Valentine Millecamps rescued Tonnerre not because she felt sorry for him but because she empathized with him. | Photo: Courtesy Anais Martin

How horse owners can use empathy to predict and interpret horses’ behaviors and respond appropriately

Valentine Millecamps doesn’t consider herself a hero. In rescuing a 37-year-old pony from a life of malnourishment and multiple untreated health conditions, the Belgian psychology grad student believes she only did what she had to.

“I’d spend hours with him in his field when I was growing up, feeling the peace he’d give me just by being there,” Millecamps recalls. “As he got old and sick, his owners couldn’t care for him anymore. It seems natural to me to take him on and invest in his well-being. It was the least I could do for someone who had given me so much.” 

Now 40, Tonnerre—whose name means “Thunder” in French—thunders across his pasture at a sound, energetic gallop. For Millecamps, this wasn’t about pity for the former pony ride mount who worked for decades in fairs across Belgium. She didn’t feel sorry for him, she says. She saw him, as a fellow sentient being whose ethological (behavioral) needs could be met but weren’t