• Deck Title: Unbridled Spirit Tarot
• Author: Tina Tack Anderson. Artist: Dianita
• Publisher: Llewellyn, 2025
• Recommended retail price: GBP £36.00
• ISBN: 978-073877-1663
• Review: Jennifer
  

Upon opening the beautifully printed mock leather stitched and embossed looking box (which is sturdy with a hinged magnetic lid) the first thing you find is a tarot card stand that holds one card beautifully, in Llewellyn blue with their crescent moon logo printed on it.  This was a lovely surprise as I’ve never known a deck to come with one, and it’s perfect for that daily card draw too!  There’s also a card depicting the author and artist which tells you a little about them along with their website information; again, I’ve not seen this before and it’s a nice little personal touch. 

This deck was created for  ‘Celebrating  the  Ancient,  Spiritual  Partnership  between  Horses  and  Humanity’, and features the gorgeous artwork by Dianita, who used oil painting to create the stunning imagery on these cards, alongside the profound insights by Tina Tack Anderson―both of whom have changed their lives through horsemanship – their collaboration has produced this most beautiful yet powerful deck.

The Unbridled Spirit tarot deck is based on the Rider-Waite-Smith style, and the guidebook helps you to connect what you know of the RWS to the images on each of these card.  Each card is shown in the guidebook as a full page colour image, alongside text for upright meanings/‘Unbridled Spirit of the Message’, reversed meanings/‘With blinders on’, and a Connection Exercise to help you identify more with each card, and these offer some great practical advice too.  The guidebook offers some horse themed tarot spreads, too!

The cards themselves are textured and nice to hold and shuffle well, they are rather bendy though but forgiving.  As for the artwork, swoon… it’s gorgeous.  Every horse looks different and is depicted in its own unique setting alongside their human.  The only image that doesn’t sit right with me as it’s so unnatural for a horse, is the Fool card, with the horse and rider jumping off a high diving board into a giant pool of water below.  I understand the leap of faith, but really!  Especially when the other cards show the grace, beauty, faithfulness and spirit of the horses that have shaped our lives, myths and legends for centuries. 

When reading with these cards they give good clear answers even if you are not a horse lover at heart they are a beautiful tarot deck to use.  The powerful depiction of the horse in each image brings a whole other level of information into play, and if you know horses you will notice the nuances of the equine spirit coming through to enhance your tarot readings.  Not understanding horses well is not a problem though, as horses touch your soul, they speak to you silently with their body language, sometimes subtly, at other times you just need to duck!  You can learn a lot just by studying them from afar too.  Horse power is not just about strength, it’s their presence overall that is their power, be it silent or loud.  Their characters and engagement with the humans in the images speak volumes and bring to life their history through evolution, magic and majesty; the Wheel card depicts that evolutionary transition beautifully, from horse drawn carriage to the motor car. 

Whatever your relationship with horses, this is a powerful and stunning deck which can help you engage with the tarot further with the presence and support of these gentle and gracious creatures we call the horse.

If you wish to know more about the creators of the Unbridled Spirit Tarot collaboration, you can find out more about Dianita here: www.artbydianita.com and Tina here: https://truearrowtarot.com/