Hey Everyone!

We're thrilled to have Lynn Thomas joining us again this month for our free monthly telecall. I want to take this opportunity to provide you with some background information on Lynn and on EAGALA. Enjoy the reading and I do hope you'll join us next week on the call!!

Josie

About Lynn Thomas

Lynn received her Master's of Social Work degree from the University of Utah.  She has 14 years experience working with adolescents, families, individuals and groups.  This has included work in youth corrections, wilderness programs, ranch programs, private practice, and various Mental Health agencies.  She helped develop the Aspen Ranch program, a residential boarding school for troubled adolescents, and served as Executive Director for Aspen Ranch and Aspen Achievement Academy, a wilderness therapy program.  She co-founded EAGALA in July 1999 and with a great team of people in the organization, has developed the training and certification program and written the training manual. Along with leading EAGALA, she has 3 children, twins age 13 and one age 11. Contact her at LThomas@eagala.org

About EAGALA

Founded in July 1999, the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization developed to address the need for resources, education, and professionalism in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Equine Assisted Learning.

Creating a more professional field and promoting it to the general public is a large task. EAGALA strives to educate the public that EAP/L is more than horsemanship and riding classes.

EAGALA aims to get professionals in the clinical and human development fields to accept EAP/L as a valid and effective approach, and to actively use it with their clientele. This benefits those in the equine fields by opening up greater possibilities for doing what they love, namely working with horses. This benefits those in the clinical and human development fields by providing a powerful, effective, interesting, and fun therapeutic and educational alternative. Most of all, this benefits the clients and participants, because, as those of us working in the field see all the time, it works! The growth and learning of all involved is intense and rewarding. Find out more at www.eagala.org

Vision, Mission, Values, Objectives

Vision Statement

EAGALA is committed to setting the standard of professional excellence in how horses and humans work together to improve the quality of life and mental health of individuals, families and groups worldwide.

Mission Statement

EAGALA provides education, standards, innovation, and support to professionals providing services in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning around the world.

Values

• Focus on making a positive impact in the lives of people
• Maintain the highest ethical standards and professionalism
• Support innovation while remaining committed to quality assurance
• Ensure the integrity of the EAGALA model through outcomes and efficacy
• Promote a culture of collaboration through sharing information, experience, and ideas

Objectives

• Establish standards of practice, ethics, and safety for EAP/EAL
• Provide trainings for certification in the EAGALA Model of EAP/EAL
• Conduct annual conferences to promote education and networking
• Promote EAGALA as an effective model of therapy and treatment for at-risk populations
• Provide educational, training, and support resources, such as books, videos, tapes, and web sites
• Publish a bi-annual magazine
• Encourage universities and colleges to develop and include the EAGALA Model in their curriculum
• Support the establishment of EAGALA Model organizations around the world
• Conduct and disseminate research on the effectiveness of EAP/EAL

Shannon and I wanted to share a clip from the Dr. Oz show in which he highlights 2 top alternative treatments - one of which is equine-assisted therapy!

Although the horse is only on stage for a matter of seconds, it's great to see our field receiving recognition on such a wide scale.

Here's the clip - check it out if you haven't already:

I hope equine-assisted practice continues to get exposure like this in the future. Let's keep up the good work and strive to get even more information out there to answer the questions: Why Horses?

Talk to you soon!
Josie

A Commentary on the Dizzying Array of Train the Trainers

The New Horse Sense Business Sense
Here We Grow!

Ever since the publication in 2007 of Horse Sense Business Sense Vol 1, the growing appetite for information on creating an EAP/EAL business has made me consider “spinning off” Horse Sense Business Sense into a separate LLC, separate & apart from Horse Sense of the Carolinas. Well, we recently took the plunge and I’m really excited about this new direction. This big step has been  possible because of the trust you have placed in me to help you grow your own business!

What has made me take this step?

I want to help others make a difference while also making a living.

