CONNECT & SUPPORT
Our ethos is to provide high quality learning experiences that have horses at their heart. The aim of Learning Wild courses is to provide a unique opportunity for people to immerse themselves into the world of the horse. Held in beautiful and dramatic land and seascapes, they offer a chance to experience new adventures and by engaging with the wild lives of free-living equines of all shapes and sizes (and stripes!) alongside forging meaningful connections with likeminded people.
These sustainable adventures are for anyone interested in learning more about equines and how they fit into our lives and we into theirs.
These are low-impact learning opportunities with horses at the heart that support and involve local communities. In Learning Wild courses you can engage with the natural dramatic beauty, rich with wildlife, and the unique biodiversity of each area that expands and deepens our own understanding of equines as a species.
These courses have been designed by Bonny Mealand and Dr Emily Kieson who also serve as your guides on each course. In addition to exploring these amazing locations with Bonny and Emily, each course also includes representatives from local organizations These include local specialists such as grassland ecologists, Gaelic scholars, wildlife rangers and people whose families have lived in the areas for generations and who have a strong oral tradition of storytelling and memory keeping, all of whom are passionate about expanding and deepening our understanding of equines. Each course includes both theory and experiential learning with plenty of time for discussions and reflections from participants and invited professionals. We include a wide range of topics such as - the art of observation, equine ethology, how and why we train, recognising natural behaviour, building relationships with our equines, how we can keep our horses in a sustainable way, for us, them and the environment and much more.
These are meaningful adventures and your booking supports local communities and organizations, helping them to regenerate their wild unique places. In addition to supporting local communities we structure each course to provide participants with the quality information needed to make decisions regarding horse care and training and ways to identify and improve equine well-being and welfare in our dometic worlds.
This is for equine enthusiasts of all kinds and open to anyone interested learning more about equines and how they fit into our Iives and us into theirs.
WHO WE ARE
OF TOUCHING WILD
The Heart of My Work is
Trusting Relationships
OF EQUINE INTERNATIONAL
Dedicated to research and education in the fields of
equine behavior, welfare, and equine-human interactions
BONNY MEALAND
I am a passionate and dedicated life long student of the horse.
Bonny’s niche is trimming the hooves of wild horses. Combining her extensive experience as an Equine Podiatrist , fascination with equine behaviour and her skill as a trainer of the “untrainable”.
She qualified as an EP in 2005 and has run her own whole horse care business since then, offering experienced advice and support for people wherever they are on their equine journey. Through sharing her in-depth understanding of species appropriate management she helps people find ways to implement this into the domestic setting.
Her award winning work with the Takhi (Equus ferus ssp.Przewalskii) of the Highland Wildlife Park has been featured on BBC Inside the Zoo. She also runs courses wildlife and conservation organisations. Teaching the zoo keepers and wardens who care for wild equids and regenerative grazing herds how to handle their charges in a safe, low stress and effective way.
Bonny is an advocate of Ethological Study and dedicates much of her time to the study of free-living and wild equids. She frequently writes articles on this topic for a variety of equine and wildlife magazines and is a regular writer for the Concordia International Equestrian Magazine.
She is an enthusiastic Equine Science Masters student at the University of Edinburgh (Dick Vet). She volunteers as a welfare advisor for the BHS and delivers training days for its members as well as helping organise welfare conferences, give online presentations and writing for their magazine. She is a Somatic Yoga and Mindfulness teacher and a Retained Firefighter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
To learn more about Bonny and Touching Wild please click below.
DR EMILY KIESON
Emily Kieson holds a PhD in Comparative Psychology, a MS in Psychology, and a graduate degree in Equine Science. Her research focuses on equine behavioural psychology, equine welfare, and horse-human interactions. Her current research focuses on equine friendships. Studying affiliative behaviours and how horses create and maintain social bonds and how those can overlap with human affiliative behaviours to create authentic lasting friendships between horses and humans.
She also has a passion for supporting sustainable systems of horse management and husbandry that promote physical and psychological welfare of the horse while simultaneously supporting sustainable ecosystem practices on small and large scales (for both feral and domestic equids).
To learn more about Emily and Equine International please click below.