Although I have been blessed to work with horses since I was 10, and to have been a certified coach for Pony Club as a teen, it has only been in the past 15-16 years that I feel I have been really LEARNING about horses. It started with an introduction to Natural Horsemanship through Monty Roberts’ methods. And grew from there. And different “difficult” horses that have entered my life have ensured that I continued my learning to the point where I began to both “hear” and “listen to” the horses. We have 13 beautiful horses at Hidden Brook Farm. Most are Appaloosas which is our breed of choice for their wonderful personalities. But we do have 2 paints and a Thoroughbred thrown into the mix. After we experienced most of what we could in the field of natural horsemanship, we decided to take things further with energy work, animal communication, emotional intelligence – and eventually even healing work with the horses. Yes, the horses heal us! It turns out horses LOVE to heal people, can walk between the worlds and have an amazing capacity to help us understand them, ourselves and the world. Our work in this field is constantly evolving as we listen to the horses and continue learning.
We work with body language, animal communication, energy, psychology, emotional congruence and understanding, bonding with horses, essential oils and the horses themselves to teach our students in riding lessons and clinics create deeper bonds and understanding between horses and humans – and this work has even led us to understand that horses are tremendous healers, particularly when we can pair the work they do with Reiki. Our lessons are offered mostly on-site as are the clinics. But some of the clinics have been designed to travel in an attempt to spread this work even further (please check out the “clinics and classes” page if you are interested in hosting a clinic). This work seems to lead to wonderful things for both the horses and the humans involved.
Recently, we began working with children and adults on the autism spectrum and everyone involved, horses, volunteers, instructor and students are enjoying the experience immensely. We’re noticing amazing results for our students. Actually, astounding might even be a better word.