Horse Journey

As many of you may know, I’ve been working on becoming a certified CanTRA riding instructor. I signed up this spring and have been working towards the requirements of the CanTRA Therapeutic Riding Association while teaching at Arion Therapeutic Farm. Last weekend I participated in a CanTRA workshop held at Arion Farm. It was a long day, filled with many teaching concepts. Becoming a CanTRA instructor involves many rigorous steps and taking the workshop is one of them. Since I’m already working at Arion Farm teaching children and adults, I’m looking forward to finishing the process of certification very soon.

On Sep 17th and 18th, I attended a workshop called “Way of the Horse”, held at Generation Farms in Nanaimo, B.C. This beautiful farm is on Vancouver Island, and including the 2 hour ferry ride, it’s about 7 hours travel time from my home. However, this captivating workshop was definitely worth the travel!

I had been corresponding with Deborah Marshall, the workshop facilitator since spring of this year. Actually, to be accurate I had contacted Deborah even before then, almost 2 years ago to the month. I had the intention to make it to her workshop but had things come up. When I finally realized my goal to participate this year, I was ecstatic!

The workshop is based on the Epona approach, which was founded by Linda Kohanov. This workshop was both educational and experiential. We started in a workshop room to get to know each other, but then moved outside to play with the horses. I will never forget the music that was played for us, with lively sounds of horses whinnying and running. We explored our emotions and feelings, our intentions for being at the workshop. We got to share and learn from each other, and also how to interpret the horses’, and our own feelings. We met the horses, and allowed magic to happen. The horses welcomed us and seemed to speak to us in different ways. Each horse had a message, if we listened closely we could find out what these were.

In a roundpen exercise, we learned to stand with the horses, allow them to come to us, or not if they chose not to engage. I remember feeling touched by the horses intuitive ways. There were two horses I definitely had a deep “aha!” experience with. It was special and yet difficult to put into words what I experienced. Throughout the workshop, I felt very supported and engaged by Deborah, and her daughter Emily who co-facilitated the workshop.

The end of the two day workshop came all too quickly. We had a great ending session for closure, including a reflection and goal setting.
I can’t wait to use all of what I learned with my own horses and clients!

Picture (left) below is of Deborah’s daughter Emily on horse Morgana, next to Deborah and me. Picture on the right is of Deborah and Emily during the closing exercise. For further information, you can visit Deborah’s website at  www.generationfarms.ca

Hey there friends, if you get the Saddle Up Magazine, my two page article titled  ”Meeting Buck Brannaman” was published in this months (Sep 2011) issue, pages 36 & 37!  As well, my poem “Horses and Hearts” was also published in the same issue, page 40. If you haven’t got this month’s issue, go grab it before next months issue comes out. Saddle Up Magazine can also be read online here http://www.saddleup.ca/

Picture below was taken at Buck’s clinic in Montana, Aug 2011. Some of the participants were taking a break with a horse, while overlooking the scenic hills at Staley Ranch. Truly an amazing place to be!

We had another wonderful horse camping adventure in Larch Hills, Salmon Arm area. In August we packed up the horse trailer and truck and headed out to ride the endless trails of the cross country ski area called Larch Hills. The paddocks have doubled in numbers, now there are eight. The horses felt immediately at home as they munched on bits of grass growing in the paddocks.

We stayed three days, riding every day, a total of seven hours. Although it was still hot in the valley, Larch Hills sits at a higher altitude and thus the days are not too hot for riding. The evenings cooled off and we were glad we rented the cabin for the night. We fired up the woodstove and made our bed right beside it. Listening to the crackling of the fire, with a cup of hot chocolate in hand we talked about how good our horses were on the ride.

On the last day, Pauline who lives on site joined us for a ride. She led the way with her little mule, whom our horses seemed to like. We got to experience really cool trails which we would not otherwise have found. Mossy trees, soft trails, and beautiful wild flowers greeted us on the trail. We were glad that we didn’t encounter any bears, as Pauline told us she has seen a few!

We were sad when we had to leave at the end, but vowed we would be back again next year. Wonderful pictures taken on the trail with gorgeous views will serve as happy momentos until then!