Here's the story of how a horse let Sue Hahn, founder of Green Gate Farms know it was time to close doors. Please join me in wishing Sue all the best!

Jennifer (our program manager), Emily (our Australian intern) and I recently went to Mark Lytle’s farm for a Part 1. Mark and StarrLee Heady were the untrainers and I have known them for years. At the start of day two, StarrLee came up to me and asked me if something was wrong. I said I didn’t think so but maybe I was a little tired. 

"All that day a little pony named Twister pestered me at my seat unceasingly. I thought this was a little unusual because I usually have good luck getting a horse to leave me alone if I want. All day he just kept coming back to me, to the point that others were commenting on it too. Every time he came to me I was torn as to whether to pet him or push him away. The more he pestered me, the more I pushed him away. At the end of the day StarrLee again came up top me and asked some probing questions. Then Mark got me, too, and said that something was definitely up because Twister never acted like that. Mark said that Twister is the biggest punk and would have been trying to bite and strike any one else doing the same things to him. Instead he just kept nudging and gently touching me with his foot. I had no idea what was up and it was very disconcerting!!! The next day they didn’t use Twister and I was left to ponder what the heck was going on.

I got home late Saturday night, went to church on Sunday and slept most of the day. Monday morning my husband Mike went out to do his usual farm chores and found Juliet (our big Belgian) down and it looked like she had been up and down all night.  We gave her some banamine and hung out to see what she would do. We got her up and brought her out into the yard where she alternated between eating and dozing. Mike and I fixed a section of fence while we waited and I felt in a total funk. I hadn’t said anything to him yet about the Twister incident because I was still chewing on it. I finally opened the conversation by saying that I was not emotionally well. We talked for about an hour, mostly about where our lives were headed. We decided that we were ready to step away from Green Gate Farm, Inc. Once we made the decision, I mourned for the rest of the day. It was like I lost a part of me.

Then the next morning we found Juliet had died. It looked like this time she had just laid down and gone to sleep. We buried her next to Popcorn (her beloved Shetland friend who died 2 Christmases ago) and I have never felt so much peace around a death before. She didn’t have to endure another terrible summer (she hates the flies and heat) and she had really given me a gift: Time to figure out what was going on and talk to Mike. I will always remember her for her gentle and wise spirit!

The more I thought about it the more I realized that she was a metaphor for how I have been in GGF for the last few years. She mourned for 1 and ½ years for her friend Popcorn like I was literally mourning how GGF was turning away from my vision. She had been losing weight during that whole period just like we were losing money as we continued to be the major support of GGF. Then she really struggled one night, like I did to make this decision but once I did, I felt peace as I know she did when she returned home to Popcorn and her other equine friends.

Isn’t it ironic that an EAP session brought out a decision in me that will pull me away from practicing a method that I know works!!!  Life is strange and unpredictable but wonderful too!