Equine Assisted Psychotherapy~ In the beginning~

Patches and I ontop of  8 Mile Mesa - Pagosa Springs Colorado April 2005

It was in 2005  when I found out there is an international program where people were using horses as feedback, professionally, to help other people grow and learn about themselves!  I love it!  All these years, as my horses were plainly telling me, very clearly, about who I was being, I was learning a craft, a new business! 
Now, for me, it wasn't always easy to know just what they wanted me to know, but it was easy for me to see what my friends horses wanted them to know, so I started asking Jeanne, what she saw my horse telling me!  It was great!  or not, but it was what was going on right then and there.  Honestly it wasn't until years later that I actually appreciated this feedback and started to be able to see what my own horses were telling me. 
Maybe I was helping a  horse with some worry load in a trailer or stop running over it's owner, I could have someone elses horse on the end of my rope and get the feedback easily, but my own horses were much harder for me.  I'm sure its because it was personal for me with my own horses.  Other horses didn't know me and I didn't know them. I was there to help and they seemed to know it.  They were easy, and the results I found were consistent, they taught me to be able to use my own mirrors at home. 

I have been a student of Parelli Natural Horsemanship since 1996.  I was in my first clinic with Pat Parelli himself, and I learned so much about horses in that weekend, that when Pat said, just follow my program through the foundation program, then go out and do what ever you want with horses, you will have a solid foundation built on principals to see you through all the rest of your horse days.  So I did.  And in 2005, I got to fulfill on the dream of going to Horsemans' Heaven the International Study Center of Parelli Natural Horsemanship in Pagosa Springs Colorado for the entire year!  Patches of course is the horse that took me to Parelli University and got me here today.  She is quite the girl.  Full of opinions, beautiful in every way.  2005 was the fulfillment of my Parelli Journey.  Pat said, now, after your level 3 you have a license to learn.  So, once again I listened and I went on to study with Aimee Brimhall McCord.

Aimee listened to the horses like no one I had ever imagined.  Aimee brought my awareness around horses to a new level, to the level of being, without thinking about it, just feeling.  And shortly after I found Aimee, I found play.  Play with horses!  Fun, artistry, dancing, connection all with a childlike wonder.  This is where things started to get really good!  The answer always became yes!  All I needed to do was figure out the question, that was the fun part!  Horses became a game of interaction for me, a source of lightness, light on my line, light on the earth and light in my life, and I found MOST horses have a wonderful sense of humor!  They offer all matter of antics.  This is when my herd evolved into a friendly, fun close knit herd, this is also when Valentine came into my life. ....

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! This blog is being created as an outlet for me to share the things that my students/teachers are teaching me on this journey through equine assisted growth and learning. This journey truly began for me in the last century - the early 1990's. So, what happened is I finally bought a farm and my very own horse, exactly the kind everyone told me I should get an 8 year old gelding quarter horse. He was lovely and kind to my children, and everyone else, but right from the very beginning, he seemed on a mission to teach me something. I guess it all started with the fact that I bought him at a horse auction in downtown Tabernacle, destined for slaughter, but I didn't know anything about horse slaughter at the time, I only knew I didn't have the courage to live my lifelong dream of horseownership, so my husband (at the time) bought us a bottle of Jack Daniels and we got drunk and bought a horse, paid someone to trailer it home for us, and so it was done. I was surprised at how noisy he was, whinneying all the time. Of course now, I think he was likely calling for some friends. He's the epitomy of "herd". He's 28 now and lives with 7 mares including 1 miniature pony Mya (who LOVES him) and Jacquie our Angelic miniauture donkey. Who am I kidding, all the girls love him. He taught me about feeding horses, who knew they couldn't eat grass? Chronic colic taught me how to pay attention to EVERYTHING! Founder made me use all of the things I knew about creating health naturally in people, in my horses. I'm a Certified Natural Health Professional, and up until my handsome Sorrel horse forced me to listen to my instincts, I relied on the professionals who knew everything about horses including showing them who's boss (there was no doubt, he was! I couldn't even pretend, there was no point.)

So then, a couple of years later, I had another brilliant idea, I needed another horse! One without so much baggage. So, once again my husband (at the time) -no we didn't get drunk- thought we should buy a baby horse! and there we were visiting with the prettiest little tri-colored paint philly I had ever seen. While I was kafetching about how we should not buy a baby horse, (green on green makes black and blue!) he was paying the man. My little clean slate was named Patches of Winter because she was mostly brown with some white patches and a black mane, tail and 4 black legs. Any undesirable trait she has developed I know how it got there. In hind sight I realize I put it there, but at the time, I was just trying to live through the experience of daily life with this athletic full of life fast little horse!

The thing that I noticed right away was how no matter what, she was not jumping all over Sorrel, like she was jumping all over me!.. I needed some of what he has, horse sense, leadership, clarity, boundaries, she loved him completely and immediately. I thought he was being mean to her, but clearly he knew what he was doing, I was the one putting on my helmet, just to walk her from place to place. Then I started to put Sorrel between Miss Patches and I wherever we went, that was great! She would not jump on him and he would keep her perfectly in place. This is where I knew I needed to figure out what he had that I wanted.