul through two-way-FUN, science-backed play will be able to find it!

Would you help us choose? 🙏🏻
In case please vote your favorite option in the comments 🙏🏻

11/20/2024

This is one of the techniques we learned from Intrinzen, that we often use as diagnostic tool for "what is a horse capable of in the moment of
highest motivation with no perceived threat".

Even if the bucket contains the same simple timothy or teff hay pellets that the human has in their treat pouch, it usually has powerful enough
associations (grain!) that it will get the horse to move to the top of their abilities.

🚨‼️We do NOT suggest this technique in the least with high energy / highly dopaminurgic horses who don't have a clear idea of the human safety space bubble.

This mare in the first video has serious genetic conditions and went through a summer of illness. But she is cleared by the vet to move passionately. In fact it was desirable, given the lack of interest in - and availability of - movement she had shown for a long time.

Her human really wanted to have a 'diagnostic point' of her maximum capabilities and…😍😍

Her human also felt 100% comfortable with the mare's ability to understand and 'respect' her space bubble. She is a fantastic trainer and she understood the risks involved in what we call 'The Nuclear Option’ 😂

Omg the passion that this mare showed 😍🔥

There were lots of tears going on in the audience 🥹 Plus the progression through the game of her finding her topline, her haunches and all the body parts involved in riding-and-rehab-related strength 🥹

Here's the core safety elements we look for in this seemingly simple but actually quite complex New Motor Skills Acquisition game:
- if the horse doesn't understand your space bubble OR
- if they don't stop to calmly receive the treat after a stretch of passion, please put a fence between you two or stop all together so as to avoid them associating you to 'being wild'
-
And when they take distance from you and the bucket to keep repeating variations of the new movement they just engaged in, it's a huge
of the big points of the game!!

It's easy to assume that all horses will go bananas for a bucket full of pellets.
That does not hold true in our experience, and it's not really the focus either.

Remember that we often work with horses in rehab, with various degrees of physical impediments.

This is exactly why we need tools like the 'nuclear option'. For instance, this mare in Asheville in the second and third videos, despite her interest in the bucket (which was full of senior pellets!!!)…
.barely offered an engaged walk 😬

This gives us an honest view of what her brain thinks that her body can do at this point of her rehab. And we'll usually work in team with vet, trimmer and body worker to keep supportiny them in their journey to pain-free badassness.

So you can see how, when you think that your mare is in a reeeeeally tight spot…and yet she offers this… you might get a little teary 🥹 and
update what you thought you knew about her capabilities!

One last disclaimer about this extreme activity (which we do not suggest you do unless supported by a professional who is very familiar with it in the context of Ecological Dynamics):
- sometimes horses will get so passionate about the bucket that they WILL 'forget' about actual tissue damage they might have. Their brain over-rides the pain signals in favor of joy and fun, but that might backfire and create more damage!

So, again, showing you moments of pride here but also cautioning you of such extreme measures if you’ve never played within this framework before 🙏🏻

Proudly announcing our return at Shining River Ranch, Louisburg, NC in February! This community welcomed Hatha Equus and...
11/20/2024

Proudly announcing our return at Shining River Ranch, Louisburg, NC in February!

This community welcomed Hatha Equus and our Co-Creational Horsemanship with open arms and open hearts...so much so that, to accommodate the overwhelming interest in more of the same and more of the "next steps", we'll be back for 2 back-to-back clinics on Feb 21-23 and Feb 25-27!

In this clinic we will work on...
📖...reading your horse like an open book
🙏🏻...consent-based communication with your horse
✋🏼...clear boundaries with no anger or force, much like a loving parent shepherding their child through understanding the ways of the world
🛝...play, with your horse, without a worry, both of you having the fun you didn't even think possible...together!
🧘🏽‍♀️...deep states of relaxation...together, and starting to develop down-regulation...on cue
👷🏽‍♀️...owning your "initiative time" and precise requests without guilt
🏋🏻‍♂️...building physical strength and emotional resilience to set your horse up for ridden success...collaboratively!

This clinic is for you - whatever discipline you might be passionate about - if:
🍥 you want for your horse to want it as much as you do
🩺 you want for your horsemanship to stop happening at the expense of their body. You want to add to their health and longevity instead
😒 Your horsemanship is dead serious and you're constantly afraid of doing things wrong or letting your horse 'get away with it'. That child-like joy you used to feel seems so far away and you want it back
🌟 When you hear of co-creational liberty, co-creational trail rides, co-creational dressage, co-creational husbandry and care, you picture your horse involved in - and committed to - the process, like the other musician in a band of two...and that's what you want!

