In Her Lead

05/26/2026

It’s been a little quiet over here lately.

Over the past months, much of my focus has been on paramedic school, deepening my clinical education, and continuing to grow behind the scenes — both professionally and personally. But even while life became fuller, the heart behind In Her Lead never left.

If anything, this season only strengthened my belief that leadership should not be rooted in dominance, fear, silence, or control.

Not in our systems.
Not in our relationships.
Not in the way we work with animals.
And not in the expectations placed on women.

In Her Lead was created to explore a different way forward — one grounded in science, compassion, consent, courage, and connection.

A space where:
🌿 Women reclaim their voice
🌿 Animals are understood, not suppressed
🌿 Leadership is measured not by control, but by relationship
🌿 Science and softness are allowed to coexist

I’m looking forward to reconnecting, continuing the conversation, and sharing more of what’s ahead.

This is In Her Lead. 💛

05/24/2026

05/21/2026

At its core, In Her Lead has always been about more than horses.

It is about challenging systems rooted in control, silence, and imbalance of power — and helping create cultures grounded in consent, compassion, accountability, and courage.

Whether advocating for equine welfare or for survivors of gender-based violence, the mission is ultimately the same: breaking silence and raising the standard for how we care for and lead one another.

I was honoured to be invited to participate in the Can’t Buy My Silence National Roundtable on NDAs and Gender-Based Violence at Osgoode Hall Law School on April 28.

Advocating for human rights, accountability, and systemic change is work deeply close to my heart.

What filled me with hope that day was sitting alongside individuals committed to creating safer, more accountable systems — including Sarah Elgazzar, Commissioner with the Law Commission of Canada, Ben Roebuck, Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime, MP Kristyn Wong-Tam, and many lawyers, advocates, and organizations dedicating their time, expertise, and care to this issue.

02/22/2026

💛 The Courage to Loosen the Grip

Safety doesn’t come from control.
It comes from knowing you won’t be punished for telling the truth.

So the courage of real, powerful leadership isn’t tightening your hold, it’s having the courage to loosen it.

Not to surrender authority.
Not to invite chaos.

But to make room for what is real to come into the light.

Because only what can be seen can be repaired.

And from there, trust and connection have somewhere to take root. 💛

02/14/2026

💛 Be the person others — human or horse — feel stronger for having encountered.

I’ve been a bit quiet lately, finishing clinical hours in the hospital and on paramedic ride-outs. Stepping back into the role of learner — where you’re watched, corrected, stretched, and trusted with just enough rope to learn (and just enough risk to feel it) — has a way of sharpening your perspective.

It’s made me think a lot about leadership.

Out there, I am not the expert. I am the one trying, adjusting, and hoping I’m getting it right while someone more experienced stands beside me. And in those moments, you become acutely aware of how much the other person’s presence matters.

Which is why my mind keeps going back to the quiet clarity of horses.

Horses don’t care how much you know. They care how you feel to be around. If your presence is tense, they brace. If it is unpredictable, they resist. If it is steady, fair, and clear, they try. They don’t follow authority. They follow safety.

As a learner, I realize I want the same thing.

Not someone impressive — someone grounding. Not someone intimidating — someone consistent. Someone who holds a high bar without making you feel small for not reaching it yet. Someone who corrects in a way that builds you instead of breaking you.

Because willingness cannot be forced. In horses or in people, it grows where effort is met with clarity, fairness, and dignity.

The leaders who change us most don’t remove challenge. They remove unnecessary fear. They create conditions where trying feels possible — where mistakes are part of progress, not proof you don’t belong.

Because true leadership — like true horsemanship — is measured by how much confidence walks away with the other being.

10/13/2025

🐴💛 Escape vs. Avoidance Learning

In behavioural science, escape and avoidance learning describe how humans and animals adapt their behaviour in response to aversive (unpleasant) stimuli in their environment.

Escape Learning
When a room becomes too hot, a person will leave to escape the heat.
This behaviour ends the unpleasant experience already in progress.

Avoidance Learning
If that same person learns to predict when the room will become too hot, they can choose to avoid entering it altogether.

In this way, avoidance learning often develops from escape learning —
the individual learns not only how to end discomfort, but how to prevent it before it occurs.

The same is true for animals.
At first, an animal learns a behaviour that stops an unpleasant event.
Over time, they begin to recognize the stimuli in their environment that predict discomfort and act to prevent the discomfort entirely — such as avoiding a human, a mounting block, tack, a halter, or even food from a human.

To the animal, these cues have come to predict discomfort.

Together, these processes reveal how powerful learning and association can be,
quietly shaping how an animal perceives and interacts with its world.

When we recognize this, we can approach training and care in ways that foster safety and trust rather than fear and avoidance.

Ultimately, the mark of good leadership with animals is about discernment, not capability.
In other words — just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Even good intentions can create learned associations that lead to long-term behavioural challenges.
More often than not, my work involves humans who are unaware of the patterns they’re shaping in the animals they care for — and of how closely those animals’ emotions are tied to learning.

✨ Real leadership isn’t about control or capability.
It’s about what we choose not to shape.

09/24/2025

💛 Groundwork

The task of a teacher or trainer
is not only to share knowledge
or shape behaviour,
but to shape the ground
on which learning stands.

Without safety, that ground fractures.
Learners do not expand into curiosity—
they shrink into protection.

Safety is not an accessory to learning.
It is the root from which all learning grows.

Maybe we need to redefine the purpose of groundwork
in the horse world—
as the creation of safety and trust required for learning.

And maybe we need to reflect on how we teach people
to teach equids—
for in doing so, we shape their definition
of learning,
and of relationship.

09/19/2025

💛 Leadership as Care

“Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about caring for those in your charge.” — Simon Sinek

Too often we confuse leadership with power.
But power without care leaves fear in its wake.

Leadership asks us to recognize the weight of being trusted
with others’ safety,
their growth,
their wellbeing.

It isn’t claimed, it’s lived.
A title or identity doesn’t prove leadership.
It shows up in how others experience you,
not in how you describe yourself.

It is stewardship.
It is care, made visible —
across species,
across spaces. ✨

09/15/2025

💛 The Fabric of Relationship

Training can be defined simply as the process by which behaviour is modified by its consequences.
It is not a time slot. It is continuous, shaped by the environment, unfolding moment to moment.

What is always in motion:

✨ Antecedents — the signals that set the stage.

✨ Motivating operations — conditions that alter the value of outcomes.

✨ Consequences — reinforcement strengthens, punishment suppresses, extinction weakens.

✨ Classical conditioning — emotions tied to prediction.

✨ Generalization — lessons spread across contexts.

Two streams are always flowing:

✨ Intentional training — the shaping we plan for: clear criteria, clean timing, purposeful reinforcement.

✨ Unintentional training — the lessons that emerge from what we overlook or leave unexamined.

The invitation here is to step out of a narrow, self-centered view that says training begins only when we decide it does.

Learning is continuous. Horses are always perceiving, interpreting, adjusting—whether we are asking or not.

And often, it is the unintended lessons, the unexamined contradictions, the details we never thought about, that shape them most.

Because training isn’t a separate thing you do.
It is the fabric of your relationship, moment to moment.