TOUCHING WILD with Bonny Mealand
PATH 2
Applied
Ethology Mentorship
Mentored pathway
Case-based support
for complex situations
This pathway is for you if you’re working with a horse who has challenged everything you thought you knew.
If you’ve tried hard, sought help and still find yourself asking, “What am I missing?”, and you’re looking for a practical way forward that helps you uncover what your horse needs.
“Clear, grounded, and deeply
compassionate - science with soul.”
Welcome
Grounded in science • Held with care
Touching Wild Academy exists because horses make more sense when we learn to see the world through their eyes.
And sometimes, learning in a group is not enough.
If you’re already navigating a specific, complex situation -
where behaviour, welfare concerns, emotions and responsibility intersect -
if you feel pressure to appear certain while privately holding doubt,
or if you’ve found that generic advice no longer helps and may even be unhelpful - you’re not imagining it and you don’t have to hold it alone.
The Applied Ethology Mentorship offers a slower, steadier way to think clearly in complex, real situations, staying close to the horse’s experience while supporting you to act with proportion, confidence and integrity.
What this mentored pathway is for
This mentored pathway is for people already navigating a specific, complex situation - where behaviour, welfare concerns, emotions, and real-world constraints intersect, and where generic advice no longer helps.
Often this includes professionals or guardians who carry responsibility and feel pressure to appear certain, even when privately unsure.
The mentorship offers dedicated, case-based support alongside the shared learning foundations of Ethology: The Horse in Context. Through one-to-one reflection and small-group discussion, we focus on understanding what is influencing the horse, what matters most in the situation and what options are available and helpful.
Decisions are shaped through careful consideration not urgency.
This pathway does not replace veterinary care, provide training prescriptions, or promise outcomes. It supports clear thinking, confident advocacy, and ethical decision-making in complex, real situations.
What this course supports you to do
Better Questions
Ask better questions before
deciding what to do
This is not about acquiring techniques or answers. It’s about developing clarity,
proportion, and confidence in how you interpret what you see.
“I’m far more confident now in advocating for
my horses and thinking things through with care.”
What it’s like to be inside this pathway
PACE & RHYTHM
Alongside participants in Ethology: The Horse in Context, you work through the same core educational material with a small group of fellow mentees. This shared learning creates a common language and reference point.
The mentored pathway adds depth, space for case-based discussion and two one-to-one mentorship sessions to explore your specific situation more closely.
The pace follows the needs of the case, sometimes slow and careful, sometimes surprisingly straightforward once the picture becomes clearer. Sessions are structured but responsive; there is no expectation to arrive with tidy thoughts or ready answers.
“Never rushed, always guided
by the horse’s wellbeing.”
HOW LEARNING HAPPENS
Learning happens through working with real situations in real time, or through retrospective cases you wish you’d been able to support differently.
Together, we explore what you’re seeing, what you’re unsure about and what feels difficult to hold alone, not to rush toward solutions, but to clarify what is actually influencing the horse.
Insight often arrives as relief: less mental noise, fewer competing opinions and a clearer sense of what is reasonable and proportionate to do next.
“Knowing others are thinking just as
carefully has been a quiet relief.”
PRACTISING OBSERVATION & INTERPRETATION
Alongside presentations and discussion, learning is grounded in structured observation practice.
You’ll work with video footage and case material, including wild, free-living, conservation-grazing, zoo-kept, and domestic horses, using guided prompts and shared frameworks to practise noticing, describing and interpreting what you see.
These Field Labs are not tests or assessments. They are shared spaces for slowing perception, exploring multiple interpretations, and learning how to stay close to the horse’s experience without rushing to conclusions.
Through watching, reflecting, and discussing together,
patterns begin to emerge, not because someone tells you
what’s happening, but because you learn how to see more
clearly for yourself.
“Bonny’s attention to detail - noticing subtle shifts and
adapting in response - was a masterclass in observation.”
EVIDENCE, PRACTICE & PERSPECTIVE
The mentored pathway is grounded in contemporary behavioural science, welfare science and ethology, translated carefully, without jargon and without dilution, so that evidence strengthens understanding rather than being used to justify predetermined views.