Ticket pre-sales are now over and the official sales are open!
There are still a few available active participants spots and many auditor spots.

Scan the QR code for info and signup, or ⌨️ comment 'Louisburg' ✍🏼 in the comments below ⬇️⬇️ to receive a DM with the info page link.

We hope to see you in Louisburg in February!

10/18/2024

Nov 8th-10th in Louisburg (NC): Co-Creational Horsemanship Clinic by Hatha Equus.

Come to work towards:
✅ A guilt-free ride
✅ A fulfilled, self-aware horse who will learn to kindly state their needs and never leave you wondering again whether you're over-doing it or not (also, who won't feel the need to scream at you through dangerous behaviors, if that's your case)
✅ An excited-to-leave-food-and-friends-to-come-pick-you-up-at-the-mounting-block horse
✅ A cooperative sidekick for everyday care and husbandry tasks
✅ A strong, agile, mobile and stable riding companion
✅ Lots of giggles AND profound moments...WITH your horse 🥹

Active participant Tickets are sold out, but auditor spots still available.
Comment ⌨️⬇️⬇️ 'Louisburg'⬇️⬇️✍🏼 below to receive a DM with info 🤗

Truly lovely to have you here! Come back soon!
10/18/2024

Truly lovely to have you here! Come back soon!

Take this photo, for example. To get here, Elizabeth and her mustang Riggins spent time working on bridleless riding and...
10/17/2024

Take this photo, for example.
To get here, Elizabeth and her mustang Riggins spent time working on bridleless riding and did some occasional jumping.

CONTEXT:
🎶 Elizabeth and Riggins are two of the co-creators of Co-Creational Horsemanship.
🚑 This means their relationship is consensual, except in emergencies or health urgencies.
🏇 Movement in Riggins is mostly intrinsically motivated. He jumps because he sees a reason to. For him, it’s often something like: “Oh, that looks fun! Let’s do it, Mom!”
🍃 His movement doesn’t follow outdated 'correct biomechanics' principles. Instead, it considers inversion and stable attractors (i.e. repetitive movements that limit a varied repertoire), as the only taboos. According to modern movement science, healthy movement as per such definition is the most effective path to strength, agility, mobility, stability…and ultimately, longevity.

So, in the process of getting to the behavior in the picture, we can safely assume that:

💰 COST: Elizabeth invested time, study, and resources as needed to maintain the Co-Creational aspect of her relationship with Riggins throughout the process. The BENEFIT was that she became a better horsewoman, aligning with her own sense of personal and professional growth.
💰 COST: Riggins, like any learner in the world, probably experienced brief moments of mild emotional discomfort while expanding his repertoire and comfort zone to include this new behavior. All well-supported by Elizabeth. The BENEFIT was that he eventually added a key piece to his own self-efficacy puzzle.
➕ BENEFIT: Both Riggins and Elizabeth enjoyed a good dose of ‘feel-good hormones’ from the intrinsically motivated movement, which improved their physical and emotional health over time.
➕ BENEFIT: Throughout the process, both felt seen and heard, which strengthened their bond through the release of oxytocin, benefiting the body and mind of both human and horse.

We could keep going, but hopefully, you get the idea.

When we look at these costs and benefits, all we can think of is: "I can live with them!". We stand behind them. There’s a beautiful balance between them all, and to the best of our knowledge at this point, none of them seem likely to cause long-term negative effects for either of the individuals in this pair. Quite the opposite.

If these are the costs of the behavior we trained today, we’ll go to bed feeling glad, at peace, and aligned with our definition of growth and fulfillment for both horse and human.

Of course, sometimes we’re not so lucky. Life is unpredictable, and situations occasionally arise where the balance is much less…well…balanced 🤷🏼‍♀️

But as long as we see a clear and convincing reason behind our actions, we can find peace with our choices.

A typical example is an emergency.
We live in fire country here in Colorado, and we’ve faced multiple emergency evacuations. In those cases, all the horses need to load into trailers to reach safety. Some find this experience highly traumatic, for various reasons.

In these moments, we have to get the job done 'at all costs' - and quickly - to keep them alive. And sometimes 'all costs' are taxing. We might have to ‘make them’ load, using as little force as possible, but with such urgency that we’ll likely bypass consent and cause stress. The choice is essentially 'LIFE OR TRAUMA'.

