In the Company of Horses with Emelie Cajsdotter

When Emelie Cajsdotter was eleven years old, she stood outside the stall of a small, unmanageable pony no one could “handle.”  In a moment of shared presence, something shifted. The boundary between them softened. She did not disappear — but she was no longer alone inside herself.

That moment shaped a lifetime.

Over decades of living in close relationship with horses and other animal kin, that early encounter has opened into something quietly vast: a way of experiencing the world not organized around separation, edges, or isolated selves. Through life in the herd, Emelie has been shown a cosmological view shaped by continuity rather than division — one in which awareness is shared across a living field, and humans are only one expression within a larger intelligence.

In this conversation, Emelie shares stories that arise directly from that lived reality. Rather than offering explanations or frameworks, her stories loosen what we habitually hold tight — our sense of boundedness, linear time, and standing apart. They invite us to sense what life feels like when boundaries are porous, when belonging is inherent rather than earned, and when the world is encountered as responsive, relational, and whole.

In the Company of Horses opens a space to meet the world as the herd meets it — vast, participatory, and already alive with meaning.

Emelie Cajsdotter is an author, storyteller, and the founder of Friskeröd, a sanctuary she established in 1995. She lives on the farm with her family and approximately 160 animals, and has been responsible for the daily life and care of the sanctuary for nearly three decades, supported by volunteers and community sponsorship.

Trained as a homeopath, Emelie is best known for her storytelling—sharing what has been revealed to her through long, attentive relationship with horses and other animal kin. Through stories rather than theory, she conveys ways of understanding life, time, and belonging that arise from interspecies encounter and shared presence.

Emelie has worked and studied in Ireland, Jordan, and New Zealand, and for many years has offered courses at Friskeröd in which other species are understood as the teachers. She is the author of All the King’s Horses, Zander and the Time, and Song of the Grass, and has participated in Swedish television and podcast projects connected with the sanctuary.

To Learn more about Emelie and her work, visit The Friends of Mio website:  https://www.friendsofmio.com/en

Continue into The Listening Field

This webinar is part of a larger collective offering from the Organization of Nature Evolutionaries.  Visit the main Listening Field page to learn more about the full conversation series and how to engage with this ongoing exploration of listening and relationship with the living world.
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