No prior experience with horses? No problem! This workshop is suitable for novices as well as experts.

Facilitator: Diane Kennedy

Dates: Sunday, May 18, or Saturday, June 14, 2008

8:30 AM-5 PM
Cost: $125 per person. Limit 12.
Nonrefundable reservation fee: $50

For more information, email Diane Kennedy at wildmustangdk@peoplepc.com or call 720-940-8873.

To sign up, use this registration form.

I, for one, am glad to see a little moisture around here. We seem to have missed the April showers and there’s a lot of static electricity. I don’t much like getting a shock when my human intends to caress me.

I celebrated the day with my share of a Granny Smith apple. Sweet and tart and the same time. Like me.

Mandy, the Morgan mare who dotes on me (who doesn’t?) and shares my pen, got some of the apple, too. She’s OK. We always keep an eye on one another.

Spring and summer programs for Equine Insights are starting. I’ve been checking out the herd, making sure that everyone is ready to teach and understands the rules. I’m the leader, you know, and I take my role seriously.

More later about how we work and play with kids, teens and adults.

Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center, Red Feather Lakes, CO

Through the powerful and magical presence of horses and the practice of sitting meditation, we will connect deeply with the true essence of our own windhorse, or the living energy we all possess and long to express fully in the world. No experience with horses is necessary.

Jackie, a somatic psychotherapist and senior clinician with Windhorse Community Services, has used horses in her practice since 2001. She’s also an adjunct member of the Naropa University faculty. 

To register, call 888-788-7221 or visit www.shambhalamountain.org/programs/826.

SHADOW, the five-year-old gelding, met Fred, a new trainer who will get him started under saddle. Diane had saddled him several times before and had even been on his back, but when a new person comes into the picture, everything changes. It’s like hitting the reset button on a pinball machine!

Even though he has a mustang’s natural fear of predators, he’s adjusting to the idea that having a foreign object on his back is not a reason to panic.

Actually, I thought Shadow did really well. Of course, Fred took time to introduce himself and let Shadow get used to him. He reviewed what Shadow had already learned—like picking up his feet—before he started something new. Took breaks at just the right times. Then ended on a good note. Applause all around.

MONTANA, age six, was next. In preparation for saddling, he’s walked and trotted in the round pen wearing a purple pony-size bareback pad. It’s so small that it looks a little silly on him, but don’t tell him I said that. He had the saddle on for the first time on October 12.

He did really well with it on until he backed into the round pen panel and scared himself half to death. [Snicker!]

Work with horse personalities—including one or two who may remind you of a colleague or yourself! Gain new insights into leadership, assertiveness and working with difficult people. The horses help us discover and focus on shared goals and concerns.