Medicine Horse

26/08/2026

Hey everyone!

I wanted to start unpacking what Body Mind Horse is about so that you can begin to understand the benefits.
The horses offer so much more than this! but this is a good start

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Beyond Body-Mind: How Horses bring us back to Embodied Wholeness

The Body-Mind Movement
The modern Body-Mind movement arose because modern western culture has for decades increasingly treated the mind and body as separate. We have been taught to live in our heads — analyzing, thinking, planning — while treating the body as less important.

Mindfulness, yoga, and somatic practices arose once again to remind us that the mind and body are one inseparable whole. True wellbeing cannot be achieved through trying to control the body with the mind; like the body is some unruly and inconvenient child. Our bodies hold great value - and also their own intelligence. Without our bodies we cease to exist. Our bodies need to be heard.

What happens when we bring a 500 kg prey animal into that conversation?

Enter the Horse

Most of the time we are either recalling the past or projecting our past experiences into our future. The horse is present in this moment now - and that’s really important. It’s important because the horse becomes the teacher, the model, the anchor, the presence - that we then begin to naturally entrain to - bringing all the parts of us back into the present moment now.

When I talk about Body Mind Horse, I am inviting you into an experiential framework that bridges our stressed, scattered, and fragmented state with the powerful somatic presence of the horse

Here is what that journey looks like and the transformative impact that it has on us.

How the Horse Enhances Body-Mind Practices

When we bring a person seeking body-mind integration into the presence of a horse, the practice shifts from a solitary, internal exercise into an active, relational reality.

The horse naturally deepens the goals of the body-mind movement in three ways:

🐎 Bypassing cognitive deception: You can sit on a meditation cushion while your mind secretly races, but you can’t fake it with a horse. If your internal nervous system is agitated while your external behavior appears calm, the horse reads the underlying tension and behaves accordingly. The horse acts as a giant feedback system, revealing anything that is not congruent.

🐎 Nervous system co-regulation: Because of the horse’s size, slow resting heart rate, and grounded presence, its autonomic nervous system exerts a powerful stabilizing effect on ours. Through proximity alone, a human's rapid heart rate and elevated stress response begin to down-regulate, matching the horse's calm baseline.

🐎 Anchoring the present moment: The sheer physical scale of a horse makes it impossible to remain lost in thought when around them. Safety and connection require total physical presence and attention. This naturally becomes a mindful present moment practice.

By adding the horse, the body-mind movement gains its most effective catalyst: a partner who demands complete presence.

What Body Mind Horse really means

Body Mind Horse isn't just about learning how to be around horses — it’s about aligning with the horse’s physical presence and being - as a gateway to your own body and mind wholeness.

19/08/2026

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Our next Body Mind Horse workshop is September 12th! 🌻

Join us to experience for yourself the magical impact of Horses on your Body and Mind.

Together we’ll become fully present and embodied alongside the horses, experiencing ease, wonder, and deep relaxation.

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An opportunity to both de-stress - and also to learn how horses benefit our physiology.

Take home simple, gentle, somatic techniques that you can practice anywhere to reregulate yourself to calm.

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Whatsapp 062 190 3107 to book 🩵

29/07/2026

Workshop coming up! Note the Early Bird discount
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Body Mind Horse workshop

An invitation to grounded connection, embodied presence, somatic integration, and deep relaxation - co-facilitated by horses

What to expect-

A morning spent outdoors, surrounded by Nature and beautiful mountain views, with horses as our co-facilitators. Through mindful, meditative, breathing, grounding, and nervous system regulation techniques and exercises we’ll have the opportunity to release layers of stress and discord - and relax into deep presence with the horses.

While the focus of the workshop is on embodied experience with real-time tracking and feedback from the horses - I’ll also share information about horses and the impact that they naturally have on our physiology and what the powerful benefits of that are.

You'll take home techniques that you can use anytime throughout your day when you need to lower stress, regroup, and regulate to calm.

