It’s time to get out and smell the flowers, horseback of course! Trailering travel with your horse is a blast. To be prepared for a successful travel trip horse trailering consider the 5 following tips for the well-being of everyone involved. Reader Susie M. checked in with Horse2Heart about her upcoming 18 hour trip to the Northwest. This is what we discussed.

FYI-In an emergency soda pop can help a dehydrated horse if you hand feed it to them.

Italy’s “Best of Both Worlds” Taste of Italy Horse Ride is being offered by our Horse Travel Specialist Active Travel. Go call your trainer and friends and take off for Tuscany together. Fill out the Equestrian Travel Interest Form and we will get you more information and photos. Andiamo! (let’s go!)

This Editor has ridden in this area of Tuscany and must say it is an all time favorite. The Italians really have perfected the art of riding, relaxing and cooking.

Highlights of the Taste of Italy program include:

This horseracing story depicts the true spirit and willpower of Charismatic a racehorse when he participated in the  Triple Crown series. The story is geared up with true emotion between the horse and his rider…

A True Champion| A Special Triple Crown Horseracing Story about Charismatic

By: Noreen Evans

This was the moment. He was sure that no other horse felt the same way he did. Nervous excitement charged through him like an electric shock. He could feel his Jockey Balancing tensely upon his back. He could hear the other horses snorting, their Jockeys whispering encouraging words to their mounts. Breathing in deeply he could smell the sweat that was surfacing upon the other horses shoulders and flanks as well as his own. The smell of the Jockeys’ boot polish also filled his nostrils and he exhaled to rid himself of the unpleasant odor. In the work of a few seconds he noticed these things while the crowd became silent.

Angel Named Legend by Francine Acord |Inspirational Horse Story |

In the late summer of 1998, my beautiful, vivacious, bouncy 12-year old daughter became sluggish and was slowing down. She was pale and lethargic. Her tan had faded, and it seemed her spirit had too. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but she wasn’t right. Within a couple weeks she began to complain about chest pains. The pains were so sharp she could not sleep during the day, or at night. Within six weeks, she was in a wheel chair. Two months later, after many tests and nowhere else to turn, she was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, a very painful, debilitating disease. While relieved we had a “name” for the disease; I was in shock and disbelief. It was not a life-threatening disease at this point, but it was certainly life altering. How could this happen? I wondered what had I done to deserve this, or even more so, what had she done to deserve this incredible pain and agony at such a tender age?

A simply delightful horseback ride turned to personal terror until a still mysterious angel descends.

Scary Angel Horse Story Edge of Terror by Rose Foreman

It was a beautiful day, and perfect for a ride on my big horse, ‘Beau Lyncho’. He was huge, with great personality, and we both just needed to get away for awhile. It was about 6 PM and we didn’t have too much time, so we had to make the best of it, so we would walk down into the creek, to just enjoy the water.
We had walked about 1/2 mile in the stream, and it was time to get out of the water. There appeared to be only one place to climb up onto the bank. It looked like we could climb up that bank easily, because there was not too steep, so we started to climb.

Eadweard Muybridge, often said the inventor of motion films, is honored by Google with this video on his birthday. Using the horse to study seaming film together he portrayed the act of locomotion. You can read more on his many changes of identity, and love of California at this link to Eadweard Muybridge on Wiki.

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Mental Health professionals are amazed at the results of an experiential therapy bringing powerful and immediate effects. It is so subtle, that only those involved can truly interrupt the results. Yet the experience will be remembered forever.
In this case the Mental Health pros are simply guides and the true healers are not human. Metaphors for life’s lessons are strangely and accurately delivered by the species known as Equus or the Horse.
Imagine you arrive for your health appointment and as you stand next to your practitioner in walks a heard of horses. They are there with a message for you. Would you be scared, happy or try to hide? No matter what, you would be concentrating on that exact moment.
“It was the most successful method I had ever found” said Lynn Thomas, a mental health professional and the founder/ executive director of EAGALA an Equine Assisted Growth And Learning model of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP). “I found that people can often find the best solutions for themselves when it comes to mental health. With the EAGALA approach of letting the horses be themselves around people on the ground, it helps people to be able to discover themselves. The horses never fail to bring results.”

