equine learning experiences australia magazine 2nd edition

Equine Learning Experiences Australia December 2012

1 © Equine Learning Experiences Australia 2012

Class of July 2012: Olivia Treloar, Carrina Appleby, Kylie Lacey, Rebecca Parker, Shaun Parker Class of October 2012: Liz Beaty, Alana Heyermans, Carrina Straga

Finding Futures Equine Learning Program Futures Equine Learning



Equine Learning Experiences Australia’ and ‘Finding Futures’ participants have come to the end of the year and we had 8 more participants grow, develop and learn through the wisdom and authenticity of the ELEA herd of horses. To celebrate the fun and learning that has come about, Equine Learning Experiences Australia and the participants have taken the time to document their experiences and the personal development that has come from participating in the programs over the last 6 months.



What I have learnt from the equine learning program and my highlights from the program

During the equine learning program I have learnt many important life skills; they have all been important and practical for my personal and professional life. Some of the most important areas that relate to me and I have gotten the most out of have been, positive body language and how to be positive when communicating and interacting with people, being congruent-‐ honouring my feelings and accepting them, not hiding them and learning to be grounded which has helped me to be aware of all my feelings and surroundings and not be focused on one specific emotion or situation.

The most important and practical lesson I have learnt for myself personally is being congruent. I have never been aware of the importance of honouring my feelings and being honest about them, which I think has led me to constantly get to a point of boiling over and blowing up. I have learnt that if I identify and honour my feelings and why I am feeling them then I can deal with them and let them go and therefore not get to a point of blowing up



and losing control and getting overly stressed and emotional. I have previously struggled to maintain employment because I have felt a range of different feelings and I have constantly suppressed them and kept them inside me which then leads to these situations turning ugly

and getting out of control. With the new skills I have learnt about being congruent I now know that I have the ability to be honest about a situation and true to how I feel and I also have the ability to communicate this. I feel I will now be able to handle situations in a professional well-‐handled manner and I will be able to fix these situations before they blow up and get out of control.

I had an amazing “aha” moment when I was doing the leadership activity. I had to lead sally through an obstacle course and at times she wouldn’t cooperate because I wasn’t communicating to her properly, I just expected her to know what I wanted her to do. This is when I realised that often in life I expect people to know how I’m feeling, when I’m feeling it and why I’m felling it, like if I’m angry I expect everyone to know why and I get really agitated when they can’t read my mind. I have learnt that I need to be able to communicate my feelings and emotions to people without pushing my emotions on to them when I am trying to do this.



I have learnt for example when I am angry, when I’m communicating these feelings to someone, not to yell and speak aggressively-‐ pushing my emotions onto them but to communicate calmly, clearly and to be patient waiting for a response.

I also had an “aha” moment when doing the problem solving activity. We had to catch a horse and we weren’t allowed to talk. I felt useless because I didn’t know how to put the harness on the horse and I felt like I couldn’t do what I was supposed to do.

What I learnt is that Emily did not ask us to put the harness on the horse and then attach the lead rope, she only asked us to catch a horse. I only focused on one specific way to do it and felt I couldn’t do it because I didn’t know how to do it the specific way I focused on. I could have caught the horse anyway I could imagine, I could have put my arm around her neck, I could have put the lead rope around her neck or I could have held onto her hair and said I’ve caught her but I was laser eye about the situation-‐ focused only on getting the harness and lead rope on the horse, I couldn’t see the bigger picture and I couldn’t see any other ways to solve the problem. I tend to do this a lot in life, I put a lot of pressure on myself to do things in the specific way that I see in my mind and then if it doesn’t work out the way I expected I get stressed and feel it wasn’t done right.



That lesson and moment of realisation has taught me to be more open minded and have more of a soft eye view on life and problems, to always look at the bigger picture and to keep my mind open to different possibilities and solutions, not to just concentrate on what I think is the right way to do something.

Since beginning this program I have become more confident and positive in many ways. I am more confident in myself and in the way I present myself to others with my body language and communication. I am more positive thinking and becoming more of my authentic self instead of being my false self (negative) and I feel I am now ready and able to secure and keep a job and I have the tools to maintain it and further thrive in my personal life and my professional life=)

I owe a big thank you to Emily and the horses for teaching me these important lessons. Thank you for working with me and giving me the time, space and ideas to help me realise and relate all these lessons and positive behaviours to my personal and professional life, and helping me work out how they connect to the way I have conducted myself in the past and how these behaviours can help me change some of my past bad situations into positive, helpful and controlled situations in the future. I think I am very lucky that I got to participate in such a special and amazingly helpful program! =)

Carrina Appleby



My experience of the Equine Learning Experiences (ELEA) Program – By Olivia Treloar

At first I thought, wow what does this have to do with anything in my life? During the time that I have done this course I have been through a lot. I was fighting with my mum constantly, doing what I wanted, breaking the rules and not listening to what everyone was telling me.

