
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 24 | Sarah Schlote
So awesome to have Sarah Schlote, founder of EQUUSOMA™ back on the podcast! In this incredible follow-up episode (check out Episode 21 for an intro to her work), Sarah opens up about how Attachment theory applies to horse-human partnerships, the impact of stress and trauma, the process of “thawing out” that many horses experience when they’re moved into a new home and why it happens, the pitfalls of “anthropomorphism”, the importance of mammaliomorphism as a lens, and much much more. This podcast is full of cutting-edge resources (scroll down to find the list) – Sarah is as thorough as they come!
Sarah Schlote, MA, RP, CCC, SEP is a Registered Psychotherapist, trauma therapist and Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner who has been involved in the field of animal-assisted interventions since 2003. A former St. John Ambulance Therapy Dogs volunteer, her main focus aside from her in-office private practice is partnering with horses to support health and healing. She is the founder of EQUUSOMA™, a training model integrating Somatic Experiencing®, attachment theory and equine-assisted trauma recovery, and has started promoting Therapist-Assisted Horsemanship™, bringing a trauma and attachment lens as well as trauma-informed horsemanship principles to improve the relationship between owners and their horses (and their coaches and instructors)
Learn more about Sarah and her work at www.equusoma.com and www.sarahschlote.com.
Whole Horse Podcast Resources – Sarah Schlote (pdf with links)
Sources referenced in the podcast (in order):
How wild horses deal with death and grief: A rare insight
Anthropomorphic double-talk: Can animals be happy but not unhappy? No!
Why ‘good welfare’ isn’t ‘good enough’: Minding animals and increasing our compassionate footprint
Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions (Jaak Panksepp)
The Archaeology of Mind: Neural Origins of Human Emotion (Jaak Panksepp)
Fear and the defense cascade: Clinical implications and management
Nature’s Lessons in Healing Trauma: An Introduction to Somatic Experiencing (video)
The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication and Self-Regulation (Stephen Porges)
The Pocket Guide to The Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Stephen Porges)
The polyvagal theory: Phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system (Stephen Porges)
The polyvagal perspective (Stephen Porges)
Social engagement and attachment (Stephen Porges)
Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (Robert Sapolsky)
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (Peter Levine)
In An Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness (Peter Levine)
Staggering levels of gastric lesions seen in weaned foals in a study
Addiction, childhood trauma, stress, and the biology of addiction
Crib biting behaviour in horses: A review
EquiFACS: The equine facial action coding system
Horses discriminate between facial expressions of conspecifics
Functionally relevant responses to human facial expressions of emotion in the domestic horse
Domestic horses discriminate between negative and positive human nonverbal vocalizations
Animals remember previous facial expressions that specific humans have exhibited
Training methodologies differ with the attachment of humans to horses
Exploring the existence of potential underpinnings of dog-human and horse-human attachment bonds
First suckling: A crucial event for mother-young attachment?
Anxiety and pain in horses measured by heart rate variability and behavior

Episode 72 | Creating health in horses with Allecia Maine
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 72 | Creating health in horses with Allecia Maine What an insightful and eye-opening conversation with animal communicator and healer Allecia Maine! In this episode we geeked out about healing and how it works, equine...

Episode 71 | Seeing horses as Sovereign with Kerri Lake
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 71 | Seeing horses as Sovereign with Kerri Lake What a beautiful conversation with Kerri Lake, and the perfect chat for this potent fourth season, as we get right into some incredibly rich territory around showing up for...

Episode 70 | Healthy Activation + Embracing Discomfort with Jane Pike of The Confident Rider
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 70 | Healthy Activation + Embracing Discomfort with Jane Pike of The Confident Rider What a treat of a conversation with Jane Pike of The Confident Rider for this episode of the Whole Horse Podcast! Before we even started...

Episode 69 | A Conversation with Nahshon Cook
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 69 | A Conversation with Nahshon Cook I spent a whole lot of this amazing conversation with Nahshon Cook with tears in my eyes, and a big goofy smile on my face. After listening to his podcast with Warwick Schiller (go...

Episode 68 | Supporting healthy decision-making in our horses with Heather Nelson
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 68 | Supporting healthy decision-making in our horses with Heather Nelson One of my favourite podcast guests is back and dropping some amazing wisdom about horses and life! Heather Nelson and I connected over the interwebs...

Episode 67 | Slow training + Deep listening with Elsa Sinclair
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 67 | Slow training + Deep listening with Elsa Sinclair In our second Whole Horse podcast episode of season 4, Taming Wild's Elsa Sinclair takes us on a journey into her potent year with her two stallions, and stars...

Episode 66 | Growing presence with Warwick Schiller
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 66 | Growing presence with Warwick Schiller Really enjoyed this far-ranging conversation with Warwick Schiller of Warwick Schiller Performance Horsemanship! In this Whole Horse Podcast episode Warwick opened up about his...

Episode 65 | Working with Equine Metabolic Syndrome with Elisha Edwards
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 65 | Working with Equine Metabolic Syndrome with Elisha Edwards This episode with the amazing Elisha Edwards of Riva's Remedies digs right into an area that many horse lovers, including me, are curious and often,...

Episode 64 | Body, Mind and Horses with Daniela Kaemmerer
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 64 | Body, Mind and Horses with Daniela Kaemmerer This was such a restorative and relaxing episode with Daniela Kaemmerer of Body Mind and Horses, who also has a mare named Diva! We chatted yoga, breathing, presence,...

Episode 63 | Life as a Black Equestrian with Stephanie Kallstrom
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 63 | Life as a Black Equestrian with Stephanie Kallstrom After reading the article Life as a Black Equestrian on Chronicle of the Horse and realizing that we lived right across the ocean from each other as the crow flies...