While for years I have been dedicating a part of my time to helping others in the field, I had been doing so in addition to my full-time job as an Equine Specialist and a business owner (chief cook & bottlewasher!). While I continue to serve clients through Horse Sense in those ways, I now also carve out a regular, sustained space in my days to focus on creating success for other professionals in the world of EAP/EAL.

In short, the Horse Sense Business Sense mission is to “educate, challenge & inspire.” Here’s what those words mean to me, and what I commit to doing for you:

Educate: through conferences on specific topics (like at-risk youth & business building basics), through workshops to improve your horsemanship & facilitation skills and through educational materials including curriculums, activity guides, books and audio/video, we want to help others learn from ours and others’ experience in the field, to save you time, money and effort, so you can spend more time with your clients & horses! No more reinventing the wheel!

Challenge: being open to challenge & accepting a path of constant self-improvement is a requirement for being a professional in this field. I am committed to helping you stretch beyond your comfort zone and to moving beyond the limitations you face today (both external and internal!). Through consulting, personal and professional development (both virtual & face to face) I want to help you live the statement: "In any given business, the growth of the business will rise or fall to the level of the business owner's personal development"

Inspire: When I am knee-deep in paperwork, I keep a file full of client letters, pictures and success stories that help me remember why I'm doing this work. I call this collection my "Undespair” file and, like it does for me, I want to inspire you to even greater efforts, and to remind you of the greatness in you for making a difference for horses & people.

Creating Horse Sense Business Sense has lifted my gaze and provided me a great opportunity to view this field from a wider lens. Rather than looking down at my horse’s ears, my eyes are up, looking forward to the horizon and focusing on where we are going, so long as we continue to work hard and work together.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of service, and for your faith in me as we move together along this new trail!

With the Summer fast approaching, Shannon and I want to make sure you know about our 2010 Summer Scholarship opportunity. The Horse Sense farm will be home to so many exciting programs this year, we've decided to offer one lucky person a FREE RIDE for 2 workshops or conferences!

You must apply to be considered for this, and I encourage you to do so. What do you have to lose? And if you win you'll get to join us twice this year for invaluable education opportunities!

The lucky winner can choose two of the four following events to attend for FREE:

• Dynamics of Horse Psychology & Body Language

A 5 week teleclass culminating in a 3-day weekend of onsite experiential learning - Beginning June 22nd - $645 Value

• Horses & At Risk Youth Symposium

The first annual summit for horses and at-risk youth professionals!! June 25-16th - $325 Value

• Horse Assessment, Development & Utilization for EAP/EAL

A 5 week teleclass culminating in a 3-day weekend of onsite experiential learning - Beginning Aug 3rd - $645 Value

• 3rd Annual Business Building Intensive

The third annual gathering for business building and all thing EAP/EAL! September 23-25th - $450 Value

Click here to download the application

The deadline for application is 5pm, Saturday May 1st

For our April Free Monthly Telecall, Schelli Whitehouse will be joining Shannon to talk about her work as a certified Money, Marketing and Soul™ coach. In this blog, I've taken some wonderful information from Schelli's website, so you can learn more about her dedication to helping entrepreneurs grow and develop alongside their business.

We hope you enjoy the snippet below. You can click here to visit her site directly. And you can click here to learn more about the Money Mirror, which is what we'll be talking more about on the telecall on April 20th.

Schelli Whitehouse, The Next Highest Version of You

What the heck does “The Next Highest Version of YOU” mean?

Answer: In order to grow your business you must first “grow” yourself.

The act of stepping into the grandest version of the highest vision you have ever held for yourself creates The Next Highest Version of You!

I first came across this concept many years ago from the book, Conversations with God, written by Neale Donald Walsch. What has stuck with me throughout the years is a new curiosity in human evolution. We are constantly re-creating ourselves, even when we are not aware of it. We are literally designed to expand, to continually evolve mentally, physically and spiritually. Our basic, essential purpose for existence is to continually re-experience ourselves through an ever expanding awareness and integration of mind, body and soul.