Not a horse woman herself, Lynn was so thrilled the program always worked, she was moved to tell the world. Creating her own modality in 1998, she developed a curriculum to mesh the Equine Specialists (Professional Horsemen) and Mental Health professionals into a working team. Extensive training and strict adherence to the EAGALA modalities are mandatory by both to achieve accreditation in the worldwide program.
The process of the method depends on directed metaphors. Connections and team work between individuals in life is a learned skill and horses have worked out the naturally correct method of achieving results. When people mix with horses natural human personalities are shown. In working with the horses using games and props to create outcomes based on trial and error, we learn to connect with flexibility to shift focus and work towards solutions through adaptation.
Scary? Yes it’s scary to people that don’t know horses. The horse never fails to give the appropriate personal understanding every time. It is the unity with the horse that heals. Each participant must process the experience as it plays out in their life.
Styles of workshops and individual practitioners specialize in the different needs and uses of the therapy. Special programs for corporate teams, at risk youth, families, 12 step programs, veterans, personal and spiritual growth or energy are available.
EAGALA is publishing it’s 7th edition training manual this year with translations in both Spanish and German. Their membership currently stands at 3500 caring souls worldwide.

In this inspiring video they ask if you have what it takes to be an Equestrian. You will find yourself in the saddle of memory taking the ride with them. 

EAGALA Speaker Profile: Mindfullness Practice, Amanda Graham, MS, LPC, has been working as the Program Supervisor and a clinician for a nonprofit, community mental health agency since her move to Colorado in 2002. Amanda has practiced Mindfulness meditation for many years and developed and teaches a meditation class at The Center for Mental Health serving Colorado.  She incorporates mindfulness practice into her EAGALA work to increase awareness and acceptance, and develop genuine curiosity about what is unfolding in the arena. And it is a ‘practice’, in that “we have to go back to it over and over again”.  A lifelong learner, Amanda considers it a privilege to work with other EAGALA professionals who are engaged in further growth and learning for themselves.

Go get yourself a brand new Mustang. You will never be the same after the joy of working with America’s Horse. Have fun, get paid.

Here is the EAGALA Las Vegas Conference Schedule of Presenters and Topics.

This is an educational and networking event for those interested or working in the fields of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Equine Assisted Learning. Breakout sessions offer extensive information from professionals involved in the fields of this experiential form of therapy. They are going to give you information it took them years of work to acquire. Some of these sessions are approved for continuing education.

Horses show the way

Horses can teach us alot about ourselves if you pay attention. Equine assisted learning can show us the way to resolving many issues in humanity. We have only to follow the horses, watch what they do and then learn from it. Over the next week I will be putting up my observations as I look into the functions of Equine Assisted Learning. Follow me into the corral, meet the horses and people they serve. Look with me into the depth of emotions we both struggle and embrace in life. No doubt we will all see ourselves there, smiling back at each others reflections.

Hi Folks it’s Herb here. I am going to be reporting with Horse2Heart on all the doings in Las Vegas during the EAGALA conferance in March 2012. There will be alot of laughing, crying and neighing (in the casino too) as we learn more about the field of Equine Assisted Therapy work. Used in corporate team building and mental health fields, this concept is being embraced worldwide. I’ll go live during the event (what happens in Vegas won’t stay in Vegas this time) but up until then, read more here and go get healthy by being with a horse.

Would you like to better understand your Horse?
Hi, I’m Lisa and I can help you do that.
On March 15 & 16 I will be available in the San Juan Capistrano, Calif. area to work with you and your horses.
Does your horse display questionable wellness or behavior issues?
Equine Energetic Healing work can help you identify, understand and enhance your horse’s total wellbeing physically and mentally.
How does it work? This hands on method of rehabilitation starts relief immediately. It is similar to Equine Reiki. Animals can’t release themselves of emotional or physical blocks without help. Humans can do this and help them.
About me: I have worked in the Equine rehabilitation field for 40 years. Working in my own facility, horses came to me from all disciplines for rehabilitation. I have studied and worked with some of the world’s top healers, DVMs and Animal Communicators while developing my practice of this work.
My purpose is to help horses and their people. Equine Energetic Healing work is so amazing I wish to make it available to all so I offer a sliding pay scale. My current clinic (min.5 people) rate is $35 per initial session with extended or follow up work for $30 as time permits. Private healing appointments are $65. Please feel free to pay what you are comfortable with for an initial session.
It would be my pleasure to help you with your horse. You can reach me by cell or email. Other dates are available during that week for private contract.
949-933-0551 Lisa Rodriguez Clement Email- HoodRiverEquestrian@gmail.com

This just in to Horse2Heart from the Mustang Heritage Foundation;
Byron Hogan and Bobby Kerr to Perform at Road to the Horse
Visit the Mustang Heritage Foundation booth March 9-11 at Road to the Horse.

Road to the Horse begins tomorrow in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and the Mustang Heritage Foundation will be on site with a booth and two Mustang trainers will be performing during the event.

Road to the Horse creator Tootie Bland attended the 2011 Supreme Extreme Mustang Makeover, where finalists Byron Hogan and Bobby Kerr caught her attention.