They say that everyone will know someone, love someone, or be someone who struggles with an addiction at some point in their lives. This is an important conversation that isn’t talked about enough.
This week on the Equestrian Voices podcast, host Caroline Culbertson (@caroline.culbertson) is joined by Elyse Hart, a 31-year-old dressage whose addiction to alcohol and drugs nearly killed her - multiple times. Now, five years sober, she has delved deeper than ever into her riding and horses in order to help maintain her sobriety. Elyse opens up and tells the harrowing story of the darkest years of her life and the perspective she has gained - and how that makes her the woman, mother, and rider that she is today.
Caroline and Elyse also discuss:
- Giving yourself grace as you make progress (and how progress is never linear - in horses or in life)
- Show ring anxiety and fear, and how to contextualize it
- How the horses helped ground her after the most out-of-control times in her life, and why that’s a lesson she’ll always come back to.