The large roan gelding stands frozen, eyes cautious and unblinking. I sit to his left and behind, the belly of the long lead rope on the ground, giving the two of us space. The cold of the arena creeps into my back, and I breathe in and stretch my body down, asking the tight muscles […]
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Buddy freezes, his generously sized ears straining towards the line of Canadian geese, strut-waddling just outside the back arena fence; the scary side, with tiny fox prints in the screenings each morning. It doesn’t matter that we’ve had Canadian geese at the ranch the whole time we’ve been here. It doesn’t matter that he sees […]
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Deetz, our alpha gelding, met me at the paddock gate, eager to come out. Between the cold of January and the crazy amount of rain we’ve been getting, grass is scarce, and mud abundant. He was humming with desire to find something green and growing, so we threaded our way behind the covered arena to […]
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The large mare braced her neck in response to a gentle lift of the right rein; the softness of a moment ago evaporating, as she readied for a fight I never intended to pick. Underneath the bareback pad, her muscles clenched and breathing froze. The mare I had just been riding seemed to vanish, replaced […]
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Five women faced each other around the circle. I gave myself a chance to breathe, wondering if I could do this, if the work I’d been doing out with my horses would translate to others. I’d opened up space to do an afternoon workshop, just for a few hours, and now it was time to […]
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Starting points frame a conversation, and it took me a long time to realize one of my most basic starting points revolves around drama. Not over-the-top drama, as I was never comfortable with that, but drama, nonetheless. We’re drawn to drama. It’s a human thing. We can’t help it. Its siren song calls us, and […]
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Allow me to go on a tangent… As both a life coach, and someone who had experienced profound healing in the context of relationship with horses, I wanted to share this with others. Figuring that it might be good to get some specific training here, I read everything I could get my hands on […]
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I want to put some context around this time in my life, as I was learning to listen to horses. When I stepped out my back door each morning and walked to the paddock, Willow’s honest feedback revealed broken places in me that I’d never recognized. Not the kind of broken that a change of […]
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I slid the black rope halter onto Willow’s head, and felt her breathing shallow. Her eyes hardened, and the corner of her lips tightened. Not overt signs, but I’d been watching her for months, and this felt like a yell. I slid the halter off again, and turned away, not sure where to go from […]
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I knew there was something important for me to learn here, and didn’t have anyone to teach me, so I turned to Willow. That new starting point, the one that said she was exactly where she needs to be, and isn’t wrong for being there; the one where it’s okay for her to BE, was […]
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