CHI: Cascadia Healing & Integration

12/15/2025

Welcome, and thank you for being here 🤍

To our longtime friends, horse community folks, family, neighbors, and everyone who’s found their way to this page — your support truly means the world to us! CHI: Cascadia Healing & Integration exists because of community, and seeing so many familiar and new faces here is incredibly grounding and encouraging.

My hope for this page is that you’ll engage, share, and help it grow so it can reach people who may really need these services but don’t yet know they exist. As a nonprofit, CHI is working toward opening access to equine-assisted psychotherapy and nervous system–informed care for kids and adults from many different backgrounds.

While the horse component isn’t yet covered by most insurance, it has been shown to be deeply effective for a many people — especially those who haven’t felt helped by traditional approaches. Beyond the clinical benefits, this work also offers horses an ethical, meaningful role in human society at a time when many people no longer have access to, or even exposure to, them. Our hope is to taise enough money to cover the unpaid expenses involved with Equine Assisted Psychotherapy & Learning (EAP & EAL)

If you’re curious, know someone who might benefit, or simply want to support the mission — being here matters. Please engage as much as you can to help boost this page! Thank you for walking alongside CHI as it grows 🌿🐎

With Gratitude,
Stacie Burgess

12/15/2025

Just some random horse info most people don’t know.

12/15/2025

If I were making the big decisions, this guy would be my HHS Secretary. He is brilliant.

12/14/2025

It’s important to us to honor consent from the horses as much as possible.

📒 NEW STUDY Interesting findings for Equine Assisted Services. How 'forced touch' impacts welfare.

Worth a read for anyone running an EAS programme or managing therapy horses.

A new paper just published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science (Sarrafchi et al.) has highlighted some important findings regarding how horses experience touch interactions with therapy clients.

The researchers compared stress levels in horses during interactions where they were either tethered (forced) or loose in a round pen (free choice).

The results were quite telling. When horses were tied up and unable to move away, they displayed significantly more stress behaviours—specifically restlessness, tail swishing, and oral behaviours like licking or yawning.

Perhaps the most striking statistic was when the horses were loose and given the choice, they chose to stay out of the human’s reach for 51% of the session.

It’s a good reminder that just because a horse is tolerating an interaction, it doesn't mean they are enjoying it.

So, how can we apply this in practice to reduce stress?

🐎 CREATE SPACE FOR CHOICE
Where safety allows (e.g., in a round pen or secure paddock), try moving unmounted work off the lead rope. Allowing the horse to step away—even just a few paces—gives them a sense of control that seems to lower stress.

🐎 WATCH THE TAIL/ MOUTH
The study highlighted tail swishing and oral behaviours as key stress indicators during grooming/touch. If you see these, the horse is likely finding the interaction intrusive. It might be time to take a break or change the activity.

🐎 THE 'CONSENT TEST'
Before a client strokes or grooms, encourage them to offer a hand first. If the horse turns away or ignores it, treat that as a "no" for now. ✨ The study also noted that horses were generally more tolerant of touch on the hindquarters than the neck/shoulder area, which is worth keeping in mind.

🐎 REFRAME 'DISENGAGEMENT' FOR CLIENTS
It can be disappointing for a client if a horse walks away. However, we can frame this as a positive learning moment about autonomy and boundaries, rather than a rejection.

It’s not always practical to have horses loose for every session, but building in more moments of 'agency' seems to be key for their long-term welfare.

Has anyone else been experimenting with off-lead interactions recently? Would be interested to hear how it’s working for you.

Link to the study in the comments 👇

12/12/2025

Boys & men aren’t taught self regulation skills as much as girls & women. We need to take extra care in teaching them how to self regulate. True self control is strength! It feels so much better to easily cope with challenging feelings than be controlled by them.

12/06/2025

This is why I really love working with parents. We can’t teach skills we don’t have.

12/06/2025

I still love her soooo much!!

12/03/2025

12/03/2025

Emotional safety within your family is incredibly important.

12/02/2025

12/02/2025

Kidding, not really 🤣