People helping horses ~ Horses helping people

Sovan Hill Enterprises

    “When I entered the round pen with a 3 year old warmblood mare, I knew that I would be working with a very green horse. Being a trainer/riding instructor, my thought was that the work in the round pen would give me the foundation to start this horse and to get to know it’s personality to better our working relationship. Little did I know that my experience would take two months to process and even now, I’m not sure how to put my experience into words. It is something you have to feel and experience for yourself, but I will do my best to explain.

 

     In the round pen you are one on one with yourself and an animal whose communication skills are body language and eye contact. The horse becomes one who reacts to your actions, and before you know it, little pieces of yourself start to jump out and you see yourself standing in front of a mirror that talks back. For me, the round pen work brought out a part of me and an event that had a huge impact on my life. I guess I thought that if I could close the door and throw away the key, everything would be ok (not realizing that I had closed a part of myself behind that door as well). Somehow being in the round pen opened that door and what came out was overwhelming. That is why it has been so hard to put my experience into words that others could understand. The door it opens for each person has to be so different and what each person does with the information is up to them. The round pen is not a quick fix; how and why it works the way it does, I can not really explain. Man’s world today is all about the quick fix. If you have a problem, just take a pill to make it all go away; but you are only cover up the problem, not facing it. I believe we have a lot to learn from our surroundings and going back to nature seems to tell the story. My first round pen experience has made such a difference in my life; I can’t wait to open the next door.”

Trainer, Sovan Hill Enterprises

Lisa’s Story