About Sumaya

I'm Sumaya Abuhaidar and I'm the human coach on the Equine Insights team. Lucky me! There's no other way I'd rather spend my time or my professional life.  I've spent much of the last 20 years immersing myself in the language and wisdom of horses and training to coach humans in partnership with the herd.  The work never ceases to amaze and delight me.

While I've felt the call of horses since I was a small child, I haven't always been lucky enough to make equine coaching my full time work.  I started my career earning a Ph.D. in Education and Political Theory and co-founding an innovative school in Boulder, CO.  I've also been a mayor, a college professor, and a life coach, all while doing my true life's work: being a wife to my wonderful husband of 25 years and pouring my heart and soul into raising our two boys.

Although my education and my professional life were rich and varied, The most profound chapter of my education began in early 2020 when I sustained a head injury and then contracted Covid in the earliest days of the pandemic. The combination of these two challenges led to a nervous system collapse and many years of extreme personal challenge as I navigated chronic fatique, chronic pain, IBS, insomnia, and extreme brain fog.   

My recovery finally began in 2022 when I found my way to mind-body medicine and nervous system work. The last two years have been a deep dive into understanding my nervous systems and gaining the tools to slowly make my way back to health.

The journey has added immensely to my equine coaching toolkit. I'm intimately familiar with the approaches and tools that have been instrumental to nervous system health: polyvagal theory, breathwork, mindful movement, meditation, interoception techniques, and emotional fluidity. I'm also intimately familiar with the personal work required to get to the root of chronic pain and chronic physical symptoms and syndromes.  I share these lenses and tools in a wider container of spiritual awakening that is the most critical component of recovery and overall health. 

The combination of my horses' gifts and my understanding in a deeply spiritual container is a powerful one that I truly love sharing.