I am so excited to share this new path that I'm on with everyone, but first I’d like to give you some of the details of my journey that lead me to this point. I was born.... wait no, that's too far back. When I was in high school I taught swimming lessons. I quickly found that I loved teaching and that I excelled at it. I could see the missing pieces for my students and was able to break these pieces down for them in easy to digest morsels. Helping them develop their skills further brought both them and myself great joy.
A few years later I became an accomplished massage therapist, I found that quite rewarding as well. Through this healing modality I rediscovered my love for helping people and connecting with them.
Around the same time I purchased my first horse, Sweetie. We were a great team and I learned a lot from her. She sparked a great desire in me to learn more about how to develop a stronger bond between us based on kindness and understanding. 5 years later I found Pat Parelli and in 1996 I became one of his instructors. Through his program I was able to combine my joy of teaching and connecting with people with my love of horses. I absolutely thrived as it brought my strengths and things that I was passionate about together.
In January of 2000 my family helped me to make my dreams of owning and operating a full boarding and “Natural” equestrian educational facility to life. With the help of my wonderfully supportive father we purchased the property that is now Northfield Stables. Looking back it’s incredible to think that we are coming up on our 20 year anniversary! I have been blessed to work and teach here ever since and plan to continue to do so long into the future.
When my husband Larry and I decided to start our family I left the Parelli organization. Raising our two boys and being a mother has been the main focus of my life for the last few years and I’ve loved every second of it! As the boys grew and got into more predictable routines I began to search for what my next move would be in terms of what inspired me and what direction I wanted to evolve my career in. This took some serious soul searching in order to find my new path and last year everything clicked into place. I discovered Life Coaching and my mentor, Brooke Castillo. Now that our two amazing boys are in school I get to start my new adventure. By integrating Horsemanship and Life Coaching I will get to combine my love of horses, a passion for teaching and the strong desire to help people grow and expand in exciting and extremely rewarding new ways.
One of the main tenets I base my Horsemanship teachings on has always been: what your horse does is not as important as how he thinks and feels in the moment. If you are able to reward your horse for thinking and feeling the "right" way that is when positive results become easier to achieve consistently. In one particularly poignant lesson with Brooke Castillo she taught us that our thoughts cause our feelings and our feelings drive our actions which then lead to our results. At that point a huge lightbulb turned on in my head, these were very similar to the principles that I had learned for Horsemanship! In that moment it all came together for me and my mind began to see the vast correlation between the two methods of teaching. My mind began to overflow with ideas of how I could use this to help people . The methods I use to teach horses is mutually beneficial and has a symbiotic relationship with coaching people. In learning to change our thoughts we will ultimately effect change in our results. Most trainers will agree that horses are more receptive to change than people. If a horse is given a new concept by a good leader that understands how to release the pressure when they are “trying” the learning will go relatively quickly. Horses live in the moment and with the right leader they are willing to learn something new without carrying their past experiences into the future. The human is a very different animal in that respect, we hesitate to see that by not carrying our past experiences forward we can have a whole new set of results right here and now. Through my studies with Brooke Castillo I now have a more cohesive way to truly help my students look at learning through a more positive lens. I will be able to better assist them with the progression of achieving their goals, whatever they may be. This integrative approach will effect changes in their thought patterns, feelings, actions which in turn will effect results in their horses and in their lives. Without realizing it I now know that this is the missing piece that I have been searching for. I am so excited to start helping people and horses in this way, welcome to my new adventure.
Please contact me if you would like to start on this amazing path with me.