Seeing my reflection mirrored in the horse

My journey to Authenticity was born from my struggle and failures as a horse trainer. As part of my job I had the opportunity to train young horses and work with wild and difficult horses. These were often horses that everyone had given up on and they were extremely challenging and dangerous to work with. Some of my struggles and failures included me being bucked off multiple times, being kicked, dragged, and run over, breaking both my arms, fracturing my neck and ribs, having scars on different parts of my body from hitting the ground at speed, having many cases of severe rope burn and bruises that wouldn’t heal for months, just to name a few.

What I started to realise was that all of my accidents occurred when I was disconnected from myself and when I wasn’t listening to what the horses were trying to tell me about myself. To put it simply, the pain of the experiences forced me to look at myself in a brutally honest way. As I examined the events that preceded my accidents, I noticed that the horses were trying to point out that I needed to change, but I was so invested in my own ego and being right that I didn’t want to see it.

Eventually I started to realise that it’s not about the horse! The horse was simply acting as a messenger of my own intuition. The experiences severely challenged many of my core beliefs and habits and made me painfully aware of just how much unresolved emotional baggage I had sitting below the surface.

Although it was painful, I made a commitment to honestly look at myself and examine my beliefs and the experiences of my past that led me to adopt these beliefs. This was the turning point for me in my life as I became fascinated with studying human behaviour, psychology and personal growth. Instead of avoiding my struggles, I started to turn them into opportunities to learn about myself.

This approach radically transformed my life and the way I viewed and worked with horses. I started to see that many of my students, who I was teaching, were experiencing the same struggles with their horses and these struggles definitely represented significant changes that needed to take place in their own lives.

The way I responded to horses became a reflection of how I responded in life. The horse would simply mirror my non-verbal communication and energy at any given moment. My primary emphasis became working with people and horses on a mental and emotional level instead of just a mechanical and physical level.

It took courage for me to be vulnerable in situations where I would normally react out of fear and defensiveness. But what I discovered was that when I had the courage to be vulnerable and trust my inner wisdom, miraculous transformations would take place with the horse that previously seemed impossible.

This courageous act of vulnerability wasn’t about conquering the horse or false bravado, in fact it was the opposite of that. It was about letting go of your fears, being vulnerable and having a deep empathy and connection to what the horse was going through. It was about engaging in an act of emotional courage. When I acted from this place of emotional courage magical things happened with horses and I realised that when I lived from this place magical things happened in my life!

Helping people develop their own emotional courage is the core focus of the personal development workshops, I do with horses. When you actively practice emotional courage, you reconnect with your inner power and authenticity, you begin to follow your inner compass. Once this inner compass of authenticity has been awakened, it will always be there for you to reconnect to. It will be there for you as the inner guiding light that shows you the way as you face life’s challenges.

Come and join me and my horses at my next Journey To Authenticity workshop and learn to identify what emotional courage means to you. How to practice it regularly and integrate it into your daily life, so you can feel more connected to your inner power, wisdom and authenticity. 

My next workshop is coming up on the 24th & 25th February 18. Early Bird price is running out this Saturday 10/02/18. ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT. Book today click here….

I’m looking forward to meeting you in person and sharing two transformative days with you.