To Catch Up to a Horse, You Need to Slow Down
Dearest Po, who crossed the rainbow bridge last year.
Whew!!! A lot has happened since I last sat down to write to our Stable Grounds community. A lot here within the Sanctuary itself, and oh so much in our world🌎💔
This letter is an invitation to take a breath with me.
If you're in one of these colder regions, the next time you're outside, pause and take a few slow, deep breaths. Feel the coolness of the air in your throat, in your lungs. It will cause a shift. An important one.
I said to a friend the other day that "my bones are buzzing."
This sprang forth from me when talking about the violence of ICE and their recent surges in abductions and terror. As an Ashkenazi Jew, most of whose ancestors came to this country fleeing violence that looked a lot like what is happening now…my bones are buzzing.
I feel compelled to stay online to stay up to date.
I want to watch values-aligned content creators say and do things that are deeply cathartic as they undermine, subvert, RESIST, and humiliate those in power, those causing such destruction.
I want to learn new language and frameworks to help understand what is happening from inclusive lenses. For example, how comparing ICE to the Gestapo overlooks how, on this land, they are actually the new iteration of slave catchers.
I want to learn what to DO.
And I do stay online more than I would like some days—for the dopamine, the numbing, the information.
But this is a nudge for us all: to remember to connect offline as well.
The deep breath in the cold air calms my buzzing bones.
Sometimes I do this and look up at the stars in the night sky and remember my connection to it all, my smallness. Or I take the breath in and out and notice the chirps of the few birds that are here enduring this winter with us.
I learned this, in its most profound way, in being with horses.
I can come to them with my head full of all the things. My body full of tension and moving quickly. But if I want to connect with them, I have to notice their energy, what their bodies are doing, and connect with myself so I can connect with them.
In teaching, I tell people that horses are always perceiving SO much more information than we are and so much faster. And if we wish to catch up to them, we must slow ourselves down and tune in to
Hear what they hear
See what they see
Sense what they sense
Perceive what they perceive
In each moment.
There is a clearing. Then there is a connecting. And that's where the magic lies.
Here at the Sanctuary, we're cooking up a number of care-driven offerings to meet local needs rooted in our areas of expertise. We'll announce them and ways that you can support and get involved as the plans take shape.
One offering we recently launched is the
Transformative Grief Group for Horse Folk Unlearning Traditional Horsemanship
Beginning February 2026 | Facilitated by Dr. Rebecca Cohen, Psychologist.
Many horse people experience grief while unlearning harmful or traditional horsemanship practices—grief for horses, for past choices, for professional identity, and for relationships or communities that may shift along the way. This grief is often quiet and isolating, even when the commitment to change is deeply intentional.
Beginning February 2026, I will facilitate a six-month peer grief support group for horse professionals who are navigating this process and want a supportive, thoughtful space to reflect and connect.
The group will meet once per month for a 90-minute live virtual session over six months. It offers a nonjudgmental, trauma-informed environment to explore grief, guilt, shame, anger, tenderness, and meaning-making—while centering accountability, self-compassion, and the wellbeing of both humans and horses.
This is a peer support and grief-processing group, not skills training or clinical therapy.
Group Details
🗓 February–July 2026 (meeting dates on website)
💻 Live virtual sessions (90 minutes each, once per month)
📕 Resource Library
👥 Limited to 15 participants to support depth and connection
💲 Investment: Early Bird—$480 for the full six-month group ($600 after Feb 7)
All funds go directly to Stable Grounds Therapeutic Farm Sanctuary to support ongoing programming.
Registration
If this offering resonates with you, please register using the link below. Spaces are filled on a first-come basis and registration will close once the group reaches capacity.
Support This Work
If you're not able to participate in the group but would like to support this work, you're warmly invited to make a donation to Stable Grounds Therapeutic Farm Sanctuary. Contributions help sustain our ongoing programming and make community-centered, values-aligned offerings like this possible.
👉 Donate here
This group is for horse folk who are willing to engage honestly, listen with care and confidentiality, and hold complexity as part of ethical growth.
You do not have to carry this grief alone—community can be part of the work.
The connection between slowing down to meet the horses and creating space to process our grief? They're the same practice.
When the world is spinning fast and our bones are buzzing, we need places to clear and connect. We need to slow ourselves down enough to perceive what we're actually feeling, to hear what needs tending.
The horses taught me this. And now I'm holding space for others to experience it too.
Whether you join this group, take those deep breaths in the cold air, or find your own way to slow down and tune in—please know that you don't have to speed through this alone. There is room to pause. There is room to grieve what needs grieving as we work together to bring forth what is new.
I'm here. The horses are here. And when you're ready, this community is here.
With care,
Dr. Rebecca Cohen & the SGS Team