My many mistakes resulted in me not being able to live at home. In these last few weeks I have come to the realisation that this was nobody else’s fault but my own.

My lack of awareness has pushed everybody that were trying to help me away. Thinking back to when I was younger I was incongruent 99% of the time (learning objective. Lying to everybody about the way I felt. At times my boundaries were either completely solid or totally down. I thought that if I didn’t show how I felt then no-‐one could judge me. Instead I was bullied. I trusted no-‐one and my habit of lying to everyone about my emotions emerged. I am 16 now and I can honestly say that I have no friends. Emily has helped me understand what is going on for me. I cannot hold conversations, I have poor communication skills. When I want to get a point across I tend to go about it the wrong way. I believe that I am very confronting and at times very overwhelming. In my mind everybody else ‘should’ understand me but they don’t, hmmmm wonder why? Because people can’t read minds.

My Self esteem at the moment is low and has been for a long time. Constantly being put down by everyone around me that in reality didn’t matter to me has really affected me. Even now I still put my self down.



Emily explained that this is false self voice. Quite often the thing that I failed to see was the bigger picture. Horses see the world in soft eye taking in everything. Seeing that there might only be one solution to a problem is an issue for me and I can often become frustrated that I can’t do it the way I was shown. I ground myself often now. It has become easier for me the more I do it. It has made me a calmer person in some different situations.

Emily spoke of the saying ‘Doing my head in’, trying to juggle everything in my mind made it hard for me to focus on what was right in front of me… what happened that morning or what might happen later on that day always …’Did my head in’. I couldn’t handle it. Always getting mixed up with that no-‐one wanted anything to do with me.

Since doing this course, the things that I have discovered about myself are amazing and it’s all thanks to Emily and the Equine Learning course.

Olivia Treloar



Healing with horses by Shaun Parker

When the opportunity to work with the horses in a healing facilitation capacity was first brought to my attention I was not sure what to expect at first, although familiar with the concepts of healing energies and the inherent empathic ability of all living life forms.

It was something I was looking forward to with mixed feelings of excitement and nervousness. Uncomfortable aware, that over the last couple of years I have been growing steadily anxious to the point it was no longer manageable to me without outside intervention, with an increasing sense of frustration at a seemingly fruitless search to upgrade ‘tools’ that worked, that provided anything than a temporary relief from what, although they were a problem in themselves, also a symptom, an indication of a deeper underlying issue that I KNEW that unless I was able to identify and resolve, the anxiety would remain and perhaps worsen.

When I first actually MET the horses I was a little apprehensive, as in the past I’d had very little to do with horses and what little I had was not exactly enjoyable, although I had some background with camels to draw upon if I needed, once I got past my initial pre-‐packaged overcaution of horses based



on negative experiences. (When I was about 6 and my little sister was 3 we were in Melbourne walking across a park, a big square block in the middle of the surrounding shops, with roads on all four sides, there were swings and slides and lots of grass and on this particular day there was a young Italian man and his girlfriend walking their horse across the park.

My Sister and I were originally there to go play on the swings while we were waiting for my mother to finish in the shops but upon seeing the horse we went nearer for a closer look, being careful not to get what we thought would be too close.

The horse must have seen something out of the corner of his eye that made him feel threatened because he gave a quick glance behind him apparently viewing my little sister as a threat, before launching a double barrel of horse hoof in her direction.

One hoof caught her on the thigh and immediately came up in a bruise, of course she was screaming, scared an in pain, I was in shock and immediately thought I needed to get her back to mum cos this was too much for me and mum would know what to do.

I carried my sister a short distance to the shop where my mother was, and upon seeing my sister in distress grabbed her as I told her what happened.

So an interesting introduction to horses at an early age to overcome….)

Emily’s horses were a perfect contrast, very gently , just by being themselves assisting as a reminder to be OURSELVES!!



Preferring a sense of calm and peace as their natural state gently coaxing us to find that within ourselves by giving us an indication of when we were too much ‘In our head’ and in chaotic energies, by shifting their attention away from us, because they , unlike many of us humans are not drawn to drama.

I learnt to be more present with their feedback, like an interactive form of biofeedback, where you are able to get an external reflection of your internal processes and able to therefore recognise when we were in and not in ‘the zone’ of authenticity i.e where our actions were matching our energies. They really helped me to become more in tune with my authentic self, to become more aware of what I was feeling, to get out of my head, to not think too much, but be present.

