Relationship is Everything
Wâhkôhtowin (pronounced wah-koh-to-win) is a profound concept in the Cree language that translates literally to “kinship” or “being related to each other.” More broadly, it embodies a philosophy of interconnectedness—representing a deeply interwoven relationship among family, community, all living beings, and the natural world.
For Dr. Paul, this understanding of interconnectedness deepened while exploring her Métis heritage through participation in the Meeting My Ancestors women’s group. This inspired reflection on how every being interacts with their world in unique, meaningful, and reciprocal ways, coming to know themselves through relationship. This understanding was also enriched through training with Dr. Veronica Lac, founder of Human Equine Relational Development (The HERD Institute), whose work articulated a therapeutically significant experiential framework for authentic relationship between humans and horses.
Together, these influences contributed to the relational worldview of Equine Presence. Relationship is not something we do. It is the condition through which we exist, learn, heal, and grow. From this understanding emerged the guiding principles of Presence, Essence, and Authentic Connection. These principles are expressed through practices that honour Compassionate Care, Cultural Wealth, and Relational Integrity.
“From horses, we may learn not only about the horse itself but also about animals in general, indeed about ourselves and about life as a whole.”
– George Gaylord Simpson
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
Relationship is not something we do. It is the condition through which we exist, learn, heal, and grow.
FOCUS on PRESENCE: Being where you are
Before we can explain ourselves, we experience ourselves.
Presence. Here-and-Now. Umwelt.
Every being has their own Umwelt. They experience the world based on their unique perceptions. A bat lives in a world of echolocation, a dog in a world of scent, and a tick in a world of temperature and movement.
A human lives in their subjective world—including their present emotions, physical sensations, and thoughts. Phenomenology explores how humans experience their world from a first-person, Here-and-Now perspective.
Presence invites awareness of how we are experiencing the world in this moment.
Presence is the doorway into each being’s reality.
Horse-human interaction invite you to be where you are and become aware of your doorways.
“The philosophy of ‘presence’ seeks to challenge current understandings of meaning and understanding…. The theoretical paradigm of presence conveys how the past is literally with us in the present in significant and material ways: Things we cannot touch nonetheless touch us. “
From the summary of the book Presence: Philosophy, History, and Cultural Theory for the Twenty-First Century edited by Ranjan Ghosh and Ethan Kleinberg .
FOCUS on ESSENCE: Being who you are
Horses do not ask us to become someone else. They meet us as we are.
If Presence is the doorway, Essence is what becomes visible when we walk through it.
A horse is always a horse, regardless of where they are. And you are always you, no matter where you are and no matter where you have been.
Horse-human interactions invite you to encounter who you are. Horses do not ask us to become someone else. They meet us as we are. Through present-moment relationship, we are invited to notice what is already here—our emotions, values, patterns, strengths, vulnerabilities, and ways of being.
Before we can explain ourselves, we experience ourselves.
In this sense, essence is not something to be achieved. It is something continually encountered, revealed, and expressed through relationship.
Through relationship with a horse simply being a horse, we are invited to experience what it means to simply be ourselves.
FOCUS on Authentic Connection: Experiencing who you are
Re-discovering who you are may feel like a lofty aspiration bordering on magic. But it is not magic. It is authentic connection.
It is our partnering, our relationship, our authentic connection with the horse.
This authentic connection invites you to be where you are. To engage with other beings as conversational partners. Creating opportunities to reflect, re-discover, and expand your understanding of yourself. Offering new ways of being. New ways that hold potential for congruence with who you are.
“Yet when the books have been read, it boils down to the horse, his human companion, and what goes on between them.”
Walter Farley
INTENTIONAL ALIGNED PRACTICES
COMPASSIONATE CARE: Space to Thrive
Equine Presence uses a Compassionate Care Paradigm based on respect, compassion and loving-kindness. This care aspires to support welfare, promote wellbeing, and create opportunities for enrichment.
The inspiration for this commitment was “The Compassionate Equestrian: 25 principles to live by when caring and working with horses.” by Schoen and Gordon (2015).
Compassionate care is not simply a welfare practice. It is an expression of relationship. The welfare and wellbeing of horses are not separate from the wellbeing of humans; they are interconnected and mutually influential. This understanding aligns with the One Welfare approach, which recognizes the relationship between animal welfare, human wellbeing, and the environment.
Compassionate Care is the ethical expression of Equine Presence’s theoretical orientation. Equine Presence recognizes that the wellbeing of horses includes emotional, social, and physical dimensions. Equine Presence strives to ensure that horses have opportunities to thrive, express their natural behaviours, and simply be horses.
CULTURAL WEALTH: Enriching through difference
Every being experiences the world differently. Those differences are not barriers to relationship; they are sources of learning and enrichment. Different cultural perspectives, histories, traditions, lived experiences, and ways of knowing are assets that enrich relationship, understanding, and learning.
The beauty of partnering with horses creates an embodied experience of cultural wealth; an opportunity to encounter and appreciate perspectives beyond our own.
Horses possess their own ways of relating, communicating, and making meaning within their social worlds; a different point of view. While horses do not communicate through human words, their experience is nevertheless expressed through behaviour, movement, and presence. It is through conscious attunement that we begin to appreciate perspectives beyond our own and cultivate relationships grounded in respect, curiosity, and mutual recognition.
Through this process, we begin to experience cultural wealth that honours and embraces the richness that emerges from diverse perspectives.
It is through the wealth of being in relationship with others that we can create understanding and recognition of each being’s inherent worth and the potential benefit for all.
INTEGRITY: Congruence with action
The horse invites us to consider what integrity can look like. They enter into relationship with congruence, authenticity, responsivity, transparency, and they never talk behind your back.
They also have boundaries. A flick of an ear, a swish of a tail, or an exhale has meaning. It clearly communicates comfort and changes in comfort.
By paying attention to the horse’s communication, we are invited to reflect on the clarity, consistency, and congruence of our own integrity.
When we commit to relational integrity, we commit to communicating with congruence, respecting boundaries, responding honestly, and honouring the experiences and perspectives of those with whom we are in relationship.
“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.“
– Viggo Mortensen
CONNECT DISCOVER GROW
Equine Presence looks forward to welcoming you.
