I used to do this all the time with mine, particularly my older mare. I'd spent hours just being with her, practising exercises that were loosely based on Natural Horsemanship techniques - such as standing very still, right beside her, and gradually she'd shift her weight closer and closer til we were lightly leaning against one another, and stand like that for a long time, taking her in. The satin of her skin, the beautiful horse smell, the ripple of her muscles as she flicked a fly off or whatever. Feeling the movement as she rested a hindleg. Finished with me squashing my face under her mane into her neck, and breathing as deeply as I could to try and inhale her

Other times I'd sit out in the field, listening to the birds and watching them graze and just be horses.

Horses are my medicine, and I definitely find life far more difficult without access to them. I can hardly bring myself to think of my old girl, or my young horse, back at home.

My chestnut mare is connected to my soul. That probably sounds weird to some of you, but she very simply is. She was my eighteenth birthday present from my late mother. I remember riding her on that birthday, our first ride out together, and feeling the energy from the mountain shooting up through my horse into me. Bliss.