✨ "The horses don't see the stories. They see who you are right now — and what you brought with you." – Jane Strong

Jane Strong is the founder and executive director of The Equus Effect, a nonprofit based in Connecticut, USA, that uses equine-assisted experiences to help veterans and first responders rebuild healthy relationships — with themselves, each other, and their communities.

What sets Jane's work apart is her refusal to treat trauma as a diagnosis to manage. A former ethnographic researcher who spent decades studying subcultures for corporate clients, Jane came to horses and veterans with the same tool she'd always trusted: genuine curiosity. The Equus Effect's 16-hour curriculum blends somatic body-based practices, emotional agility training, and progressive groundwork with horses — all without metaphor, without therapy-speak, and without telling a veteran what anything means.

This conversation covers Jane's unusual path — from advertising research to Monty Roberts to a 30-year-old Mustang who taught her that guilt is a waste of time — and dives deep into why horses are uniquely suited to reach the people hardest to reach: the ones still scanning for threats, still waiting for the playbook, still paying a nervous system tax no one else can see.

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🔍 What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why veterans and first responders experience transition stress as a nervous system cost — and why talk therapy often falls short
• How ethnographic research trained Jane to enter any culture with curiosity instead of assumptions — and why that's essential for working with military populations
• Why The Equus Effect never uses metaphor in their horse work, and what happens when they let veterans find their own meaning instead
• How the program's somatic body scan and joint warmup prepare participants neurologically before they ever touch a horse
• Why horses respond differently to officers than to enlisted personnel — and what that reveals about internal organization
• What "uncoupling" means in trauma work, and the story of the veteran who found his focus again — safely — while leading a horse in a circle
• Why Jane advises against letting participants know each other's rank, and what she learned the hard way when she didn't follow this rule
• How The Equus Effect's 16-hour curriculum unfolds across four sessions — from barn introduction to liberty work — and why soak time between sessions matters
• What the Enneagram's three centers of intelligence (body, heart, mind) have to do with how people move and communicate with horses
• Why you don't need a military or first responder background to serve this population — and why Jane believes it may actually help not to have one
• How the program uses movie clips to open conversations about fear, vulnerability, anger, and depression — without singling anyone out
• Why curiosity and compassion are inseparable, and what gets lost when we enter any population believing we already know who they are
• How Jane finally secured a VA grant after 12+ years of program delivery — and what she learned about navigating that process

🎤 Memorable Moments from the Episode

[00:02:34] Jane describes the 22-suicides-a-day statistic that launched The Equus Effect in 2008 
[00:04:57] Four years of meetings before the VA agreed to send veterans — and what finally changed their minds 
[00:16:49] Jane explains why "helping" can hide a fixing mentality — and what curiosity looks like instead 
[00:41:00] Why Jane never introduces participants by rank — and the session that taught her this the hard way 
[00:57:34] Jane recalls losing her horse as a teenager and the moment she walked away from riding for years 
[01:17:25] A 35-year-old Mustang named Noche who couldn't be touched — and the message he gave her about guilt 
[01:57:48] The veteran who felt his focus return while leading a horse in a circle — and heard the words "this time, you were safe" 
[02:06:00] Jane explains how to access The Equus Effect's facilitator training and upcoming workshops 
[02:11:42] The nightmare of VA grant applications — and how hiring a grant writer made the difference 
[02:20:04] The closing reflection: can you have compassion without curiosity?

📚 Contact, Projects, and Resources Mentioned

Jane Strong – Founder & Executive Director, The Equus Effect https://theequuseffect.org 
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 

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