Details
Date: Saturday 15 August
Duration: Half day workshop, 10am - 1pm
Cost: R650. Early Bird R450 - booked by 1st August
Venue: Noordhoek
Facilitator: Sam Huckle of Medicine Horse
www.medicinehorse.co.za/events

25/05/2026

Welcome to Medicine Horse Wellness

If you've found your way here, something probably brought you.

Maybe you're going through something difficult and the usual approaches haven't quite touched it. Maybe you're a therapist or counsellor with a client who needs something more embodied. Maybe you just have a feeling that horses are involved in whatever comes next.

You're in the right place.

Medicine Horse Wellness offers equine-assisted coaching and healing sessions in Klein Dassenberg, and Hout Bay, Cape Town — and online programs for clients across South Africa and beyond.

The horses are co-facilitators. What they offer — presence without judgement, honesty without words, nervous system to nervous system — is something no other modality can replicate.

This is not horse riding. No experience with horses is needed. What's needed is a willingness to show up.

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What we offer:

→ Embodied: Body Mind Horse — somatic and nervous system regulation with horses
→ Emotional: Individual healing and coaching sessions
→ Relational: The Medicine Horse Journey — a structured relational healing program
→ Ancestral: Family Constellations with Horses
→ Group wellness programs for therapeutic and wellness facilities

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To find out more or book a Clarity Call, send us a message here on Facebook or email [email protected]

We respond to every message personally. A Clarity Call is free and without obligation — just a conversation.

04/05/2026

Hello Friends!

After a long journey of finding the right home, we've moved! — and the horses are settled, the space is ready, and so am I.

Klein Dassenberg offers a fresh and contrasting landscape, quiet and peaceful - and the work with the Horses is as ever deeply transformative.

If you've been curious about working with Medicine Horse — or if you've been waiting for the right moment — this might be it.

I'm offering a free 20-minute Clarity Call to anyone who wants to explore whether this work is right for them. It’s an invitation into a rich conversation, with no pressure and obligation free.

DM me to book
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18/11/2025

The Dream of Freedom and the Healing Gifts of Horses 🙌🏼 both so powerful and liberating! 🙏🏼✨️🌟

In the winter of 1954, a 63-year-old woman from Maine got bad news.

The doctor told her she was dying — two years to live, maybe less.
He said she should sell her things, move into a charity home, and wait for the end.

Instead, Annie Wilkins bought a horse.

His name was Tarzan, a brown Morgan gelding with kind eyes and a steady step. She loaded him with supplies, packed a bedroll, and tied a small dog named Depeche Toi (“Hurry up,” in French) to the saddle.

And then, without a map, she pointed west.

She wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died.
That was the dream her mother once told her about — the land of sunshine and oranges, where winter never comes.

So Annie left her frozen farm in Minot, Maine, in November snow and started riding.

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She had no sponsors.
No GPS.
No cell phone.
Just faith — that America was still kind.

She slept in barns and on porches. Ate biscuits handed to her by strangers. Rode through blizzards, floods, and towns that had never seen a woman traveling alone on horseback.

Truckers pulled over to wave. Farmers gave her hay for Tarzan.
Police officers escorted her through busy highways so she wouldn’t be hit by cars.

In Kentucky, she was offered a job.
In Wyoming, a marriage proposal.
In California, fame.

But what Annie wanted most wasn’t fame. It was freedom.

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By the time she reached Pacific Grove, California — 4,000 miles and 18 months later — the newspapers called her “The Last of the Saddle Tramps.”

She had crossed a country that was changing faster than anyone could imagine.
From horses to highways. From open doors to locked ones.
From neighbors to strangers.

And yet, what she found — what she proved — was that kindness wasn’t gone. It was just waiting to be asked.

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When Annie finally saw the Pacific Ocean, she wept.

Not because she had beaten death.
But because she had lived — in the truest sense of the word.

She went on to write a book, Last of the Saddle Tramps.
She lived not two years, but twenty-five more, outliving every diagnosis and every doubt.

She died at nearly ninety — still believing in the goodness of people, and still remembering the sound of Tarzan’s hooves on the road to freedom.

