Thursday, September 26, 2013

3rd Annual Equine Gestalt Coaching Method Summit 2013


This event was held on September 20, 21, 22 in spite of the fact that Boulder County, including Lil Bit North Ranch - home of the Touched By a Horse program - had suffered through a flood of “Biblical proportions” just one week earlier.  Access roads into Boulder County were just beginning to open up, but every one managed to make it in and the event was a HUGE success.  Melisa Pearce and her staff did a superb job and the program ran smoothly and efficiently.

For me, introducing our new anthology, Touched Buy a Horse; Equine Coaching Stories, Edited by Melisa Pearce, was an incredible highlight. As assistant editor, I am fantastically proud of this book which includes stories and poetry by 21 different authors. The theme was to describe what equine gestalt coaching looks like, how it has affected us personally, and what our healing herds of horses are offering as our loyal partners in this venture. This book is going to make a BIG difference in helping people understand what we have to offer in the expanding genre of personal coaching! Trust me, you are going to want to read this book!

Our keynote speaker was Larry Freeborg, a pioneer in the development of equine-guided groups such as EGEA (Equine Guided Education Association) and EAHAE (European Association for Horse Assisted Education) and has followed the development of the Horse Assisted industry for the last decade. I was lucky enough to catch his talk every day; he is highly intelligent, thorough in his history of this fast growing business, and spoke on planning and business development topics for professional coaches that were important to everyone.

Other Speakers included: Kimberly Beer, professional photographer, graphic designer and Platinum Solution Provider for Constant Contact.  Melanie Mulhall, an award winning author, writing coach and served as primary editor on our new anthology. James Fitzpatrick III, CPA, had the dubious honor of speaking to us about financial planning first thing after lunch on Saturday. He rose to the occasion and gave a wonderful presentation. And on our final Sunday, Mark Guynn, of Guynn Training Center, gave a riding demonstration of Melisa’s three year old Gypsy Vanner horse, Rua Prionsa’s ("Pri") debut under saddle. It was a beautiful thing to watch!

 
 
 

Thursday, September 12, 2013

You can stop Dancing NOW ~ the Rains have Come !!



I attempt to sit here at my computer and work, but I, like many residences of front range counties in Colorado, am in a state of heightened alert. This morning I fed all of my critters, trying to find a decent place to drop hay as my north pasture has turned into two lakes, Lake Louise and Lake Annette.
Still in my muck boots and raingear, I decided to gas up my pick-up truck. After making an emergency run to Black Forest one evening to pick a hopeful nurse mare for an orphaned foal,  my truck was still on empty. Not much use if I were to need it quickly. Plugging in the electric to my horse trailer I notice that I don’t have head lights on the truck.  Humm, when did that happen?  Is it because of the rain?

Back at home I walked the perimeter of my little house and check my roof drains.  We have had approximately 5 to 6 inches of rain in the last two days and I need this water to move as far away from my foundation as possible. They are calling for four to six more inches of rain in the next two days.  Everything is looking good. When I came inside and pulled off my boots  I popped down to the basement to make sure it was still dry (it is) and to hit the “Rain Delay” button for my lawn sprinkler system.  Certainly not going to need that for a while.
I sat in silence for a minute and said a prayer for all of us. I imagined sunny days and how wonderful the next cutting of grass hay was going to be. I “see” my barn full of sweet smelling hay = green gold.

I am supposed to have lunch in Boulder with my old study group and our teacher who is in town from Namaste Retreat Center in Wisconsin. At this point in the early morning, I doubt if that is going to happen but I decide to take a quick shower and be ready for whatever happens next.  My radio beeps again … the National Weather Service alert is saying to stay away from Boulder ~ schools and businesses are closed, roads are flooding, at least one bridge has washed away, and they are evacuating residential areas around Boulder Creek. Well, at least my hair looks nice!!
I just came in from feeding a lunch snack. I pulled out a couple of flakes of good grass hay and careful put it in metal tubs that I had dumped the rain water out of.  It is disheartening to watch my horses reach in and flick it out with their noses where it will land on the mud and poo muck ~ they will probably not eat it now.  Really? I work hard to secure good feed for you guys and this is how you treat it? They look at me innocently and I wish that I could bring them all into my house and we could read books, sip tea and eat crackers and cheese.

They say, “Don’t worry about it, we are fine. It is all gonna be okay. “
I let their confidence seep into my bones and I know they are right.