Equine Assisted World with Rupert Isaacson cover art

Equine Assisted World with Rupert Isaacson

Equine Assisted World with Rupert Isaacson

By: Rupert Isaacson
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Here on Equine Assisted World. We look at the cutting edge and the best practices currently being developed and, established in the equine assisted field. This can be psychological, this can be neuropsych, this can be physical, this can be all of the conditions that human beings have that these lovely equines, these beautiful horses that we work with, help us with. Your Host is New York Times bestselling author Rupert Isaacson. Long time human rights activist, Rupert helped a group of Bushmen in the Kalahari fight for their ancestral lands. He's probably best known for his autism advocacy work following the publication of his bestselling book "The Horse Boy" and "The Long Ride Home" where he tells the story of finding healing for his autistic son. Subsequently he founded New Trails Learning Systems an approach for addressing neuro-psychiatric conditions through horses, movement and nature. The methods are now used around the world in therapeutic riding program, therapy offices and schools for special needs and neuro-typical children.  You can find details of all our programs and shows on www.RupertIsaacson.com.Horse Boy LLC Alternative & Complementary Medicine Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success
Episodes
  • Art, Prison, and the Path to Freedom | Russell Craig | EAW 57

    Art, Prison, and the Path to Freedom | Russell Craig | EAW 57
    Jun 25 2026
    Russell Craig is a celebrated visual artist now based between Philadelphia, New York, and Wellington, Florida, who grew up in the foster care system from age five and spent a total of twelve years in the Pennsylvania prison system before building an art career that has taken him from a mural on the African American Museum in Philadelphia to the White House, the Democratic National Convention, and museum collections around the country.What makes Russell's story so striking is how directly his lived experience speaks to the populations equine-assisted practitioners are trying to serve — kids in foster care, people coming out of incarceration, and anyone navigating systems that were never built with their wellbeing in mind. He found his way through art, using it inside prison as both an escape and, eventually, as a plan for life after release.In this conversation, Russell and Rupert dig into what a horse-based program for foster kids and formerly incarcerated people would actually need to work — structure, mentorship, hands-on care, transportation, funding, and a real sense of separation from old environments — as well as the deeper parallels Russell sees between horses and his own experience of captivity and freedom.If you want to support the show, you can do so at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHome✨ "When it's built on good structure, it will stand." – Russell Craig🔍 What You'll Learn in This EpisodeWhy Russell sees foster care and incarceration as a "funnel" that equine-assisted practitioners need outside mentorship to address responsiblyHow Russell first reconnected with art inside the prison system, and why it became his primary survival strategyWhy structure and a clear long-term plan — not just talent — turned Russell's art into a real career after releaseHow Russell draws parallels between leading a horse and his own experience of incarceration, and what that means for horsemanshipWhy Russell believes any foster-care equine program would need to feel like a true separation from a kid's old environment, not a day visitWhat Russell thinks foster care agencies would need to see before referring kids to an equine programWhy transportation and funding are the two biggest barriers to access for kids who could benefit from equine-assisted programsHow the parole system's rules can make it nearly impossible to stay out of prison, even for someone trying to build a stable lifeWhy Russell believes any program working with formerly incarcerated or at-risk people needs a spiritual or nature-connection componentRupert and Russell's shared idea for a "campus" model that combines equine therapy with green jobs, land restoration, and forestry trainingWhy Russell sought out an arts program from inside prison — and how that became his springboard after releaseRussell's closing advice to practitioners working with foster kids or people coming out of incarceration🎤 Memorable Moments from the Episode[00:03:00] Russell describes being placed in foster care at age five and ending up on the streets by twelve [00:09:00] Russell on reconnecting with art inside prison as a way to escape his surroundings and stay focused [00:21:00] Russell on training himself to look for "the awesome" even inside hard or painful situations [00:35:00] Rupert and Russell draw the parallel between leading a horse and Russell's own experience of incarceration [00:45:00] Rupert outlines NTLS's three certification programs: Horse Boy Method, Movement Method, and Takhin Equine Integration [01:11:00] Russell explains why kids in a foster-care equine program would need real separation from their old environment, not just a day visit [01:13:00] Rupert and Russell brainstorm a "campus" model combining horses with green jobs, land reclamation, and forestry training [01:39:00] Russell details the parole system's rules and how they can make it nearly impossible to stay out of prison [01:53:00] Russell describes seeking out an arts program from inside prison and turning it into his springboard after release [02:03:00] Russell's closing advice: keep pushing, don't do it alone, and connect with others doing the work📚 Contact, Projects, and Resources MentionedRussell Craig – Artist Search: Russell Craig artist New Trails Learning Systems – Horse Boy Method, Movement Method & Takhin Equine Integration https://ntls.co Rupert Isaacson / Long Ride Home https://rupertisaacson.com Patreon Support https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHome🌍 Follow UsLong Ride Home https://longridehome.com https://facebook.com/longridehome.lrh https://instagram.com/longridehome_lrh https://youtube.com/@longridehome New Trails Learning Systems https://ntls.co https://facebook.com/horseboyworld https://instagram.com/horseboyworld https://youtube.com/newtrailslearningsystems📊 Affiliate DisclosureLinks to books and products may include affiliate tracking. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. ...
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    2 hrs and 6 mins
  • Horses, Dementia, and the Science of Connection | Paula Hertel & Nancy Schier Anzelmo of Connected Horse, with Kansas Carradine | EAW 56

