When working with horses and donkeys, it’s important to keep a positive mindset. Not is it easier and more fun to approach experiences with positivity, but your mindset also impacts your relationship with the equines.  Equines easily pick up on our energy and skillfully read our cues to decide whether we are safe to be around or not. If we are feeling bad, uneasy or doubtful they know it and they will act accordingly!

Mica* was connecting with a horse, whom she called “Goldie”. She expressed how calm and chill Goldie was being and that the connection they had was feeling pretty great. She decided she wanted to try walking Goldie around the arena so she got a rope and connected it to his halter. Mica began to start walking, but Goldie did not budge. She went back to Goldie, started petting him and giving him scratches and […]

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Mark* came to Stand InBalance through our Veterans program. He had successfully been learning and practicing new skills to address his depression and PTSD, but was now worried about the prospect of going home and slipping back into his old ways.

To address these concerns, we engaged Mark in an exercise where he was asked to build the “home” he envisions for himself when he gets back. Mark grabbed a few items from our large toy box and placed them in the center of the arena: a single cone, which represented “caution” because he was cautious about his progress; 4 barrels placed in a square with a chair in the middle, which represented boundaries and his perimeter to keep out intruders; and a couple of tennis balls placed on […]

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“Hope is the companion of power and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.”

Samuel Smiles Photo by Julie Davidson photography

Hope. When it’s there, we can feel it. It has a power that can motivate us, encourage us, uplift and inspire us. When it’s not there, it can be easy to forget its importance. When things get rough it can be hard to remember to connect with hope, but it is during these times that we benefit the most from being hopeful. Hope is an energy, a mindset of openness and possibility that looks to the future, serving as a guiding light towards what could be and leading us onward with positive focus.

When we connect with hope […]

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About a year prior to finding Stand InBalance, Emily* lost her mother to Covid19 and lost her job. The stress of the situations combined meant she never really had the opportunity to acknowledge or process her grief. Emily found herself in a constant state of movement and anxiety; she felt a strong need to stay busy and active, allowing herself no time and space for rest or recovery. Finding both the time and the monetary resources to pay for any professional support for her mental health was extremely difficult. Eventually, she found her way to Stand InBalance, and with the help of the Equipowerment Foundation for Healing Horses and Helping Humans (EFH4) an opportunity was made available for her to be able to take some sessions at […]

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“You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” —Louise L. Hay

photo credit: The Equine Connection

Relationships are how we perceive the world we live in. It is the interaction between ourselves and everything outside of ourselves that creates experience, conveys information, evokes emotion and generates life. We’re usually quite focused on the relationships we have with others – things, people, places, etc. – but what about the relationship that we have with ourselves? Often, this relationship doesn’t get the attention it deserves. It can go unnoticed or neglected, taking a backseat to the interactions and experiences we have with others. However, our relationship with ourselves, is the most fundamental relationship we can have. It has the potential to be the […]

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