Hey guys!

Well, day one of my Fluidity 1 course at the Parelli Center in Ocala Florida is behind me, and I'm just as excited as I can be!

I arrived here on Sunday morning and, for those of you on the "Where's Shannon?" hunt, that was more than 24 hours after landing from the Prescott workshop in Arizona! All my travels in the past few months have been leading up to this big getaway in February, just me and my horse for two solid weeks!

I've met folks from previous visits who came to know EAP/EAL through interaction with me, and have put a face to a name from a woman in Australia who had emailed me a while back for information on getting an EAP/EAL biz started!

I've also had time to play with Dreamer, my 12-year old Palomino, who loves water and the great big pond here, as evidenced by the mud on him in the photo. We've been playing a lot of "Me and My Shadow," and the difference in his "Horsenality" from 2006 (when I took my first course with the new Parelli format) to now is striking! He's grown a lot more confident and curious in the past two years, and I'm delighted to see him grow and flourish.

Being able to mark progression in me, in my horse and in my business during my Parelli visits is one of the things I cherish most about this time away from the farm and the business. Dreamer has come a long way, but so has Horse Sense and the field of EAP as a whole. I can't imagine where we'll all be this time next year, when I plan to be doing exactly what I'm doing tonight: sitting in my horse trailer, typing another blog to all of you! There's so much I've planned for this year to help support other EAP/EAL businesses, and for Horse Sense's growth and development. It's mind-boggling sometimes to think about the growth of Horse Sense in a few short years.

But it all begins here, whether you are at a 2-week Parelli course, or at a one-day horse expo, or in your backyard offering EAP to at-risk youth. Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, we're all building stronger relationships between people and horses. In the process, we get to work incredibly hard and long hours, we get stretched out of our comfort zones (just like we ask of our clients), and we get to witness the amazing growth that horses foster in our and our clients' lives.

I can't imagine being anywhere else.

All the best,

Shannon