Social anthropologist Jean Huston writes, Beyond the surface and literal there seems to lie the self’s larger vision and comprehension of itself. This larger vision makes itself know as an entelechy, a higher version of the self, a dynamic purposiveness and full capacity of a person that is contained almost as an autonomous self within self.

In everyday language, what Ms. Huston has described is the next highest version of self calling you forward, asking you to trust that the steps you need take will bring you and YOU together!

Welcome Home!

When we recognize and trust that grander version of ourselves we are instilled with courage and inspiration to move into action. Even though we may not know how exactly we are going to become that new and improved version of ourselves, we have the impetuous to step forward. Like a child learning to walk, some of our steps will be shaky, sometimes we will need something, (or someone) to hold on to, some of the steps will come very quickly, sometimes we will fall down (maybe even cry), but we get back up and totter on into the open loving arms of our Highest Self! You will know when you have arrived because of the incredible feeling of coming home, of coming into your-self.

You can never go back to your old way of thinking and behaving at this point. You can try, but it will only frustrate you. You have now stepped into a higher vibration of who you really are! This conscious awareness of your own personal evolution creates a new vibrational state (physical, mental and spiritual) that causes a new entelechy a new higher version of  yourself that once again asks you to continue the expansion of your enormous potential, calls you forward into yet a broader awareness of the next grandest version of the highest vision you have for yourself, right now, today!

Share the Unique Expression of Who You Really Are!

Love where you are today and congratulate yourself on the recognition of the desire for greater self expression. You have unique gifts and talents to share with the world. You will never stop expanding in your level of mental awareness, spiritual connectedness or physical intelligence. Once you embrace this understanding your personal evolution through multiple levels of consciousness becomes accelerated to the point of seeming magical. For it really is the conscious blending and acknowledgement of mind, body and soul.

To deny the evolution of any aspect of self creates energy roadblocks which manifest as physical disease, mental frustration, anger, depression and eventually apathy of the soul as a result of banging against the locked bars of self denial.

Celebrate!

In the words of Marianne Williamson,

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Welcome to the Next Highest Version of YOU!

Prescott College has announced a new Equine-Assisted Learning (EAL) Master of Arts and Post-Master of Arts Certificate and is enrolling students for the Fall session. Students of the Equine-Assisted Learning Program will gain in-the-field, practical experience with diverse clientele in preparation for work with a variety of populations.

Prescott College offers the only Masters in Education with a Concentration in EAL. This approach supports a theoretical investigation of human learning combined with relational horsemanship, fostering an understanding across the field of Equine-Assisted Learning, according to core faculty member Dr. Tracy Weber. 

“We offer a breadth of approaches, and encourage our students to explore the many different programs and approaches currently being offered,”  explained Weber. “We foster understanding of the scope of the field, and the ways in which different practices reflect continuums of safety and therapeutic processes.”

Both the master of arts and post-graduate certificate programs blend real-life application with hands-on experience under the guidance of internationally-renowned practitioners. Graduate Advisors include Shannon Knapp of HorseSense of the Carolinas, Tanya Welch of the Natural Connection (formerly MN Linc) and Stan Maliszewski of the University of Arizona.

The Prescott College approach to Equine-Assisted Learning invites participants to explore non-mental health areas including: experiential education; organizational development; coaching; effective facilitation; and relational horsemanship.

The coursework in both the master’s and post-graduate certificate tracks explore the theoretical understanding, ethical issues, facilitation skills, and relational equine skills crucial for mastery. The program supports the customization of the course work in order for participants to graduate with the skills and knowledge to provide professional development and personal growth opportunities in schools, residential facilities, community-based private practices, etc.  and to clientele including students, corporate and business groups, both for profit and non-profit organizations, and individuals.

