
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 41 | Whole Horse | Taming Wild + Restoring Trust with Elsa Sinclair
In our first Whole Horse podcast of season 3, Taming Wild’s Elsa Sinclair shares the differences between dominance and passive horse training, the simple yet profound essence of her work and how to apply it, the core steps to connection, and the creation of her documentary Taming Wild: Pura Vida, capturing an epic 2 week journey across the jungles of Costa Rica with two rescued horses. She also opens up about her third documentary film in progress, working with two stallions, one wild, one from a bucking string, sharing her struggles and her realizations, and the impact of physical and emotional trauma on adaptability. It is a beautiful conversation and the perfect way to kick off season 3. Enjoy!
What is Freedom Based Training? Perhaps the best way to explain it is to break it down: Training is the art of developing toward an end goal. Freedom is the ability to make the right choices for you in any given situation. Freedom Based Training embraces the paradox of these two ideas – freedom and training. To do this we develop depth of relationship and width of skill in a balance, using passive leadership instead of dominant leadership.
Elsa Sinclair is a professional horse trainer and instructor who brings to the horse world a unique and powerful perspective. Gathering together awareness from a variety of equine disciplines, Elsa has an enthusiasm for developing human ~ equine partnerships to fully enjoy the process of learning and growing in the direction of their goals. Elsa draws on a long and diverse history with horses as she travels now through her latest adventure of Taming Wild. What if horses were given a choice? Would they let us ride them? Without force or tools to control and without bribes to lure them? Elsa asked the questions, embarked on a project to find out and ultimately filmed a movie about the process. What started as simple questions, birthed the movie Taming Wild, an online course for those interested in learning Freedom Based Training, and a following of people who seek their own answers in what it takes to work more collaboratively with horses.
Find out more about Elsa and her work at www.tamingwild.com.
Enjoy!

Episode 133 | Sacred contracts with horses and how to recognize them with Brittany Ashworth
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 133 | Sacred contracts with horses and how to recognize them with Brittany Ashworth Season 8 of the Whole Horse podcast is here! To start us off right, I chatted with my friend and colleague Brittany Ashworth of Sacred...

Episode 132 | Understanding equine postural mechanisms with Dr. Karen Gellman
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 132 | Understanding equine postural mechanisms with Dr. Karen Gellman In this episode, marking the end of season seven of the podcast, I spoke with Dr. Karen Gellman. What an incredible journey she has been on, culminating...

Episode 131 | Shifting how we think about breathing with Holly Barnett
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Episode 130 | Horses as muses, teachers, and guides with artist Kim McElroy
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Episode 129 | Unmasking sensitivity to be better (horse) people with Lori Halliday
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 129 | Unmasking sensitivity to be better (horse) people with Lori Halliday This conversation with the wise and wonderful Lori Halliday certainly touched into some tender places! Lori offered her perspective on the fall...

Episode 128 | Becoming nervous system navigators with Wired 4 Connection author Lucie Klaassen
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Episode 127 | Speaking the language of horses with Belinda Bolsenbroek
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Episode 126 | What horses can teach us about healthy boundaries with Kim Hallin
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 126 | What horses can teach us about healthy boundaries with Kim Hallin What a deep and necessary conversation I had the pleasure of sharing with Kim Hallin, owner of Unbridled LLC. Kim’s tagline is “Stay true to yourself...

Episode 125 | Taking a 3Fs approach to providing good horse care with Lauren Fraser
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 125 | Taking a 3Fs approach to providing good horse care with Lauren Fraser This week on the podcast I spoke with equine behaviour specialist Lauren Fraser, the woman behind the 3 Fs (Friends, Forage, Freedom) framework...

Episode 124 | Releasing Tension to build trust with Jim Masterson
The Whole Horse Podcast | Episode 124 | Releasing Tension to build trust with Jim Masterson In this episode with reknowned equine body worker Jim Masterson, I got to know the origin story behind the Masterson Method and ask Jim about his perspective on a...