We had so much to talk about that we split our chat with Bonny Mealand into two episodes which are interlinked. We discuss how free-living equids offer vital insights into the needs of domestic horses, and why recognising how essential these inextricable links between these two worlds is for the future of meaningful equine care.

We explored how Bonny developed the HELP model which recognises that our presence, choices, and handling directly impact a horse’s emotional state and autonomy, leading to a focus on trust-based, low-stress approaches.

Bonny firmly believes that when we slow down, learn to observe well and pay attention, horses begin to teach us, revealing insights we could never access through intellectual knowledge, techniques and method alone. Learning toobserve with care and curiosity allows horses to become our teachers, showing us what truly matters to them, helping us let go of assumptions and develop a more attuned, responsive, and respectful way of understanding and being withthem. We explore how Bonnie's insights can be applied to everyday interactions with horses and we learn about Bonnie's "genie wish", one that is probably shared by most of our guests and listeners. Tune in and let us know your thoughts!

You can learn more aboutBonny’s work at these websites:

Touching Wild: https://www.touchingwild.com/

Learning Wild: https://learningwilduk.wixsite.com/learningwild?fbclid=IwAR3NJULaSPPUZDXdBbiCOvankZ6zLSrU2AjdLlTyl3h8ju2RAVjgG6YfRzU

The Equine Podiatry Association - https://www.epauk.org/?doing_wp_cron=1752481742.6105430126190185546875

Cristina Wilkins' online course mentioned by Bonny is available at this link:

https://www.openlearning.com/une/courses/une-equine-course/?cl=1&redirectTo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.openlearning.com%2Fune%2Fcourses%2Fune-equine-course%2Fhomepage%2F%3Fcl%3D1