Connecting with… Change & The Wisdom of Horses
Horses sense change coming long before we do. As the seasons shift and fall arrives, we wonder what we can learn about navigating change by listening to our horse teachers.
When horses experience a shift, it's an opportunity for them to display their profound process for self-regulation. They are incredible self-regulators, steadily recalibrating by resetting their nervous systems to return to a state of calm after moments of stress, uncertainty, or a change in the energy around them.
Hotshot, Justine and the Santa Ynez Valley in late September.
The equine recalibration process can be observed through small but powerful signs:
Physiological Release: We might notice a deep sigh, a hearty exhale (what many call a “horse breath”), a soft yawn, or the licking and chewing that signals their nervous system shifting back into a state of safety. This is how horses reset their bodies to let go of held tension.
Energetic Rebalancing: Horses are adeptly attuned to the energy around them. In order to achieve energetic recalibration, they often plant their feet and stand quietly, breathe deeply, and thereby reorganize their field of awareness. This is their way of grounding through stillness.
Emotional Integration: After they've released and rebalanced, we can see our horses’ groundedness return. Their eyes soften, their ears flick gently forward with renewed curiosity, and they lower their heads with a soft bend through the neck. They may approach to stand beside you, a visible sign of returning to connection.
We know that these signs are the horse’s way of saying: “I’ve felt, I’ve processed, and now I am ready to be present again.”
The Roundbarn Way is centered around the essential things that horses can teach us about the experience of being human. As our horses adjust physiologically, energetically and emotionally to experiences of change, do our bodies give us subtle signs about what we need in order to process seasons of change in our own lives? What can we take away from studying the wise way horses reset?
Which of the horses’ recalibration tools do you connect with most?