Master's and Post-Master's candidates complete four EAL residential intensive workshops, which serves as "anchor courses" that are delivered by partnering with horses and other equines. These workshops are conducted in a western residential setting and are based on a learner-centered program designed to build a strong sense of community for participants. The EAL program supports the learning needs of each individual and seeks to connect participants to both Prescott College and the larger equine-assisted world.

Prescott College's low-residency Master of Arts Program  allows students to live and work in their home communities while studying with mentors and experts in their fields. The residencies bring students together with graduate faculty to present their research and explore issues and trends within a variety of interdisciplinary fields. Students are also strongly encouraged to present at professional conferences or participate in professional seminars throughout their program of study.   

Fall 2010 application deadline April 15 to be considered for scholarships and May 15 is the final application deadline. For more information they can contact Kerstin Alicki at: admissions@prescott.edu.

Karyn Greenstreet is an excellent resource for small businesses and entrepreneurs - especially when it comes to creating effective and savvy websites. 

We are excited to have Karyn joining us this month as our special guest for the March Free Telecall. She and Shannon will be hosting the call, "Creating a Small Business Website that Grabs Attention"!

Please read more about Karyn and her company below and you can click here to visit her website. Also, if you'd like to register for the call, you can do so on our calendar page by clicking here and registering in the lower left corner of the screen.

 • * • * • * • 

Karyn Greenstreet is an internet marketing expert and small business coach, and owner of Passion For Business.  She works exclusively with self-employed people to help them grow their business and learn all the necessary business and marketing skills to make them successful.

Karyn has significant experience in starting and running self-employed businesses, having successfully owned five businesses herself, and has 28 years experience in the computer, marketing and internet industries.

Karyn holds a degree in Business Administration and Management. She has postgraduate work in Business Administration and Computer Systems. She is a graduate of CoachU, and attended The School of Small Business Coaching, and The Graduate School of Coaching.

You can visit her website to learn about her coaching services and educational classes:

www.passionforbusiness.com

What causes us to change? Is it positive encouragement? More or better self-esteem? Or is it something like being "sick and tired of being sick and tired"?

Like many of us, when I first found out about Equine Assisted Therapies & Learning modalities, I spent a lot of my time trying to figure out the differences among the "big three" as I called them: EAGALA, EFMHA & EGEA.  I looked to things like how many facilitators were in the arena, what kind of credentials they had, whether riding was a part of or not a part of the experience. While this kind of questioning gave me some broad brush strokes to look at the field and see where I was philisophically & programmatically a "fit", it didn't give me the deeper philosophical answers I was seeking. But I decided to "get in there" and begin practice, so I could see what I felt worked best for clients.

A few years after starting Horse Sense, a mentor of mine asked me the question: "What do you believe causes change?" It was and still is a great question. We can all agree that most of our clients come to us because something in their lives isn't as they would wish it to be, and therefore they are seeking change. Because if change is what they are after, then the question becomes how best to elicit change.

Now a great new resource is available on the topic of change & how to cause and support it: a book called Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip Heath & Dan Heath, the authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive & Others Die (an excellent book as well!). I had a chance to read the opening chapter of an advanced copy a few weeks ago at Prescott College, and can't wait to read the rest. (Switch is actually being released tomorrow, February 16th).

The book is broken down into three sections: "Motivate the Elephant," "Direct the Rider," and "Shape the Path". Keen readers have already realized how much the language of these sections resembles the language of good horse training, dog training & people training! Seems like they had horses and horse people in mind when they were writing this (aside from the elephant reference!). Here are a few of the key points from the opening chapter:

• Motivate the Elephant: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion (or, Self-control is an exhaustible resource)

• Direct the Rider: What looks like resistance is often lack of clarity (how many times have we seen people read a horse as resistant when the horse just plain doesn't understand?)

• Shape the Path: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem (is that horse or client just "being difficult," or is he/she in pain?)

