The Authority: Founder, Equine Union International | Nervous System Regulation for Executives & High-Responsibility Teams | Building Sustainable, Evidence-Based Equine Programming
From the Diary of Dena G. Garfield
Dena G. Garfield is redefining what it means to lead at the highest levels of business. As the founder of Equine Union International, she operates at the intersection of nervous system science, leadership performance, and equine partnership. Her work challenges conventional ideas of success, emphasizing that true clarity, resilience, and decision-making begin with internal regulation. By guiding executives and high-responsibility teams through immersive, evidence-based experiences, Garfield is helping reshape modern leadership into something more sustainable, relational, and human. Her philosophy is simple yet transformative: before strategy and execution, leaders must first learn how to feel safe, present, and grounded in their own bodies.
Rethinking Leadership Performance
In the high-pressure world of executive leadership, success is often associated with strategy, productivity, and relentless performance. Dena G. Garfield believes the foundation lies elsewhere.
Before strategy, before productivity, and before scale, she contends that leaders must first feel safe enough in their own bodies to think clearly.
This principle, which she describes simply as “regulation first, then aligned action,” has become the foundation of her work with executives and organizations seeking sustainable leadership performance.
As the founder of Equine Union International, Garfield works at an unusual intersection of leadership development, nervous system science, and equine partnership. Her programs bring executives, wellness professionals, and organizations into environments where horses play a role in developing awareness, presence, and relational leadership skills.
For Garfield, the insight did not originate in a boardroom. It began in the pasture.
Forest Acres and Early Lessons
Dena’s story begins on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in Jamestown, New York, on a 100-acre farm her parents named Forest Acres. For Dena, horses were never a mere hobby; they were a heritage passed down through generations of equestrians on her mother’s side.
Her childhood was a blend of rugged exploration, building forts and picking wild berries and the disciplined study of equine science. By the age of eight, she was already immersed in the world of horse shows and judging, literally sketching her future with horses onto any surface in sight
While the traditional academic path beckoned, Dena followed her intuition to Kentucky, graduating from the Kentucky Equine Institute. Her time presenting retired champions at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Hall of Champions solidified a vital lesson: the pasture offers insights into human behavior and leadership that no classroom can replicate.
A Recollection from Dena
Another powerful influence in my life was my grandmother. She lived alone in a small apartment filled with 1970s color and character. A plush mushroom ottoman, green velour couch, bell bottoms, pointed collars, imitation gold chains, clip earrings, and platform boots. She embodied elegance in her own era.
An executive secretary, my grandma wore crisp blouses beneath sharp blazers, each adorned with a carefully chosen brooch. She was proud of her work. She advised me to ‘get a good job’ like hers, offered to type my resume on her typewriter, and introduced me to the idea that professionalism was something a woman could wear with pride.
As a child covered in mud from the farm, I also spent weekends modeling her clothes in front of her full-length mirror. From her, I learned that femininity and ambition are not opposites. You can be soft-spoken and strategic. Stylish and serious. Grounded and aspirational.
Today, when I walk into a barn in heels with a laptop in hand, I often think of her. The farm shaped my grit. She shaped my polish.
My leadership philosophy lives at the intersection of both.
I merge boardroom clarity with pasture wisdom. The dirt taught me resilience. My grandmother taught me graceful presence.
”I learned early that strength and elegance do not have to be opposites—and I have built my life proving they belong in the same room.”
Facing “Spinach” and Finding Mastery
Every leader encounters a moment of paralyzing doubt, and for Dena, that moment involved a John Deere tractor named “Spinach”.
Working her first job at a 4-H leader’s farm for $8 an hour, she found herself terrified—not only of operating the controls gently enough, but of getting stuck in the muddy field. One of her responsibilities was scooping manure from the stalls into the tractor bucket and driving it out to the designated dumping field. After mounting with purpose and dismounting with doubt numerous times, she eventually left the tractor inside for someone else to deal with. Full disclosure: she did not come back the next day, or even call with a made-up reason.
