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In April Galleywinter Farm will celebrate our 34 year anniversary. On May 3 (right after May Day) we'll be hosting an Open House/ Benefit Concert / Celebration of the Arts - Art Show & Sale with fabulous local artists. Perhaps you'll read or sing, or listen to some of the horse-related experiences of my wonderful student-teachers (meaning they teach me as much as I might teach them).  Also greeting the horses, ongoing tours of the farm, camp sites, barn and tent accomodations, walking trails and sit spots. Our new Sauna!!

Please plan to be here!  May 3, 2025

Support the growing Galleywinter community

On April 1, 1991 my amazing former husband and I and acquired the raw land that was to become Galleywinter Farm. I also birthed my tender warrior daughter Caitlin. Her mark on the land, farm, business, horses, and my heart is indelible. She still frequents Galleywinter to my delight, and now offers me horse lessons.  As with any farm or rural venture, it's been a lot of work! Also a labor of love and blessings. 

Many have come here to our little place in the Rockfish Valley for Horsemanship and Healing, and imbued their special energies into the land and the horses who grace our lives.  I am ever humbled by their gifts of insight, wisdom and love - and grateful for their helping hands.  We are looking forward to more years of sharing the magic of a special place. Many thanks to everyone of you who has helped make this place, this land, and my chosen work so meaningful. 

Preface: Just An IDEA!

This is something I experienced with my horse. It seemed to be helpful. Maybe it will be of interest and use to you in your daily activities

Referring to trigger stacking, Warwick Schiller talks about the 13th rabbit, another one of his helpful analogies. Should we distinquish residual rabbits, a preload of tension, fear or discomfort that's predictive of trouble? This suggests we do our homework, literally. What we do away from the horse is pivotal to our success (unless we have a lot of natural confidence, skills and athletic ability that could override the various unseemly circumstances that so often arise when humans attempt to ride horses). 

Purring Kittens. Let's talk about what could collude in or be "layered-in" (Mark Russell) - to the horse or our own being to offset the rabbits to and get us more reliably to the tipping point of ease, comfort, understanding and connection. Are purring kittens a good analogy? Can we base our horsemanship on the inner purring kittens, and not an iron hand, an all-knowing and potentially dominating leader? Deb Dana's book Anchored describes the polyvagal theory in user friendly terms, and shares valuable insights on how to cultivate calm, centeredness. It's so appropriate for coming to horses in a conducive state.

Is there a trauma "eraser"? Scars exist on all levels. My homepathic provider described it as being in the blood and in our dreams. Certainly it stretches through our lineage, ancestors, villages, families, epigenetically, energetically. In the brain, blood, and body's tissues - bone, fascia, muscle tendon...

Let us be intrigued!!

Preface: Just An IDEA! 

This is something I experienced with my horse.  It seemed to be helpful. Maybe it will be of interest and use to you in your daily activities.

As with so many movements we cultivate with the horse, the application and meaning of a fixed hand is a great metaphor in human health. While is most often referenced for mounted work using headgear, usually a bridle, everyone can benefit from it on the ground as well. We will look at it in horsemanship first and later look at applications for the unmounted human!

What a fixed hand is not:  A fixed hand does not mean an unyielding stance, harshness, or pulling. It is in fact the opposite of pulling - which are working to elminate in our relationships. Inviting is not pulling. It's opening and looking with interest in the direction of desired movement. It's not absolute either. It often needs to be adjusted, reins or leadrope shortened to provide the deisred feel to the horse.

Years ago I started tucking my leadrope hand into my belt or holding my waistband as I moved about with horse attached. Thanks to a fairly sticky individual, Felipe, who had been pulled on way too many times and not followed through with to a good outcome. He dragged along, and I really hate that. It's enough effort to carry myself forward. I don't want to feel the weight of his indifference on the lead, or have to nag him over and over to step forward. (Not different than a horse that's gotten dull to leg aids, and long ago gave up on the human to offer their own idea, posture and commitment rather than focusing on the horse's failure to "cooperate.")

It was such a relief to the horse to know the boundaries, to feel when the slack came out because of missing an invitation, and to have the opporutnity to make his own decision. Ultimately this conveys our respect for them and the ability to learn, move, make choices that make sense. Within the horse It cultivates free will, respect, soveriegnty/dignity.  It may seem free will and a fixed hand are in opposition but stay with me.

The fixed hand while riding is steady, quiet and reliable. It’s the I AM WITH YOU hand and the BE WITH ME hand. It’s a cure for a busy and quixotic hand, a distracted and ever-changing hand or the “More-Now” hand.

Nothing like vertigo and a stress fracture of my right foot to slow me down. And the rapidly shortening days of mid November, a cozy bed and inside projects piled up. Hallelujah!

You have to make The Commitment, whatever it is, without knowing there will be a reward. It has taken a long time and much work to get to the point where I commit to something that seems to work for me - what my partner, horse or body, needs for instance. I am amazed and humbled how long it can take and how hard it usually is to change even the most infintesimal habits - of behavior or thought. All the more reason to just commit to something, however small it seems and step out of the addictive need to constantly evaluate outcomes. Set it up and wait is suggested in workig with horses. Indeed. And Wait with expecting or knowing what will come.

Thanks for coming.

"Why are natural horsemanship methods, deemed more "effective, safer, more humane, more civilized" becoming more accepted in the horse world?

For one thing, "for the first time in human history, women dominate the horse industry and most women have the empathy, the nurturing sense, the sensitivity, the perception to see the vulnerability, the timidity and the dependence of the horse." Robert Miller, D.V.M. Lettors to the Editor,  Eclectic Horseman July/August 2007

I appreciated Dr. Miller's recognition of the role women play in the horse industry.  I have been working entirely with women students of the horse for 20 years now, as natural horsemanship gained attention and validity.  Bridging what seemed like a gap between the working cowboy ways and the way women naturally engage with horses has been quite an experience.  It has stretched me - which I needed!  I have endeavored to mix and blend these approaches, to honor the traditions of horsemanship, to notice what works for horses and humans in given situations, and to honor the perspectives, gifts and talents of my students as they find their way of being with horses. This has helped women become happier, healthier partners and citizens.  Some have healed from trauma, not unlike the horses we work with.

Even my cat Frizzen is into horses. He oversees horse lessons by day, helps desensitize the horses to rapidly moving small fur-bearing predator types.  Here he is taking a nap on a great book I was reading "The Noble Horse" by Wendy Williams.  I've never read such a comprehensive history of equine evolution. Inspired me to visit fossil sites in the West and Europe.

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