Now is a great time for you to answer the question for yourself about what you think best causes and supports change, both in your life and business, and in the lives of your clients and horses. I would love to hear from you about this topic: email me your thoughts at Shannon@HorseSenseOtc.com!

Shannon

Howdy!

I wanted to let everyone know about the February FREE Monthly Telecall with Shannon and special guest Bob Wall. Join us Tuesday, Feb.16th at 7:00pm EST and learn all about how Emotional Intelligence can help your EAP/EAL practice be more successful.

Read more about Bob below and click here to register for the free call!

• • • •

Bob Wall has been a specialist in leadership and team development for more than 30 years. He has ample experience working with both mental health professionals and health care providers and completed all but his dissertation for a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. As a graduate student, he started leading workshops focusing on interpersonal skills development in all forms of health care and human service settings in the Midwest. He also served for three years as a unit psychologist and another three years as the Director of Staff Development and Training for a residential mental health center in the Midwest before moving on to start his consulting career in 1980. 

Bob has also been a certified interpreter of The Simmons EQ Profile for more than 20 years and author of four books. Check out two of them below:

Coaching For Emotional Intelligence:
The secret to developing the star potential in your employees

Working Relationships: Using emotional intelligence to enhance your effectiveness with others

Horse Sense is also excited to be working with Bob this year on a workshop entitled: Horse Sense and Emotional Intelligence: How to Offer Honest Feedback Without Alienating Colleagues and Clients.

Join us for the telecall and learn more about this one day event!!

Click here to register!

Howdy!

In prep for January's Free Monthly Telecall about Goals & Goalsetting, here's some tips from Elizabeth Barbour's Blog. Talk to you tonight!

It seemed a simple enough plan. On Friday, December 18, our last workday before the holiday, we were to have had a graduation ceremony for two youth from our Running with Mustangs curricula, and I was going to hop in the car after to go visit my husband, Richard, who is attending an Externship program at the Parelli Ranch in Florida. He’s been gone since mid-November, so I was very excited!

As many of you also no doubt experienced, a snowstorm hit our area that morning, culminating in over 15 inches of snow, quite unusual for us. Graduation and the trip to Florida were both quickly cancelled due to road conditions. Both myself and Chrissy, the Horse Sense intern living on site, lost power and our ability to use our “gator” to feed by Friday night, and did not regain power until Christmas Day (7 days!!!). Our phones were out for a good portion of the time as well. It was quite a challenging time to be responsible for 15 horses on 90 acres!

Carrying grain & hay to the pastures each day, feeding on foot from pasture to pasture, made for very simple, clear days: the two main activities for us was feeding the horses and stoking the fire. What usually takes 35-40 minutes each day for one person now took 2 people several hours.

It occurred to me at one point that many folks (myself included) have paid to have retreats like this, with no phones, no TV’s, just a fire in the fireplace and a good book or two for days on end!

What remained crystal-clear, both before the storm, during & now after, was that if we managed to get all the horses fed and accounted for, it was a good day. We had a great opportunity to count blessings and be grateful for all we had: healthy horses, plenty of firewood, a pantry of canned food & gravity-fed water.

We are slowly working our way back to normal here at Horse Sense. We have had to cancel clients for this first week due to icy roads on the farm, and are still experiencing some internet challenges, but for the most part all is well. Most importantly, the horses are all happy & healthy, as are we.

Hoping you had a warm, happy and gratitude-filled holiday, and wishing you a wonderful 2010!

Howdy everyone!

Josie here, happy to be providing you with more information about the highly accomplished and sought after, Mark Goldstein. I've included a little bit about him below, and you can click here to visit the Communication Mark website to learn even more about what he and his company are all about.

And be sure to join us for the next telecall - it will be chock full of information!!

Dec 3rd, 2009 7-8pm EST
Make your Mark!
Funding, Fundraising and Grantwriting for 2010
With expert guest, Mark Goldstein

Thursday Dec. 3rd, 7:00 - 8:00 PM EST
Join Us! It's FREE!

