22.09.2026 Journal Talk with Nadya

Journal Talks is your window to meet our inspiring community of makers and creators. Equestrian Nadya captures the true spirit of wandering, both within and beyond, that we hold dear. In a heartfelt conversation with Journal Talks, she reveals what freedom means to her and how it influences her life.

Nomad as a fragrance draws deep inspiration from lives closely connected to nature, a dance of exploration, a conscious choice to live differently.

Where are you in the world at the moment, and what does an
ordinary day look like right now?

I’m in London journaling at the moment, although “where I am” has never felt like a particularly permanent answer for me. I’ve always had a slightly restless relationship with geography. I like arriving somewhere new, but I also like the strange familiarity of leaving and coming back.

I grew up in Uzbekistan in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and freedom was something I understood very practically. Travel, for example, was not something I could even really imagine as a child. People didn’t simply get on a plane and go somewhere for a holiday. Visas were difficult to obtain, and most people didn’t have the money to travel for leisure. If you left the country, it was often because you were going somewhere to work and to make money.

The older I get, the more I think freedom is also about having enough space inside yourself to make your own decisions. To change your mind. To disappoint someone and not have to explain every choice you make.

An ordinary day for me is actually quite unordinary. I might start the morning with Pilates or training, spend the day working on something creative, have lunch with a friend, go to an exhibition, and somehow end up at dinner somewhere I never intended to go. I like days that leave room for
something unexpected.

I think that is part of being a nomad too. It isn’t necessarily about constantly moving. It’s about remaining open to movement.

Do inner and outer freedom manifest differently?

Outer freedom is easy to recognise. Physical and financial freedom, for example. It is a plane ticket, an open road, being somewhere where nobody knows you, waking up and deciding to go somewhere else. 

Inner freedom is much harder.

It is being able to make a decision without constantly asking yourself how it will look to somebody else. It is not needing permission to change your mind, to disappoint people, or to begin again. And I think changing your mind is actually a very important part of freedom. We are constantly told to be consistent, to know what we want, to have a plan. But sometimes freedom is admitting that what you wanted yesterday isn’t what you want today.

You can travel to every corner of the world and still carry a very
small cage around with you.

I think that is the difference. You can have complete physical freedom and still be living according to somebody else’s expectations. And you can be in a difficult or confined situation and still have a very strong sense of yourself.

For me, the two kinds of freedom are connected, but inner freedom takes much more work.

As a lover of horses, what does a horse understand about freedom that people might not, and what have the horses in your life taught you?

I could talk about horses forever. They are angels on earth, some of the most beautiful, powerful and intelligent beings, and I admire them enormously. 

A horse doesn’t intellectualise freedom. It knows it physically.

A horse knows the difference between being controlled and being trusted. You cannot really force a horse to trust you. You have to earn it. And once you have that trust, there is something incredibly powerful about moving together without having to dominate one another.

The greatest thing horses have taught me is how to connect without losing yourself. I find it hard sometimes in relationships, especially romantic relationships. 

When you ride well, you become almost an extension of one another. You are communicating constantly, often without consciously thinking about it. You have to be completely focused. And for me, that is quite extraordinary because my mind is usually somewhere else, thinking about the past, the future, every possible outcome of every possible situation.

On horseback, I am finally just there. I am completely present. It’s very hard to explain. The whole experience is a “feel.”Trainers often say, “get the feel” and “once you feel it, it will click”

But there is also this beautiful paradox: you have to be completely present while thinking ahead. If you’re approaching an obstacle, changing a stride or preparing to turn, you have to anticipate what is coming and communicate before you get there. You are in the moment, but you are also reading the next few steps. 

It requires incredible sensitivity and adaptability.

Horses are extremely sensitive animals, and I think that is one reason I connect with them so deeply. I am a very sensitive person myself. A horse immediately knows if you are nervous, distracted, impatient or trying to pretend you are something you’re not. 

You cannot fake anything with a horse. And I like that. There is something incredibly honest about being around an animal that responds only to what is actually happening; they have no interest in your performance. 

Nomad moves at the pace of roaming. Is there something about being on horseback, in open landscapes, that enhances this rhythm?

Absolutely.
There is a different quality to movement when you are riding. You become more aware of your surroundings, the ground, the wind, the animal beneath you, the distance between where you are and where you are going.

But I think what I love most is that you are not simply moving through a landscape; you are experiencing it through another living creature. You are communicating without language, constantly adjusting to one another.

It makes movement feel less like getting somewhere and more like being somewhere.

Nomad is a fragrance rooted closer to nature. What is your relationship to the natural world? Does it pull you outward, or ground you?

Nature has always been part of my life. I grew up on a farm, surrounded by animals. We didn’t have horses, but we had almost everything else. I think being around animals and nature gave me a kind of refuge as a child, and that connection has never really left me.

I have also spent much of my adult life in cities, which makes me appreciate nature even more. I can love the energy of a city, but nature does something completely different to me.

I love landscapes that make you feel small. Mountains, the sea, open fields, deserts. They remind you that your problems are not quite as important as they felt five minutes ago.

I also think our relationship with nature has become increasingly mediated. We experience places through photographs, screens and other people’s recommendations. There is something very different about actually smelling the earth after rain, feeling cold water, riding through a landscape, or standing somewhere with absolutely no signal.

Those are very physical experiences. They stay with you.

There’s a story within each of us that only we can tell. What’s the one you’d like to share here with our community?

I think I am still figuring that one out.

I’ve spent a lot of my life moving - between countries, cities, different versions of myself. For a long time, I thought freedom meant having no restrictions and being able to go wherever I wanted. And I still believe that matters enormously to me.

But I think I’m beginning to understand that freedom is also being able to change the story while you’re living it.

Maybe the most important story I can tell is not one particular event, but the fact that I have never been very good at staying exactly where I started. I am curious. I get restless. I change my mind. I leave, I return, I start again.

I don’t always know where I’m going next.

And perhaps I’m finally comfortable with that.