BY ELIZABETH UPCHURCH
Spend enough time at any barn, and you’ll start to notice a pattern. The riders who are drawn to horses aren’t casual about it. They are all in. They care deeply, feel deeply, and often seem to carry a level of responsibility and emotional awareness that goes beyond their years.
There’s actually a term researchers use to describe this: supernurturers.
In the study “They Ease Your Mind: Horses as Co-Agents in Supernurturers’ Self-Care,” researcher Laura Sanchez explores young riders in the hunter/jumper world who demonstrate an unusually strong drive to care for animals, not just in action, but emotionally and ethically. The participants, girls and young women ages 10 to 23, were developing a way of relating to horses that emphasized empathy, responsibility, and connection.
More Than Just a Stereotype
The phrase “horse girl” is often used as shorthand, sometimes affectionately and sometimes dismissively. But what this research makes clear is that many of those riders share a distinct way of engaging with the world.
Supernurturers, as defined in the study, are individuals who are highly committed to caring for animals and deeply invested in their well-being, both in time and emotional energy. At the barn, it appears in the way riders think about their horses, interpret their behavior, and prioritize their needs.
From a young age, the riders in the study described a strong sense of duty toward their horses’ physical and emotional well-being. As they grew older, that responsibility expanded into a more complex understanding of partnership, one that included not just care, but communication, trust, and mutual awareness.
A Relationship That Feels Reciprocal
One of the most compelling findings in the study is that these riders do not view horses as passive recipients of care. Instead, they consistently describe horses as active participants in the relationship.
Many of the riders spoke about their horses as if they were capable of recognizing and responding to human emotion. A younger participant explained, “If I cry, he puts his head around me and hugs me and nuzzles me,” while another noted, “It seems they care for you as well as we care for them.”
Older riders articulated this idea in more complex terms, describing horses as sensitive to their emotional states and responsive to them. One participant reflected, “They are really sensitive to my emotions. They have taught me to be sensitive to their emotions.”
The study does not claim that horses are objectively empathetic in a measurable, clinical sense. Instead, it focuses on perceived horse empathy, the belief among riders that their horses understand and respond to their feelings. That perception, whether scientifically provable or not, plays a powerful role in shaping how these riders understand both their horses and themselves.
Learning to Listen
Within this framework, riding becomes an exercise in awareness. The riders in the study frequently described their relationships with horses as built on attention and responsiveness. They talked about recognizing subtle cues, adjusting their behavior, and developing a sense of connection that went beyond verbal communication.
This aligns with broader equestrian culture, where riders often describe the goal not as control, but as harmony. The research reinforces that idea by showing how deeply these riders value the feeling of being “in sync” with their horses. In this sense, horses are not just teaching riders how to perform tasks but how to observe, interpret, and respond.
Shaping Identity Beyond the Barn
What makes the concept of supernurturers especially significant is how these experiences extend beyond riding. The study found that many participants connected their relationships with horses to broader aspects of their identity. They described becoming more self-aware, more responsible, and more intentional in how they approached both relationships and goals.
Some riders traced their career aspirations directly to their time with horses, whether that meant pursuing veterinary medicine, teaching, or helping professions outside the equine industry. Others described a more general sense that their experiences at the barn had shaped who they were as people.
As one participant put it, “I feel I am who I am because of my horses.”
The Power and Challenge of Feeling Deeply
Of course, being highly empathetic is not always easy, especially in a sport that can be competitive and emotionally demanding.
The same riders who are deeply attuned to their horses are often equally sensitive to their own performance, their mistakes, and the expectations placed on them. While the study focuses more on the benefits of these relationships, it also highlights the intensity with which these riders experience their environments.
What it shows clearly, however, is that this sensitivity can become a source of strength. Through their relationships with horses, participants described developing not only empathy for others, but also a growing capacity for self-empathy. In other words, the care they extended to their horses began to shape how they treated themselves.
Much of the existing research on human–animal interaction focuses on empathy directed outward. This study suggests that, for these riders, the relationship also turns inward.
Their strength lies in their willingness to pay attention, to care deeply, and to engage fully with both the challenges and rewards of working with horses. They do not separate emotion from performance. Instead, they use it to inform how they ride, how they relate, and how they grow.
The study ultimately suggests that recognizing horses as sentient, responsive beings is tied to a broader sense of respect for animals, life, and relationships.
Source
Sanchez, L. (2025). “They ease your mind:” Horses as co-agents in supernurturers’ self-care. Anthrozoös, 38(1), 75–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2024.2425177
