“Sometimes the places we don’t belong become the very places that lead us home.”

When people ask me how I came to do Healing with Horses, they often expect me to tell them about a course I attended, a qualification I completed, or a defining moment that changed my life. The truth is, it started long before any of that. It began with a little girl who couldn’t seem to find where she belonged.

Growing up in South Africa, I spent many of my school holidays at pony camps. Every holiday I counted down the days with excitement, desperate to be around the horses again. Yet, hidden beneath that excitement was another feeling.

Fear. Not fear of the horses. Fear of the people.

Before every camp, I already knew how it would unfold. I knew I would struggle to fit in with the other girls. I knew I would be the quiet one. I knew I wouldn’t be the one invited into the conversations, the laughter or the friendships. Even my closest friend at the time often chose to include others instead of me, leaving me feeling confused and wondering why I wasn’t enough.

As a child, that hurt deeply. But today… Today I am grateful. Because while everyone else found one another… I found the horses. 

Instead of trying harder to fit in, I wandered back to the stables. I sat quietly beside them. I watched them graze. I listened. I learned. Without realising it, I was beginning to understand a language that didn’t require words.

The horses never asked me to become louder. They never asked me to be more confident. They never asked me to change who I was. They simply accepted me. 

When I wasn’t sitting with the horses, I was wandering through nature. The birds became my companions. I remember watching them, listening to their calls, convinced they somehow knew I was there. I laughed at the mischievous little ponies and the donkeys who always seemed to have their own personalities. Looking back now, I realise I was never alone.

I was surrounded by love. I just didn’t recognise it at the time. Children have an incredible way of finding what they need. Mine found horses. Looking back now, I don’t believe that those lonely moments happened to me. I believe they happened for me. Had I fitted in with everyone else, I probably would have spent my holidays chatting, playing games and trying to be part of the group.

Instead, life gently guided me somewhere else. To the horses. They became my teachers long before I realised, they were teaching me. They taught me how to observe instead of judge. How to listen instead of react. How to be present without needing to fill the silence. They taught me that connection has nothing to do with words and everything to do with authenticity. 

Today, as I stand beside horses guiding others through their own healing journeys, I often think back to that little girl sitting quietly in the stable. She had no idea she was being prepared. What once felt like rejection became direction. What once felt like loneliness became my greatest gift. The very wounds that made me question where I belonged became the reason, I can now help others find their way back to themselves.

That is why Soul Stride exists. For the woman who feels she doesn’t fit in. For the person who has spent their life trying to become someone they think the world will accept. For the mother watching her child quietly struggle and wishing she knew how to help. For the one who sits silently in a room because speaking feels too difficult. For the one who has lost pieces of themselves while trying to belong everywhere else.

I see you. I hear you. And I understand. Because once upon a time… I was you. The horses chose me long before I knew why.

Today, I simply honour what they began all those years ago by walking beside others as they begin their own journey home.

Whenever you are ready, let’s walk together. Let’s gently collect the fragments of your soul that you left behind. Let’s take your soul’s next stride.

With love, Nicole