Dan Bratman

I’ve been in love with horses all my life. I turned professional at 13 and knew exactly where my life was going. But as the years passed, life in the horse business got real. When I was a kid, horses were my shelter, my place to heal and be completely accepted. Horses showed me how to trust and be trusted, how to connect and love. But as the pressures grew, I found it harder to hold on to the reasons I started. I climbed the ladder of the Hunter/Jumper business and saw what people did to succeed. I saw what I did to succeed and it felt like a far cry from the kid who would kill to hang out all day in any stall with a horse in it. After some difficult reflection, I decided to retire. It’s the hardest decision I’ve made in my life. 

Secretly, I had always wanted to be a writer, so I thought I’d give it a go. After countless rejections, I eventually began getting my writing published. Soon, I parlayed my new skills into work as a Director of Content where I worked closely with CEOs to develop and execute media strategies. I really loved it. But began to see a familiar pattern–when faced with a choice between acquiring more power or elevating their values, people almost always chose to acquire more power. I had seen the same thing in the horse business. Now I saw it was not any particular industry–it was human behavior.

Meanwhile, the horses kept calling me. I really just missed how it felt to be around them. But I knew if I was going to work with horses again it would have to be different this time. It would be about sharing the profound wisdom and healing nature of horses. Like what they taught me when I was a kid.

So, I gathered all my life experience and skills–media, horses and my experience of people–and developed Anima Equine–a system of human and equine personal development. Anima Equine uses listening, meditation, breath work, groundwork, introspection and other modalities to help both horses and horse people heal, build trust, improve performance and deepen connection.