So what is wellness?

If wellness is the active pursuit of physical and mental wellbeing…
If it is balance, prevention, awareness, and proactive care…
If it is about living in alignment rather than merely surviving…

Then how can it stop at humans?

Animals are not equipment. They are not performance tools. They are sentient beings with complex nervous systems, emotional memory, stress responses, and lived experience. Their bodies adapt. They compensate. They stay quiet. They carry what they cannot say.

And often, they carry it for us.

When we separate human wellness from animal wellness, we reveal a limitation in our understanding — not in their need.

Welfare ensures survival.
Wellness invites thriving.

Welfare provides food, shelter, and safety.
Wellness asks deeper questions:

Is the body truly balanced?
Is tension being stored somewhere unseen?
Is the nervous system stuck in fight, flight, or freeze?
Has emotional stress shaped physical posture?
Is there connection between horse and human — or simply expectation?

Wellness is not reactive. It is proactive.
It does not wait for breakdown. It pays attention to whispers before they become screams.

And this is where my work sits.

Not in “maintenance.”
Not in “quick fixes.”
Not in band-aids so the ride can continue uninterrupted.

My work exists in the space of partnership.
In the space where physical tension, emotional history, behavioural expression, and energetic state are all acknowledged as part of the same story.

Because when we only treat the body, we miss the message.
And when we only chase performance, we miss the partnership.

Wellness is not species-specific.
It is state-specific.

If we are bold enough to talk about community wellness, then that community must include every heartbeat within it.

That is the conversation I will continue to have — whether on a stage or not.

Because at Breton Equine Wellness, we don’t just prepare horses for the saddle…
we restore balance in the body and clarity in the mind — so partnership can lead the way.

And performance?

That becomes the by-product.