TNP206 Alexa Linton on Interspecies Relating and Healing with Horses

In this episode we grapple with the questions,

Can you ever really be in a consensual relationship with a being who depends on you for food?

How do white supremacy culture and patriarchy show up in horsemanship?

What does non-coercive horsemanship look and feel like?

If you’ve read my book, The Spirited Kitchen, or you’ve been around my work for a while, you know that I come from a long line of horse people - a lineage that wends its way from southern Alberta and rodeo culture to the Scottish Highlands in the late 1800s where my wayback people bred, trained, and worked Highland ponies to labour in the coal mines and to build railroads. It’s been a long and complicated relationship between my family and horses. I am the first generation in as far back as we can remember to not have horses in my life on an everyday basis. It’s a profound source of grief for me.

What has also been a source of grief is that for many of the problems I've supported my child through, (if you don’t know, I have a 19 year old with autism, ADHD, and mental and physical health challenges), the thing that seems to work best is time outside the city with horses. 

And this is where my next guest comes in…

Alexa Linton is an osteopathic practitioner with 15 years of manual therapy and energy work under her belt. She also works with animals using kinesiology, cranial sacral therapy, and intuitive communication. She also helps humans navigate pet death. As a horse steward, trainer and healer, Alexa has seen and experienced a lot of changes in the industry over the years but there is much further to go in uncoupling from systems of dominance. Her course, The Whole Horse Apprenticeship, and her show, The Whole Horse Podcast, are places of refuge for horsey people who no longer feel comfortable with coercive horsemanship.

Check out Alexa's book:

Death Sucks: A Straight-Up Guide to Navigating Your Pet's Final Transition

Follow her on Instagram

Equine Cranial Therapy Certification

Referenced in this episode:

The Whole Horse Apprenticeship with Alexa and 25 guest instructors, including myself! (6 month program for horse lovers starting September 15th) 

The Whole Horse Podcast 

Taming Wild documentary created by Elsa Sinclair 

Freedom-based Training with Elsa Sinclair 

Emotional Horsemanship with Lockie Phillips 

Relationship Horsemanship with Josh Nichol 

Nahshon Cook Horsemanship 

Balance through Movement Method (Pillar one mini course) 

Horsemanship on Vancouver Island - Shannon Beahen (Humminghorse)