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🐴 Why her story matters now

In a world obsessed with speed, Annie reminds us that courage doesn’t come from having everything figured out.
It comes from saddling up anyway.

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If you ever wonder whether there’s still good in this world, remember her:
A woman, a horse, and a dream.
And the road that carried them west.

12/10/2025

This is the best description of lick and chew I've read so far..... a change of state

It’s common to see a horse lick, chew, or yawn in a training session and hear that it means they’ve “processed” what just happened. The belief comes from a real observation: these behaviours often appear when a horse shifts from a heightened state back toward calm.

The link here is the nervous system. Licking, chewing, and yawning are behaviours connected to the parasympathetic nervous system. Sometimes they appear after the sympathetic nervous system has been activated and then deactivated, as the body returns to recovery and calm. Other times they show up when the horse is already relaxed, as part of maintaining parasympathetic activity. In both cases these behaviours are not proof of learning. They are indicators of state.

When horses are in a calmer, parasympathetic state, learning and memory formation are more likely. That is the connection people noticed. The behaviour is not the learning. The behaviour is a window into the horse’s physiology that supports learning.

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A common scenario in traditional training might look like this:

1. Pressure is applied.

2. The horse tries different options to find relief.

3. The horse finds the behaviour that makes the pressure stop.

4. The moment pressure stops, the horse experiences relief.

5. As the sympathetic response deactivates, parasympathetic activity re-engages and the body returns toward calm.

This is often the moment we see licking, chewing, yawning, or blowing out.

What is really happening in that moment is a combination of two things:

1. “If I do this, the pressure stops.”

2. “Thank goodness the pressure finally stopped.”

Quick summary: In this example, the horse licks and chews at the same time it discovers the behaviour that turns pressure off, so it is easy to misread that as understanding the lesson. The licking and chewing is not about the content of the lesson. It reflects the horse’s learning state. It tells us the nervous system is down-regulating after arousal and that what preceded the release was aversive or stressful enough to require regulation.

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Licking, chewing, and yawning don’t only appear after stress. They can also show up when a horse is already relaxed, quietly resting, dozing, or digesting. In those moments the behaviours are part of maintaining parasympathetic activity, not recovering from stress.

And this is why I always pause and ask: what came before the lick, chew, blow out, shake, or yawn? Was there a stressor the horse is coming down from, or are they already calm and connected? Because that context tells you whether you’re seeing regulation or maintenance, and that difference changes everything about how you interpret what’s happening.

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Why does this matter?

It might seem like splitting hairs. After all, if the horse looks calmer and shows licking and chewing, isn’t that what counts? But the nuance matters because how we interpret behaviour shapes how we train.

When we mistake these behaviours for signs of understanding, we stop looking for what caused them. We might unintentionally celebrate the moment a horse finally found relief instead of asking why they needed relief in the first place.

If we reward ourselves for creating just enough stress to trigger a lick and chew, we risk normalizing a cycle of tension and release. Over time this can make stress an expected part of learning, something the horse must endure to find comfort.

But learning doesn’t require distress. A horse in a regulated, safe, parasympathetic state is not only capable of learning, they’re primed for it. When we see licking and chewing for what it really is, a reflection of the nervous system, we can shift our focus toward the conditions that keep the horse regulated from the start.

When we start viewing behaviour through the lens of physiology, our priorities shift. Because when calm becomes the baseline, learning becomes effortless.

12/07/2025

Yes! Emotional fitness before physical fitness. And - relationship, bond, trust, understanding, groundwork and liberty work - before riding

Emotional fitness before physical fitness.

This is an edited repetition of a piece I wrote a few years back. I went looking for it to share because of some questions that have been coming up in video coaching sessions with students around the world. I couldn't just reshare the original piece because there were some things which were unclear

If you are building physical fitness, before emotional fitness, you are building muscles that fight you, instead of muscles that carry you.