In such high-stakes situations, we’ve learned to stand behind our decisions, and even be grateful that we do have the skills to 'make them'. Life takes precedence in emergencies, even if it means creating trauma.

Once everything calms down, later, we’ll do our best to address the gaps we left with that horse and provide a better trailer-loading experience (or encourage the owner to work on it if the horse isn’t ours).

We want to leave the world – and the beings in it that we interact with – better than we found it. That’s the guiding mantra for our decisions.
This is why we refuse to impose riding on a horse who finds it unpleasant. No, thank you.
Or to cut corners in pursuit of our own goals by forcing a horse to do something that doesn’t feel right to them at that moment. Pass.

We’re totally okay with our time being the primary cost.
It’s always a worthwhile investment if the result is Co-Creation.

Address

10067 N 65th Street
Longmont, CO
80503

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5pm
Friday 8:30am - 5pm
Saturday 8:30am - 5pm
Sunday 8:30am - 5pm

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Testimonial from a clinic participant
Testimonial from a clinic participant

There’s one participant spot left for our upcoming Co-Creational Horsemanship clinic in Louisburg, NC (Feb 21-27), and plenty of auditor spots.Comment “Louisburg” below and we’ll DM you the link with all relevant info 🤗#cocreationalhorsemanship #hathaequus #horsemanshipclinic #groundwork #liberty

We hope you have a pony to cuddle today. And if you don’t, here’s Sombra the Mustang being sung to by our Giorgia, for a moment of relief from political anxiety today 😔❤️

Here’s our amazing student Ellen’s experience of our last clinic in Louisburg, NC. We are going to be back at Shining River Ranch in February! We still have two available participant spots and lots of auditor tickets. Write “Louisburg” in the comments and we’ll DM you the link with info 🙏🏼🤗

Video-Testimonial from Hatha Equus' Co-Creational Horsemanship Clinic in Louisburg, NC
Video-Testimonial from Hatha Equus' Co-Creational Horsemanship Clinic in Louisburg, NC

There are still two participant spots available for Hatha Equus' Co-Creational Horsemanship Clinic in Louisburg, NC. Only in the weekend session, though (February 21st - 23rd) - the following 3 day session is sold out for active participants. Comment "info" below and we'll DM you the info/sign-up page 🤗 #cocreationalhorsemanship #consensualhorsemanship #intrinsicmotivation #ridingprep #horserehab #hathaequus

Some horses won’t engage in play. Not with other horses and least of all with humans. Sometimes it’s just their personality. They were born that way. Introverted and private. And a bit more serious in general. Some other times there’s more to it. I do apologize for swapping the famous rat with a bunny in the story. While a rabbit WAS part of a later stage of this experiment of Watson’s, it really was a rat to kick it off. So in case you’re familiar with the experiment and you still haven’t heard my creative version…TRIGGER ALERT!! 🤪🙏🏼 Giorgia Ghizzoni

You’re a trainer and you have a month left with a client horse before he goes back home.What do you prioritize?#cocreationalhorsemanship #hathaequus

In many equestrian environments it is EXPECTED for trainers to “fix” horses. Emotionally, physically, mentally. We want to bust this “fixing horses” myth, here, by challenging the very notion that it is somehow possible to actively change anyone other than yourself. We can certainly facilitate situations that make it probably for the other being’s nervous system to change and adapt, but ultimately the responsibility for change lies in the hands of the individual. #hathaequus #cocreationalhorsemanship

Often the ‘belly lift reflex’ is not a synonym of ‘the horse knows how to actively lift their back’. When they react to our scratches on the midline by lifting up, we can safely assume that their bodies are capable of engaging in this movement. But here’s the catch. What their brains actually KNOW about what their body can do is often a whole different ball park. That’s why we usually teach crunches (it’s one of our topline engagement liberty excercises) by inviting the back to lift up to touch our magnetic hand, instead of trying to put a ‘reactional belly lift’ on cue. If you want to know more about fun, happy-horse-friendly topline engagement techniques , we have a whole free video training on exactly that! Comment ‘topline’ ⬇️⬇️⬇️below and we’ll dm you the link 🙏🏼 #cocreationalhorsemanship #hathaequus #toplineengagement

What do you feel might be the foundational cornerstone of co-creational horsemanship? #cocreationalhorsemanship #hathaequus

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