I have numerous stories of clients who have worked with our horses and embarked on a journey of transformation, including my own. Any healing journey is never a straight shot, but it’s crucial to begin somewhere, most notably with an examination of your core beliefs and the stories you have been reassuring yourself with for years. The same stories that have consistently rendered the possible as impossible in your mind. Once you comprehend the stories that are holding you back, you can start to unlock the energy of self-love and compassion. You will begin to tap into the flow of manifestation and initiate the telling of your new story. The path may not be smooth but it’s important to remember that as you heal you will begin to create a new vision for yourself, one narrated from a place of empowerment and joy. Your only job will be to revisit the vision daily. Write about your vision, speak about your vision, color your vision, and the vision will gradually feed your new belief system with possibility.
Why horses? Horses are magnificent creatures that have the remarkable ability to reconnect us with our emotions. They are absolute radar detectors of the emotions and old memories we hold in our bodies. Through the process of releasing the energy associated with these core beliefs and stories, we become liberated and empowered to create the life we desire. Horses have the ability to move us from our head into our heart. This is the gift of horses and the ECGM method, pioneered by Melisa Pearce, a psychotherapist and the creator of the Equine Gestalt Method.
One of my most cherished stories is about a 43-year-old nurse who had forgotten how to dream. She had lost her way by giving to the many patients and families but she forgot to give to herself. One day, back in 2003, her husband had asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she blurted out “riding lessons,” and wouldn’t you know, there happened to be a broken down barn down the street where they lived in the Pacific NW. As she sat with the owner, signing up for lessons, the woman looked at her and said, ‘This is just the beginning.’ Indeed, it was. After a year of lessons, the nurse asked her husband for her own horse. Her lovely husband said “that’s great but I am not paying for it.” Undeterred, she embarked on a journey to reclaim her childhood self—the dreamer and the artist. Over the next two years, she immersed herself in all things related to her dream horse. She wrote about him, painted pictures of him, took lessons with him, and worked extra shifts as a home health nurse on weekends to save up for him. After every patient she saw, she would put her nursing bag back in her trunk and tell herself that it was just one more week. One more week until she could get her dream horse. While the weeks turned into years, finally, in December 2007, her horse arrived from a distant place, and all her hard work and dreams came to fruition.
On that dreary winter day she heard his whinny from the barn like an old friend who had finally returned home. Her horse took her to places that she had never been before, and that tiny seed or spark of “I can do it” became real again. Her horse became her medicine, for it was with him that she could let go of the stresses of her job, of the constant giving and her intolerable work environment. She would leave work exhausted with a headache and as soon as she drove down the road at the barn, she would roll down her window and whinny loudly. Like clock work he would whinny back, just like the first day they had met. He became her remedy, her oxygen and sparked her creativity. That nurse is me, and the horse is Yanni. He rescued me from a dark place, guiding me back to the work of the heart, to my purpose—the work of Art, Soul, and Horse. Through him, I found my way back to the dreamer I once was as a child, manifesting my dreams through creativity and my love for horses.
I share this final story because I understand that many of you harbor grand dreams, ones that may have seemed unattainable. I’m here to encourage you to begin today, to give back to yourself in whatever way feels right. It’s time to start penning your new narrative, setting a fresh course and forging a new path in this world. The world is a big place and in need of your gifts. You need to breathe, create time and space, and start taking care of yourself fully in mind, body and spirit. With that work, I guarantee that you will start to hear the voice of your heart and this will be the path back to joy. I am not telling you to abandon your current situation today- rather I am telling you to find something to hold onto, perhaps a new practice to grasp a hold of. It all starts with reconnecting with that beautiful soul that you are and following the path of joy back to your heart.