Yoga With Your Horse: Rooted, Present, Connected

if you’ve been feeling tight in your body, scattered in your mind, or carrying stress into the barn, this practice is for you. Through gentle strength-building movement, breathwork, and grounding, you can ease tension, reduce aches and pains, calm your nervous system, and return to a more centered version of yourself.

And when you shift, your horse feels it.

Our horses don’t respond to our goals. They respond to our nervous system. When we arrive rushed or bracing, they feel it immediately. When we arrive grounded and breathing, something softens — in them and in us.

That shift is why I teach yoga.

Equus Ananda means horse and joy. In yoga philosophy, Ananda is a quiet inner joy — not excitement, but deep contentment and steadiness. When we cultivate that kind of grounded presence, our relationships with horses begin to change naturally.

Yoga is not about performance. It is about returning to your body and remembering how to listen. Through steady movement and breath, we release what we’ve been unconsciously holding. Strength and flexibility improve gently, but awareness deepens even more.

Horses live in the present moment. They notice the wind moving through tree branches before we do. They lift their heads when snow slips softly from the limbs overhead. They track the deer in the brush long before we sense anything at all. So often, my horse sees it first.

Through yoga, I’ve practiced widening my awareness — drawing my attention outward instead of staying only in my thoughts. Sometimes now, I notice the fox before he does. That shared awareness builds trust. When we recognize what they consider important, they feel safer with us.

What matters to our horses isn’t ribbons or results. It is safety. Clarity. Comfort. Peace. When we begin valuing what they value, the relationship deepens in quiet but powerful ways.

Yoga has also taught me surrender — not giving up, but loosening my grip on expectations and timelines. Acceptance, especially during illness, injury, or changed plans, allows us to move through reality with compassion rather than force.

Karen Rohlf once asked, If your horse wrote a book about you, what would it say?

That question guides me often.

Time spent simply being with your horse — without asking anything of them — is powerful. Stretching nearby. Cleaning fences. Standing quietly while snow falls from the branches and the wind moves through the trees. As Elsa Sinclair says, these moments make deposits in the relationship bank account.

Grounding is the root of trust. When we root through our feet, deepen our breath, and settle into our bodies, we become steadier partners. Our horses feel that stability.

There will always be more to do. The work will still be there tomorrow. Taking even 15–30 minutes to regulate your nervous system strengthens your body, sharpens your awareness, and changes how you show up — in the barn and in your life.

This is your invitation to slow down.
To breathe.
To return to the steadiness your horse already trusts.

Free or by donation.
All bodies welcome.

— Wendy Henderson
https://www.equusananda.com/

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