This work is shaped by long-term observation and practical experience with horses across a wide range of contexts, including wild and free-living populations, minimally handled equids, zoological collections, conservation-grazing herds and domestic horses experiencing distress or labelled as “difficult”.
That practical and experiential grounding is complemented by postgraduate study in equine science, bringing formal scientific rigour, critical appraisal of research and ongoing engagement with current evidence into the work.
This is not static knowledge, but a living body of understanding that evolves alongside the field.
“Working with Bonny significantly changed how we
think about managing our herd of Przewalski’s horses.”
LEARNING ALONGSIDE OTHERS
This is a small, carefully held learning space shaped by shared care for horses and a willingness to think together.
Mentees come from a range of backgrounds and levels of experience, and learn alongside one another without hierarchy, each bringing perspectives that add depth, nuance and insight into complex situations.
Participation is always by choice. Quiet attention is valued as much as speaking, and listening is recognised as a skill in its own right. Discussions are thoughtful, contained and held with care; this is not a space for fixing, advising, or offering unsolicited solutions.
For many, the relief comes from not having to hold complexity alone.
“Professional and deeply humane,
without ever feeling sterile or prescriptive."
GUIDANCE & FACILITATION
Guidance in this mentored pathway is active but non-directive.
I help hold the threads of complexity, reflect back what I’m hearing and ask questions that bring the situation into clearer focus.
Feedback is offered plainly and kindly.
Alongside rigour, there is ease, clarity grows best when curiosity and flexibility are preserved.
We take horses seriously, and the responsibility they place in us.
We take ourselves lightly enough to keep learning.
“It’s impossible not to feel inspired when
learning alongside someone so deeply
committed to improving the lives of equines."
Testimonials
Frequently Asked Questions
Mentoring...
Beyond this Course
The Applied Ethology Mentorship is also the primary pathway into working with me directly.
Across the year, I run a small number of in-person, practical workshops working with unhandled or horses described as “problem” horses, situations where safety, welfare and ethical responsibility are especially important.
To protect the horses involved, the people working with them and the quality of the learning space, attendance at these workshops requires prior shared work.
This means participants will have either worked with me previously or completed the Applied Ethology Mentorship beforehand.
This is not about exclusivity or status. It’s about ensuring we arrive with a shared language, a shared way of thinking and a shared commitment to slowing down, observing carefully, and taking the horse’s experience seriously.
Through the mentorship, we’ve already learned how to explore questions together and hold complexity with care, even when working virtually. That shared foundation allows the in-person work to be safe, meaningful and truly horse-centred from the first moment we step into the field.
If working with horses in this way calls to you, the mentorship is the place to begin.
Is this the right fit?
This mentorship may not be the right fit if:
You’re looking for training techniques or behaviour “fixes”
You want prescriptive answers or guaranteed outcomes
You prefer fast solutions over careful interpretation
You’re not open to questioning assumptions, including your own
This is not about doing more with horses.
It’s about seeing more clearly, so that what you do
next is grounded, proportionate, and compassionate.
If that way of learning resonates, you’re welcome here.
Apply for the mentored pathway
Plus - Ethology: The Horse in Context
6 weeks · live teaching · shared learning
4 months’ access to recordings and resources
INCLUDES:
• Everything in Ethology: The Horse in Context
• Two one-to-one mentorship sessions
• Access to a small, carefully held peer group
Pricing has been set with care, to honour the time, attention and responsibility involved in holding complex work, while keeping the learning as accessible as possible.
Standard Rate
£595
Full course + mentorship as specified above
Pay-It-Forward Rate
£695
Towards a Supported place (See below)
Installment Plan
£175*
*then £70 per week for 6 weeks
Supported places
Where Pay-It-Forward contributions allow, a limited number of supported (reduced-fee) places may be offered per cohort to make the learning accessible to those who feel drawn to the work but are currently experiencing financial constraints.
To be considered, you’re invited to complete a short application sharing a little about yourself and how you hope to use this opportunity in service of horses.
Both standard and supported places receive the same learning, time, and attention.
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