When she returned two days later, her boss said nothing—carrying on as if it had never happened. The silence stayed with her for days until she finally asked to be taught how to drive the tractor properly. Her boss patiently walked her through the controls. Soon she was confidently making her way down the path to the dumping field—no spills, no getting stuck, no problems. Looking back, she often wonders why she had been so afraid, having grown up around four-wheelers, golf carts, and other tractors.
What that experience taught her was simple but lasting:
True mastery—even if it is mastery of dumping manure from a tractor—comes from facing fear with humility and curiosity, not avoidance.
The moment became an early leadership lesson. Asking for guidance is not weakness; it is often the gateway to growth. It is a principle she still shares with executives today as they navigate their own muddy fields of professional pressure.
Dena’s ascent was also shaped by her refusal to wait for traditional validation. For years she worried that the absence of a formal college degree might limit her influence. Eventually she recognized that traditional pathways—climbing the ladder and waiting for permission—were too limiting.
By focusing on outcomes rather than credentials, she founded Equine Union International LLC in 2017, proving that, as she often says, “ambition and wisdom come from challenges faced in life, not from a classroom.”
For the next generation of professionals entering this field, Dena’s message is direct: stop waiting for permission. Don’t ask if you are allowed to solve a problem. See a gap, and fill it. See a problem for someone and solve it. In the equine and wellness space specifically, there is a tendency to defer to experts or traditional methods — even when they are not working, or when they are unethical. Dena chose a different path. Not because it was easier, but because integrity demanded it.”Ambition and wisdom come from challenges faced in life, not from a classroom,” she reflects. “Build your credibility through outcomes. Show your work. Document your results. And don’t wait for an institution to validate you before you start leading.”
Regulated, Relational, and Rewarded
Through Equine Union International, Dena has pioneered evidence-based equine programming that serves as a bridge between somatic science and corporate performance. Her work addresses a critical gap: while many view horses as metaphors, Dena utilizes them as biological partners that help regulate human nervous systems and reduce.
Her impact spans a diverse ecosystem:
- Executives and High-Responsibility Teams: Helping them achieve measurable ROI through nervous system regulation and burnout prevention.
- Wellness Professionals: Providing frameworks to integrate horses into therapeutic and coaching practices.
- Therapeutic Centers and Rescues: Developing sustainable business models that prove the value of horses beyond mere donations.
Dena often challenges the common struggle of “imposter syndrome” with a perspective shift she shares with her clients: “It’s not imposter syndrome. It’s under-recognized syndrome. My community just hasn’t seen the fully expressed version of me yet”. This mantra anchors her mission to help leaders step fully into their potential and be rewarded—financially, professionally, and personally—for the unique value they bring.
Vision for the Future: The Arena of Legacy
Today, Dena continues to lead from Forest Acres, the same property where she grew up, as well as multiple horse facilities across the country, as the operational hubs for her pilot initiatives and retreats. With future plans for immersions in in Chicago, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico, her vision remains steadfast: to foster a new generation of leaders who are “regulated, relational, and rewarded”. She encourages emerging professionals to stop waiting for permission and to build credibility through documented results and integrity.
For Dena, leadership is not defined by a title or the terrain one occupies. “It is about who you are when you step into the arena”. By merging the resilience of the field with the grace of heels and a dress, she is helping the modern executive find the calm required to lead with clarity and lasting impact
Editorial Note:
Dena G. Garfield’s work highlights a growing recognition that effective leadership begins with internal regulation. By integrating ethical equine partnership with leadership development, she offers executives a different lens through which to understand presence, resilience, and relational awareness.
Through Equine Union International, Garfield continues to explore how environments outside traditional corporate spaces can provide powerful insights into human performance, decision-making, and leadership under pressure. For Dena, leadership has never been separate from service. Every event she produces gives back — with proceeds going to vetted horse rescues.
