Greetings friends!

In honour of the symbolic meaning of Easter I would like to invite you on a brief journey down the horse trail less travelled, the amazing and, dare I say “miraculous” journey of equine assisted personal development - EAPD.

I’m very blessed because I enjoy the good fortune of being able to work with thousands of people all over the world, in my own unique way facilitating their ability to become their better selves by becoming more enlightened and evolved horse trainers. It is very rewarding.

I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that when I’m able to play a more direct role in facilitating people who are searching for more depth, understanding and meaning in their lives, to be able to find it within themselves to relax, “lighten up”, and fall in love with life and living again, through the experience of learning horse sense, then the circle of healing and growth in my own personal life feels reciprocal, balanced and complete.

What is the essence of EAPD? Well, here is a short quote from my first book, Horses Don’t Lie:

“What horses need to hear from us is what many of us would like to hear from ourselves, and each other. They need us to have a calm, focused assurance. They need us to be consistent. They need us to be assertive yet non-threatening. They need us to be both strong and compassionate. In short, horses need us to be our best selves.”

WHY HORSES?

Although it is easily understandable why people are so attracted to the power, beauty and grace of horses, the question remains, “what has horsemanship got to do with healing, self awareness and personal development”?

When we look at a horse, we see the flesh and blood incarnation of powerful forces bottled up within us that we wish we had the guts to saddle and ride. We know those forces could take us to our dreams and turn us into our best selves. We also know those forces could destroy us. That’s why we bottled them up in the first place. And when such hidden feelings are stirred up and explored within the paradigm of horse sense, that’s when we have the chance to work with them, and learn to control them. Horses give us this opportunity. They do this whether we are aware of it or not. But what a powerful breakthrough process to be able work with consciously!

Participants in an EAPD workshop begin experiencing with ground work training how to communicate with horses using only their body language. This process has proven to be a very powerful introduction to the theme of how developing horse sense relates to human potential. All people from various backgrounds consistently experience an incredible “ah hah” moment when they realize that “they did not know what they did not know” about how their personal body language truly affects, for better or worse, their environment and their relationships.

While the work with the horses is fun for people, exciting, and very heartwarming and emotionally gratifying, the EAPD transfer to human potential begins immediately and most often intuitively in all participants as early as the first day of training. This happens because all participants indirectly discover and realize for themselves - instead of a workshop facilitator, counselor or therapist directly telling them - that the horses have shown them that “they know not what they do” with their body language. Because participants become aware of this realization on their own while having fun with horses – instead of feeling guarded and defensive while sitting in a “self help” workshop, or a corporate team building and communications retreat, or even more challenging to the soul, being in a clinical therapeutic session with a mental health worker who is analyzing them - the participants are far more open and willing to allow the process of self discovery, healing and growth together with the horses to truly begin in earnest.

As participants typically can very quickly develop moment to moment conscious awareness for their body language then “MIRACLES” happen and the horses “magically” change their behavior from bad to good, from distracted to focused, from excited to calm, from defiant to willing and/or from frightened to confident. In short, every participant in every EAPD experience, with 100% consistency, always realizes and OWNS for themselves that “as they became more aware of and accountable for their own behavior that they were able to lead and change their relationship with the horse for the better.

In other words, EAPD is “walking the talk” of Gandhi’s great quote: “be the change you want to see in the world.”

Psychologists tell us that while humans speak with each other in words we are all truly and actually communicating with body language. In fact, psychologists estimate that the only authentic communication between people is essentially at least 80% body language. This “fact” hits home with clarity and congruency for people participating in EAPD because they know for themselves, from firsthand experience with the horses, that “talk is cheap and actions speak louder then words.”

The EAPD work with horses is a new paradigm experience for developing our ability to be congruent between our hearts intentions, our minds agenda and our body language communication skills.

During EAPD a heightened sense of conscious awareness for relationships develops within every participant as they realize that their abilities for communicating with horses is NOT limited to the horses but in fact is a very real dynamic that exists in all of their relationships. First and foremost these epiphanies develop a new awareness and focus for the SELF. As cliché as it sounds – participants in EAPD find that the horses have shown them what it takes to find a balance within ourselves that is manifesting or walking the talk of laying our inner lion down with our inner lamb.

This is an enormous realization for all participants in EAPD as they experience with the horses the validation that YES THEY CAN evolve and grow into a greater awareness for mentoring a model of win-win relationships. Yes we can let our “old self” that is out of balance “die away” so that a new Phoenix of personal growth and enlightenment can indeed “rise from the ashes” in a new life, with new beginnings and infinite possibilities.

With horses there is available to us a road less traveled – a path of horse sense that leads to being born again.