Mark Goldstein, CFRE

Mark Goldstein, CFRE, is President and CEO of Communication Mark consulting in Arden, NC. Mr. Goldstein is most sought after as an expert proposal writer and project strategist. He is the creator of the Open Communication Fundraising Model, a system that enables all nonprofit agency stakeholders to effectively work together toward organizational and fundraising goals. Mr. Goldstein has consistently served nonprofits as a staff member, board member or consultant since 1991. He has raised millions for his clients and employers by obtaining grants for organizations of all types, sizes and locales. As a volunteer, he recently played a key role in launching the first public access television station in western NC. He is a 2009-2010 board member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Western North Carolina Chapter and recently taught a course on case statements for the Duke University Continuing Studies Nonprofit Management program.

Thursday Dec. 3rd, 7:00 - 8:00 PM EST
Join Us! It's FREE!

Howdy ya'll!

Hope Fall is beautiful wherever you are. I have an exciting group coming up in January I wanted to tell you about.

The Frozen to Focused is a 4 month teleclass/coaching/consulting group for folks who are looking to move their program to the next level (or to just get unstuck!).

In the course of the four months, we meet on the phone one a week for an hour each time, discussing various aspects that every program needs to be successful and sustainable. Topics include:

• Start-up Needs (Insurance, formation, etc)
• Strategic Planning
• Finding your Ideal Client
• Message Development
• Marketing Plans, PR, Advertising
• Websites, Brochures, Newsletters
• Selecting your Ideal Herd
• Grantwriting & Funding

We have special guests each month who are experts in their fields, including Mike Sowinski CPA & CFO, Brenda Dammann (who co-wrote the book with me), who specializes in Marketing, Strategic Planning & Message Development, and Elizabeth Barbour, who knows it all about networking and finding your ideal client.

And of course you'll get MORE THAN YOUR FILL of ME!!! Cool!

In a nutshell, this program combines professional consulting, personal mentoring, inspirational experience, & educational information through powerful (but simple) technology to save you time and money & get you on the road to success.

Click here to visit the information page on the HorseSenseBusiness.com website. It's got all the info you need to join! If that doesn't work, go to Equine Assisted Business Consulting section of HorseSenseBusiness.com website, and click on From Frozen to Focused Masters Group.

There is an application process, and we are accepting applications now for January's group. Download your application by visiting this page!

Look forward to having you there!

Shannon

Shannon@HorseSenseOtc.com

Just one more week until our 2nd Annual Business Building Intensive kicks off! There's lots of stuff to do get ready for this awesome event, but while the crew at Horse Sense is busy preparing, take this moment to read up on another one of our incredible presenters traveling to Asheville to join us next week. Debbie Anderson is the co-founder of Strides to Success and is an expert in EAL programming for schools grades K-12. She'll be teaching a couple of class on Saturday Sept 26th at the Business Building Intensive. Below, you can read about Debbie's background in the field, and you can click here to visit her website.

• • •

Debbie Anderson has been involved professionally in the equine business for over 35 years. After showing hunters and jumpers as a child, she graduated from college and worked as a veterinarian technician for six years. Her interest in working with children directed her into becoming an equitation instructor for a large show facility in Indiana. Six years and several world champions latter, she started working in the therapeutic riding industry. Debbie has served in many aspects of the therapeutic riding industry including Instructor, Board member, Program Director of Resources, and Director of Program Development.

In her career, Debbie has raised over two million dollars by writing grants and managing fund-raising events for therapeutic riding. She was also responsible for the development of the Strides Learning Model and school contracts totaling over $200,000 each year. Debbie is a registered NARHA instructor and has completed her Level I EAGALA training. Today, Debbie serves as the Co-founder and Executive Director at Strides to Success. She has served as a Board member for Sycamore Services, the Indiana Horse Council Foundation and currently serves as an Executive Board member for NARHA (North American Riding for The Handicapped Association).

• • •