✨ "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 Anzelmo
Description 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 Participants regularly go from fearful and withdrawn to walking horses, speaking in full sentences, and feeling activated to change their lives.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/LongRideHome
If you want to support the show, you can do so at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LongRideHome
🔍 What You'll Learn in This Episode
- Why older adults living with dementia have been largely overlooked by the equine-assisted field — and what Connected Horse is doing to change that
- How Stanford University and UC Davis pilot studies measured statistically significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and caregiver burden in just 15 hours of horse-based intervention
- Why Connected Horse works with the person living with dementia and their care partner together — and why separating them misses the point
- What actually happens during a Connected Horse workshop: herd observation, grooming, haltering, leading, and at-liberty gratitude time in the round pen
- Why people who entered unable to speak, walk confidently, or engage start doing all three by the third session
- How emotional memory remains intact even as verbal and cognitive function declines — and how horses help bring it forward
- What heart coherence and entrainment explain about why people lean their heart against a horse's neck and visibly transform
- Why Kansas Carradine connects equine-assisted ritual to shamanic ceremony — and how that connection is measurable in biophoton research and HeartMath science
- How the failure-free environment Paula and Nancy design creates self-agency for care partners who have lost their sense of control
- What the social prescribing movement is — and why Connected Horse is part of an early Kaiser Permanente pilot bringing grassroots programs into mainstream healthcare
- Why dementia and autism require the same practitioner response: slow down, reduce verbal demands, hold unconditional presence, and let the emotional memory do its work
- How 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": how workshop participants start going to the gym, traveling, writing, and living again after diagnosis
[01:46:43] Paula on the social prescribing movement and Connected Horse's early pilot with Kaiser Permanente
📚 Contact, Projects, and Resources Mentioned
Paula Hertel & Nancy Schier Anzelmo – Co-founders, Connected Horse https://connectedhorse.org [email protected] [email protected]
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 Us
Long 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 Disclosure
Links to books and products may include affiliate tracking. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the show.
