We stood on top of the hill in the center of a field of grass and surveyed the beginning of a dream come true. A place to heal, to have my heart horses, and go back to teaching in a safe and sacred space. If I squinted my eyes, I could see the shimmering images of a barn and arena in the valley, a house on the hill where we stood, and horses all around us. I hoped Dale could see it too. We were both looking forward to living in the country again after many years residing in a very small town. We were both stressed, he from his work and me from a divorce, teenage children, and running an in-home childcare business.
I’d always known that my horses healed me during my emotionally awful teenage years. They’d absorbed my tears when my marriage fell apart. Since I left home at 18, I had to board away from home. It was always a trek to seek out their comforting presence. I wanted to be able to offer those feelings of grace and comfort to others. Even though they may have had no idea that the horse’s energy was calming them, soothing them, and lifting away their stress.
There was a lot to do, and we could do a lot of the work ourselves. After the pole barn was built, we found used stalls and created four cozy stalls for our two horses. I knew the other two would be filled soon. Poor Dale, he didn’t know what he was getting into. The real work came when we cussed and sweated digging fence post holes in the hard, gravelly ground. There’s nothing like hard physical work to ease tension in the body and mind! Every work night, we fell into bed in our new Swiss-style home. It was deeply satisfying to see our day-by-day progress. It took about two years to get the place ready for clients to start coming for horsemanship lessons. We found a couple of Haflingers who would fit the bill for children to ride and be loved upon. We worked every weekend and on days off until we were set to open our doors.
There is a deep feeling of pride in imagining, planning, and creating with your bare hands a place of peace, healing, and learning. Over the next few years, we evolved, re-envisioned, reconfigured, and reworked our plans to include mental and emotional health as well as the children we served. We worked through our own struggles so we could be open to others who were working through their own. The fields are now full of healing horses and people who are dedicated to assisting others on their journey to wholeness.
For more on how we became this place of safety, peace, growth, and healing, Pre-Order That Zen Farm Where Horses Heal Humans.
Your journey is your own in your own way and time.
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