    Horses, Dementia, and the Science of Connection | Paula Hertel & Nancy Schier Anzelmo of Connected Horse, with Kansas Carradine | EAW 56
    Jun 11 2026
    ✨ "They come in with a cane and feeling disabled, and then they say, 'Here, take the cane, honey. I'm gonna walk this horse.' We've seen this so many times we can't even number it." – Nancy Schier AnzelmoDescription Paula Hertel and Nancy Schier Anzelmo are the co-founders of Connected Horse, a California-based program that brings equine-assisted experiences to older adults living with dementia or memory loss — alongside their care partners. Backed by research conducted with Stanford University and UC Davis, Connected Horse is one of the first programs in the country to specifically serve this population in this way. Kansas Carradine, HeartMath-certified trainer and returning EAW guest, joins to explore the science of heart coherence, entrainment, and why horses may be uniquely suited to reach people that other approaches cannot.Connected Horse's work challenges the assumption that equine-assisted services are only for children or younger adults. Their Stanford and UC Davis pilot studies recorded statistically significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and caregiver burden — with 100% participant return rates at a six-month booster session. Participants regularly go from fearful and withdrawn to walking horses, speaking in full sentences, and feeling activated to change their lives. The program is designed to be failure-free: for the person with the diagnosis, for the care partner, and for the horses.In this episode, Rupert, Paula, Nancy, and Kansas explore the physiology behind what happens when a person leans their heart against a horse's neck, why dementia and autism require similar practitioner responses around pacing and unconditional presence, what ritual and ceremony have to do with cortisol regulation, and how social prescribing may bring programs like Connected Horse into mainstream healthcare. If you want to support the show, you can do so at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHomeIf you want to support the show, you can do so at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHome🔍 What You'll Learn in This EpisodeWhy older adults living with dementia have been largely overlooked by the equine-assisted field — and what Connected Horse is doing to change thatHow Stanford University and UC Davis pilot studies measured statistically significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and caregiver burden in just 15 hours of horse-based interventionWhy Connected Horse works with the person living with dementia and their care partner together — and why separating them misses the pointWhat actually happens during a Connected Horse workshop: herd observation, grooming, haltering, leading, and at-liberty gratitude time in the round penWhy people who entered unable to speak, walk confidently, or engage start doing all three by the third sessionHow emotional memory remains intact even as verbal and cognitive function declines — and how horses help bring it forwardWhat heart coherence and entrainment explain about why people lean their heart against a horse's neck and visibly transformWhy Kansas Carradine connects equine-assisted ritual to shamanic ceremony — and how that connection is measurable in biophoton research and HeartMath scienceHow the failure-free environment Paula and Nancy design creates self-agency for care partners who have lost their sense of controlWhat the social prescribing movement is — and why Connected Horse is part of an early Kaiser Permanente pilot bringing grassroots programs into mainstream healthcareWhy dementia and autism require the same practitioner response: slow down, reduce verbal demands, hold unconditional presence, and let the emotional memory do its workHow Connected Horse trains other barns and facilitators internationally, and what a "prescription to come to the barn" might look like🎤 Memorable Moments from the Episode[00:04:30] Paula describes what Connected Horse does — and why explaining it still falls short [00:15:07] Nancy breaks down the Stanford study design: five measures, three out of five with a P value of .001 [00:16:33] The UC Davis booster session: 100% participant return rate six months later, even after strokes or condition changes [00:22:14] What happens in the round pen: how the horse almost always moves toward the person who breathes, opens, and goes still [00:26:44] Kansas explains how the horse's heart field, VLF emissions, and coherent broadcast create the conditions for entrainment [00:32:00] Nancy: aphasic participants begin speaking; people who arrived with canes put them down to walk the horse [01:00:16] Paula on the grounding meditation that opens every session — and why reducing fight-flight-freeze is the foundation of everything [01:06:04] Paula on self-agency: regulating your own body is power, because "that's not someone doing something to me" [01:12:03] Kansas links equine-assisted facilitation to shamanic ritual — and to the science of entrainment and biophotons [01:29:02] Nancy on "activation":...
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    2 hrs and 1 min
  • Your Horse Can Feel Your Heartbeat | Kansas Carradine | EAW 55

