Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence isn’t a term for being calm or good with people. It’s simply the ability to notice what’s going on inside you, make sense of it, and respond in a way that doesn’t hurt you or anyone else. It’s about understanding your emotions instead of being ruled by them, and learning that every feeling has something to say if you give it space.

Most of us were never really taught this. We were told to calm down, to stop crying, to get on with it. But that’s where we lose connection with ourselves. Emotional intelligence isn’t about controlling feelings, it’s about recognising them, naming them, and realising they’re not wrong. Anger, sadness, worry, guilt, they all have a purpose. They’re messages, not mistakes.

At Wild Mane, this comes before anything else. Before confidence, before social skills, before re-engagement with school or work. If someone doesn’t feel safe in themselves, nothing else will stick. That’s why we build emotional intelligence first, through real experiences, through movement, through the ponies, through being outdoors where things feel less trapped and more real.

We don’t sit people down and ask how they feel. We work, we move, we do. It comes out naturally when they’re ready. Sometimes that’s through words, sometimes it’s not.

Emotional intelligence isn’t something we teach, it’s something people start to notice in themselves again. It’s what helps a child navigate friendships more easily again, helps a teenager handle what life throws at them, and helps an adult stop blaming themselves.

It’s not about fixing people, it’s about creating the right space for them to understand themselves, and that’s where everything else starts to grow.