Equestrian Sounds #051 | Nicky Ross: What happens when horses chooses

What if horses could regulate your nervous system by choice? In episode 51 of Equestrian Sounds, I sit down with Nicky Ross equine behaviourist, published researcher, and founder of Horse Play Highlands, to talk about what unfolded when 10 people from completely different backgrounds spent 4 days with semi-feral ponies in the Scottish Highlands. What happened wasn't planned. The ponies chose to engage. And what emerged was a living demonstration of bi-directional physiological coupling, horses and humans regulating each other's nervous systems in real time. We also dive into the Equine Voice app, Nicky's science-based tool that helps horse owners observe, understand, and respond to their horses' behaviour, grounded in peer-reviewed research and integrated with the Horse Play Learning Hub. In this episode: — The Highland retreat and what the horses did — How positive affective states change the quality of equine-assisted services — Equine Voice app > how it works and who it's for — The Horse Play Learning Hub and the next retreat (May 2027) — What bi-directional physiological coupling really means in practice Links: Horse Play Highlands → horseplayhighlands.com Equine Voice App → equinevoice.com Horse Play Learning Hub → horseplayhighlands.com Equestrian Sounds is a bilingual podcast about people working at the intersection of horses and human wellbeing honest conversations with practitioners, researchers, therapists and horse people from around the world. Spotify · Apple Podcasts · YouTube www.iponey.com carlos@iponey.com @iponey_outdoors