    Your Horse Can Feel Your Heartbeat | Kansas Carradine | EAW 55
    May 28 2026
    ✨ "What is HeartMath doing? They're measuring your care." – Kansas CarradineDescription Kansas Carradine is a HeartMath-certified trainer, acrobatic stunt rider, and equine guided educator based in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. She spent years performing with the international touring show Cavalia — working alongside 70+ head of horses, many of them stallions — before dedicating her work to heart-based horsemanship and emotional regulation.What makes Kansas's approach distinctive is the bridge she builds between rigorous science and lived horsemanship. HeartMath is not just a breathing technique; it is a research-backed body of work measuring the electromagnetic output of the heart, heart rate variability coherence, and the demonstrable effect of human emotional states on the beings — horse and human alike — around us. For equine-assisted practitioners, that has profound implications.In this conversation, Rupert and Kansas explore how heart coherence can be layered into any equine-assisted modality, why horses are uniquely able to detect incoherent emotional fields, the science behind the toric field and biophoton emission, and how Kansas's own path — from a difficult childhood at a California trick-riding ranch, through Cavalia's global stages, to HeartMath certification — shaped her understanding of regulation, resilience, and the horse as healer. She and Rupert also announce a planned 2027 collaboration. If you want to support the show, you can do so at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHomeIf you want to support the show, you can do so at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHome🔍 What You'll Learn in This EpisodeHow the heart functions as an electromagnetic organ — always broadcasting and receiving — and why this matters in the saddleWhy HeartMath is not a relaxation technique but an adaptogenic one: it balances both over-activated and shutdown nervous systemsWhat heart rate variability (HRV) coherence is, how it is measured, and what a 2025 peer-reviewed study in Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health found about its clinical outcomes for anxiety, depression, and traumaHow a 1997 University of Kassel study suggested that heart-centered meditators can emit up to 100,000 photons of light per second — compared with 20 in average individualsWhy horses in fight-or-flight broadcast incoherent fields, and why a calm, coherent horse feels the way it does to be nearHow the toric field — the measurable electromagnetic pulse of the heart — extends roughly arm's-length from the body, carrying a unique energetic fingerprint for each emotional stateWhy a little sympathetic arousal is necessary for engagement and learning, and how HeartMath creates the sweet spot between shutdown and hyperactivationHow trick riding — rooted in Cossack cavalry training — functions as a martial art form requiring zonal focus under high pressure, and what Kansas learned about regulation inside that crucibleHow to use a simple heart-focus breath practice (even mid-session) to set the energetic field before working with horses or clientsWhy HeartMath's research is now extending to plants and trees as the next frontier of measuring human heart-field impactHow Kansas's online courses approach HeartMath from the equestrian's perspective — and how to reach her for one-on-one coaching or in-person clinics🎤 Memorable Moments from the Episode[00:02:20] Kansas defines HeartMath as both a research institute and a practical modality — and walks listeners through a live heart-focus breathing exercise [00:08:18] The toric field explained: the measurable electromagnetic pulse of the heart and what it broadcasts depending on your emotional state[00:17:11] Why HeartMath is not about relaxation — the adaptogenic heart response and why shutdown clients do not need more parasympathetic [00:21:59] Kansas describes running away to Reata Ranch at age 11 and being raised within its highly structured trick-riding world for seven years [00:44:39] Trick riding as martial art: how Cossack acrobatic training shaped Kansas's capacity for high-pressure focus — and the cost of that [01:20:02] Rupert reads aloud the 1997 University of Kassel biophoton study — 100,000 photons per second from heart-centered meditators [01:48:37] Kansas explains how to get started: online courses, one-on-one coaching, and the Inner Balance biofeedback device [01:51:40] Kansas leads a second live heart-coherence practice — breathing gratitude in and out through the heart [02:06:26] Rupert and Kansas announce their planned 2027 collaboration in the Sierra Nevadas and a short-form YouTube series📚 Contact, Projects, and Resources MentionedKansas Carradine – HeartMath-Certified Trainer, Equine Guided Educator https://circuscowgirl.com kansascarradine@gmail.com Facebook: Search Kansas CarradineHeartMath Institute – Research, courses, and Inner Balance biofeedback device https://...
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    2 hrs and 16 mins
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