Guest Feature: The Mane Intent: Connecting People to Possibility With Horse Power

This is a guest post as a commitment to share good, heartfelt initiatives created by my clients, colleagues and friends. It is meant to show that kindness rules over cruelty and there are some awesome people making a difference in the world...

with love,  

Heather Embree

www.BlossomingHeart.ca

Life is Sunny With A Chance of Tornado

by Jennifer Garland

It started with a horse named Sunny, who walked into my life in November, 2011. Sunny is a beautiful palomino with a tremendous sense of fear which earned him the ‘barn name’ Sunny With a Chance of Tornado.

Sunny taught me to overcome my own fears. He taught me about being fully present and the joy that comes when you live in the moment. He also taught me to follow my heart.

When I entered my 5^th decade a few years ago, I was ready for a change. As a successful communications and management consultant, I could see the possibility of complementing my existing work with a horse-led initiative that created an opportunity for personal and professional development for others.

So I completed a certificate program in FEEL™ (Facilitated Equine Experiential Learning) and launched a new venture in 2014 called The Mane Intent. It’s a venture that represents a culmination of many life experiences – personal and professional – and one that makes my own heart blossom.

At The Mane Intent, we help people gain self-knowledge and personal coping skills required for a healthy and fulfilling life at home and work by offering a unique opportunity to work with horses as natural coaches. By engaging in ground work with horses in a controlled setting with the support of a professionally certified facilitator and effectiveness coach, our clients learn how our attitude, body language and intent impacts our relationships and the world around us. Our programming can prompt lasting change, enhanced effectiveness, and improved mental health and wellness. No previous horse experience is required and there is no riding involved.

Horses teach us to appreciate the nonverbal and verbal messages we share with others. Working in partnership with horses requires patience, gentleness, self-confidence, sensitivity, focus and keen awareness. Horses are large, but easily frightened prey animals whose survival has depended on becoming exquisitely attuned to body language, innuendo, and emotional tone, and to the position and movements of objects in their sensory fields. By reflecting back to us the signals and intents of which we aren’t even aware – much less aware that we are communicating outward – horses teach us to notice at all times the information that we convey.

Our horses offer sensitivity, perceptiveness and intuition without judgement in a safe environment for self-discovery and development. The essence of the experience is the unique heart connection between horse and human. The magic horses bring to personal healing and self-awareness is their ability to understand and intuit our emotion. In a very gentle way, they can evoke a human response that is often unexpected, surprising and powerful. It is in that moment that the gate of possibility opens and the path to healing or self-awareness begins. It is this natural ability to read our energy and connect to our emotions that makes horses powerful teachers and natural coaches.

Watch our video and follow your heart as it leads you to connect with one of our horses at The Mane Intent.

About Jennifer Garland

Jennifer Garland is the Owner/Program Director of The Mane Intent, offering Health and Wellness Workshops and Individual and Team Effectiveness Coaching. She has over 25 years of leadership experience in communications, cause-related marketing and change management. As a strategist, facilitator and effectiveness coach, Jennifer has provided counsel and support to senior leaders from all walks of life to build productive relationships, facilitate learning and to embrace change.