A little about who I am and how I got here
Apr 05, 2019From a very young age horses have been my escape. Beginning at the age of eleven my grandmother would drop me off after school at a small boarding stable a few miles from her home. It was there that I met a wonderful barn manager/trainer who saw this great passion that I had for horses and so allowed me to clean stalls in exchange for lessons. Knowing that the passion was not going to go away, for my 12th birthday I was blessed with my first horse. I spent the next few glorious summers with my close circle of barn friends, going on trail rides, competing in horse shows, falling out of trees, and learning the hard way what happens when you eat too many strawberries from the field next to the barn!
Growing up my family assured me that the only way to keep horses in my life was to “go to college, graduate and then get a real job that pays well”. This, I was told, would allow me to the luxury to being able to afford to keep a horse as a hobby. So off to college I went.. I tried that route…a couple of times but in the back of my mind I was never convinced that this was my path in life. In fact the more I lingered in school the more uninspired I became. I decided to give massage therapy a try and enjoyed learning about the anatomy and the inner workings of the human body but that didn’t stick either. It took a bad auto accident at age 21, a subsequent 6 month recovery period and an ultimate insurance payout to allow me the time and the means to pursue my true passion – horse training. Once I was on my feet again I enrolled in and completed the John and Josh Lyons horse training certification program in Colorado. What an incredible experience it was and such a pleasure working with these two masters of horsemanship. Upon completing the course and now with training credibility I was set out to begin training horses full time.
I spent the next few years building my business at various barns in the bay area and gained invaluable experience working with many types of horses and horse owners. My career evolved and my main focus went to starting horses and helping “problem horses”.
In 2008, I accepted a position with San Jose Police department and spent the next several years working with the officers and horses of the SJ Mounted unit. It was an amazing opportunity and with lots of new challenges and experiences. While at the SJPD, I was introduced to a new style of therapy known as EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association) which uses horses to assist patients in their therapy work as well as team building. I was very impressed with the results that I witnessed and so decided to complete the EAGALA Certification program. The training I received from the program opened many doors for me and allowed me to do both equine assisted learning, corporate team building and facilitation of therapy sessions with my Phycologist partner working with troubled foster kids, and their families.
What I learned most from the EAGALA program was recognizing how in tune horses are with peoples energy and emotional state. This observation led me to dig deeper into how to get greater results with horses that their owners couldn’t duplicate … It was clearly more than just technical training exercises that I needed to be able to teach.
It was during this training I learned how in tune and synchronized horses are with energy and emotional state of humans. This led me to dig deeper into how I could get results with my training horses that their owners couldn’t duplicate. It became very clear to me that I needed to teach more than just technical aspects of training exercises. The real shift I found occurred when incorporating mental training.
With this new perspective, I set out to find a better way to communicate with and support my clients. I explored various coaching programs and decided on the Anthony Robbins-Madnes program. After becoming certified as a coach I continue to attend events hosted through the Tony Robbins program. One of the most memorable events involved walking across hot coals. After conquering my fear and completing the walk, the power of mindset and energy became crystal clear. On the final day of this event a master on Pranic Energy work spoke. His presentation was so inspiring and I resonated with everything he was teaching. Knowing that this was too important not to incorporate into my training sessions, I decided to pursue further training in this modality as well. After all, knowing how highly sensitive to energy so I felt I should be more aware of how to shift that as well.
I recently reconnected with a friend and former client. We got to chatting about and she introduced to a new form of energy work called Theta, and it really resonated my soul!! After a few sessions I was hooked and decided to complete my through a certification for that as well!
So now here I am now ... a horse trainer with a whole new bag of tricks. My mission is to share all that I’ve learned with as many people as I can possibly reach during my lifetime! I always thought my calling was to help horses with their ‘people’ problems. I now realize my true calling is to connect and support people that have lost site of their life purpose and sense of self. Nothing lights my soul up more than showing people how empowered they can be!!! I believe that striving to achieve true alignment allows the horse/human connection to grow exponentially!
Can’t wait to meet every single one of you!!