I know a number of people who pay work riders to keep their horses fit while I build my confidence". This can be great, if the work riders match the philosophy you are wanting to follow, and your horse isn't being asked for more than they are ready for. Sometimes, however, a 'bold and firm work rider' can be creating more emotional issues for your horse.
The reality is that emotional fitness comes before physical fitness. It is actually impossible to have physical fitness without emotional fitness. A stressed horse working on fitness will present with constant soundness issues, no matter how many gadgets you use to try trap them into a particular shape.
For me, emotional fitness starts with relaxation and develops to a horse understanding what is being asked of them. This is why conventional lunging does more harm than good. Chasing a horse doesn't ever build relaxation, and there is very little understanding of what is being asked of the horse. So the horse runs around inside out and tense. Humans then 'fix' this problem by putting them into some torture devices and keep chasing the stressed animal. Muscles may grow in some places, but, because of oppositional reflex, there will be tendon, ligament and muscle strain. Those places muscles grow may also not be where they're meant to be, or how they're meant to work!

Please understand that I am not against horses working in a circle for groundwork, I just develop a communication for maintaining a circle, rather that continuously driving a horse.
I realize not everyone has access to facilities with proper turn out, and this may mean things like hot walkers and in hand walking are necessary, but I strongly recommend against a fitness program that isn't built on a relaxed horse, knowing what is being asked of it.
Ample turn out in a herd is still the ideal. We should all be prioritizing that in our search for a place for our horses.

For those curious about more of the physical side, check out
Yasmin Stuart Equine Physio. She has some great insights about gadgets and relaxation, and explains the physiology far better than I ever could!

11/06/2025

Here's a beautifully written understanding of the behaviour of both horses and humans when things become too much. And yes as observers of our horses or the people around us we usually only see the last bit. It takes great sensitivity and a safe container for stories to be told, feelings to be held, and for the nervous system to begin to reset. What I love about this journey is that a) we get to do it alongside Horses and b) the healing is mutual for both horse and human. We are truly in this together 🤍🦄

🐇✨ "13 Rabbits" — but for Humans ✨🐇
Inspired by Warwick Schiller

What if every "big reaction" you’ve had…
Every outburst, every freeze, every time you shut down or couldn't explain your emotions —
Wasn’t you being “too sensitive” or “overreacting”...
But instead… the 13th Rabbit?

Let me explain.
When Warwick Schiller spoke about horses, he used the idea of 13 invisible rabbits.
The horse doesn’t react on Rabbit #1, or even Rabbit #5…
But Rabbit #13? That’s when it bolts.
The thing you see isn't the cause. It’s the final straw.

🐴✨ Now let's talk humans.
You snap at your partner.
You cry over spilled coffee.
You freeze when asked a question in a meeting.
You feel “too much” and shame yourself for it.

But what if…
That wasn’t “overreacting”?
What if it was your nervous system finally saying,
“I can’t carry all these rabbits anymore.”

🧠 We don’t see the 12 rabbits.
The childhood wounds.
The hypervigilance.
The grief you haven’t had time to feel.
The trauma responses that kept you safe, not “broken”.
The everyday micro-stressors.
The years of “being strong”.
The masking.
The pretending.
The silence.

The 13th rabbit isn’t the problem.
It’s the signal.
The symptom.
The moment your system finally tells the truth you’ve had to bury.

💬 At Equimotional, we don’t punish the 13th rabbit.
We listen.
We slow down.
We ask what happened to you? not what’s wrong with you?
We make space for the hidden herd of rabbits — and help you let them go one by one.

Because humans, like horses, are doing their best with the load they carry.

📣 So next time you react, pause.
It might not be just about now.
It might be Rabbit #13.

🖤 Be kind to yourself.
You weren’t made to carry it all.

10/06/2025

Curious to know more about what we do at Medicine Horse?

Here are two ways that you can find out, free of charge

1) Book a 10-minute *WhatsApp Chat* and get to know us

2) Visit the farm for a 30 minute *Meet & Greet* with Sam and the Horses. Come out and see us!

And if you're wondering about our prices?

Our sessions start at R450.

Book via whatsapp on 082 683 6048
Or email [email protected]

And visit our website here >
www.medicinehorse.co.za

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