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| Big Sky Montana |
February was a busy month; I had 17 posts on my blog. Today is March 13 and I realized that up until now I have posted only two entries. So, I should hurry to catch up. I don't know about you, but month of March brings to my mind visions of outdoors. And since Persian New Year begins on the first day of Spring on March 21, it makes the month of March more special to me.
Speaking of outdoors... I've invited a guest blogger for this month – Gayle Lawrence. She will tell us about outdoors and her love of horses. Gayle began her Journey of Discovery surrounded by horses. Having a deep connection with nature and animals, made her to become a travel business owner and an entrepreneur.
In the following story you will hear about her love of horses and how she came up with the idea of conducting a special tour to Montana, for a week of outdoor adventures.
Heartbeats and Hoofprints – My Life With Horses
Gayle Lawrence
I know that my Soul has had many past-lives with horses as I've loved them from the moment I took my first breath in this lifetime! Just ask my mother and she'll confirm this, from the moment I could barley walk and talk...I wanted horses....even wooden ones!
As I got a little older and blossomed into my "Cowgirl" personality I was ready for the real thing and Patches entered my life! I was crazed for any TV show with horses, Black Beauty, National Velvet, My Friend Flicka, Fury, Roy Rodgers and Trigger, Gene Autry and Champion, The Lone Ranger and Silver, Tonto and Scout. I loved them all and felt a personal connection.
Being on the back of my horse King, taking flight and soaring over a jump, feeling all of that power beneath me set my Soul free!
I started competing in horse shows as a youth exhibitor in lots of different events. In my mid-teens I was into the Speed events and had a great barrel racing horse named Smokey Joe.
I loved racing around those barrels, my long hair flying in the wind trying to beat the best time on the clock! Getting that ribbon felt like an Academy Award!
After college, working as a Dental Hygienist, I continued to train and show my own horses but my "fantasy" was to train and show horses professionally. Never losing sight of that vision, I "manifested" that dream into reality. I had enough experience to land a job with a wealthy banker in Iowa
I was now rubbing shoulders with all the top Quarterhorse trainers in the show horse world and within a couple of years I was married to one of them! My child-hood fantasy was now truly a reality, married and living on a beautiful show-horse facility, traveling to the big circuits from California to New York , Canada to Florida
Then as so often happens, life threw me a curve-ball and this ideal life crumbled around me. I found myself divorced, my Spirit broken, my Soul devastated, cast out with my suitcase, 2 horses, Katie my Jack Russel Terrier and 2 cats Sylvester and Miss Kitty and had no clue what to do next. Some dear friends took me and my animals under their wing as I tried to make sense of what had gone wrong. This horrible event many years ago was the beginning of my "Spiritual Awakening with Horses" as they were truly my teachers who helped me move forward and heal my life.
During this painful process of putting my life back together my horses taught me so much about courage, trust and not getting stuck in painful emotions. Horses force you to "be in the moment" as they don't live in the past or worry about the future. They are big and powerful so you must learn how to set healthy boundaries with them and be a leader. Horses are herd animals and their existence depends on being in relationships, this was one of my major lessons from them, how to move back into healthy relationships with others. They are extremely sensitive and completely forgiving and were more compassionate friends than many of the people I knew. Horses literally saved my life, for without them, I'm not sure I would have survived the trauma of my divorce.
There were many ups and downs during those years but my horses continued to teach me so many things about myself that helped me grow spiritually and kept me moving forward. Years ago my wounded Soul could never have imagined that today I'd have my own travel business that has taken me to so many magical and mystical places in the world!
Horses are still a part of the magic in my life whether it's riding Arabian horses around the pyramids in Egypt or Paso Fino horses in Peru
This July 7 – 14, 2012 I’ll be escorting a group on a trip to The Blacktail Ranch in Wolf Creek, Montana for a week of outdoor adventure and personal retreat. As The Blacktail is a working cattle ranch, that means lots of horses and this prompted me to sit and reflect about all of my years working with horses.
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