I know I have still some way to go, but since completing the ‘healing with horses’ course I have been confident enough to renew my drivers licence and have taken steps to get myself a car which I am now in the process of getting roadworthy and ready to register.

I have also made friendships through the course that helped me realise I am not alone.

I know that I am the one that has to take control of my life….. no one can do that for me and nor should they. – Shaun Parker



Shaun resonated with this famous speech by Marianne Williamson during the program so Shaun this is for you…….

"...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, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were 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."



My journey – By Bec Parker The ELEA equine learning program and the horses have shown me that it’s not so terrifying to be part of a team because of their non judgemental state of being. I have also learnt that authentic voice is your heart not your head / ego ad coming from your heart is a place of beauty , honouring and truth. I’ve also learnt about myself and rejection. On the first day of the course when I met Emily’s horses, they walked away from me. I took this as rejection and felt awful because I thought they didn’t want to be around me. I soon later learnt that they simply chose not to be around me because I was too much in my head, it wasn’t because they didn’t like or accept me. I think horses make sense and read their environment in a non judgemental way. This has helped me to develop trust in myself and my environment as I’ve slowly learnt that not everybody is not judgemental and I’ve stopped judging myself harshly. There is so much more to learn and I’m very excited and grateful as I’m learning to live a new way of a very beautiful and free life.



Kylie Lacey’s learning In my first week I couldn’t get centred and was very anxious but once I started interacting with the horses the anxiety left. After that session I was a lot happier in myself and it showed. In the mindfulness activity I found that I could get more balanced and the horses responded well to that. I believe that the highlight of this program for me was the learning around healthy boundaries. Now I have a bigger sense for boundaries I have now begun to use that.



Liz Beaty’s story

The drawing I did on Maddy was a mountain range. The peaks and valleys’s depicted my highs and lows of the course. During my illness I have blocked out my feelings. This course bought my coping mechanisms to the forefront. Being able to see and acknowledge things have made them easier to deal with.

Thanks Em

P.S Stay Congruent



36 degree day and still managing to crack a smile….Go Girls!



Alana’s journey so far in ELEA I painted Ruby, my story I painted showed me with a broken heart, meaning I was broken and didn’t know where I stood in life. Then it showed me meeting the

horses, then happiness in my life, then me knowing

where and what to do in my life.



What I have taken from this program is knowing the difference between observation vs interpretation and looking at things from a broader viewpoint. This has helped me in my family life. The grounding activity I use when stressed or upset. The mind body method I use when I can’t identify when I’m upset.

My confidence has increased so much since completing this program and I can now go up to people and talk to them whereas I couldn’t do this before.

Alana Heyermans



Carrina Straga – My learning and growth over the program

So far doing the ELEA horse program I have learnt to be true to myself. I’ve learnt to stand up for myself, to not care as much about what people think and to honor my emotions.

This has helped me to deal with everyday life. I use these things I have learnt every day to better my life and now I am able to make choices and decisions with much more confidence J

I don’t let people tell me what I can and can’t do and it makes me feel good. I do what I like and don’t care how I look because it makes me happy.

I’ve got more confidence in the things I do, and if I don’t want to do it I just say NO!!



I feel more powerful and stronger than before and I have gained control of my life. I’m very thankful to the ELEA horse program for helping me do these things. Also it was such a great time working with the horse and it’s the first time in my life I have not been judged for having a disability.

Carrina Straga -‐ November 2012



This magazine has been proudly compiled by ‘Equine Learning Experiences Australia’ and the ‘Finding Futures’ participants, Carrina Straga, Olivia Treloar, Kylie Lacey, Carrina Appleby, Alana Heyermans, Liz Beaty, Rebecca Parker and Shaun Parker.

As the designer , developer and primary facilitator of the program , I feel humbled and proud to be part of the growth and development of such an amazing group of people over the past 6 months.

Each week I was met with eager and happy faces. A group of people with a willingness to learn, laugh, cry but more importantly to grow. Thanks so much to the ELEA herd of horses for your amazing wisdom and authenticity. Even when we could not see the truth, you were able to kindly and graciously point it out!! A huge thank you to my husband Paul of which this program would not be possible without all your support and input to so many components of ELEA. To the team of co-‐faclitators, Paul McVeigh and Cindy Jacobs . To our sponsors at ‘The Haymarket’ and ‘Mr Ed Equine Products’, and last but not least to Tracy Landt from Unicorn Park Equestrian Centre for your wonderful facilities and support.

Emily McVeigh Ph: 0415 991 115 Email: [email protected] Web: www.elea.com.au

equine learning experiences australia magazine 2nd edition

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