The Birth of heart retreat
HEART Retreat was founded in 2007 a year that changed my life forever. This is when I started to learn how incredible being with the horses was and is.
On December 6th, 2007, (my Dad’s birthday) I laid to rest my equine partner of 33 years. Sandaro was 34 years young and had just been diagnosed with a rapid growing tumour on his bladder. Little did I know I was going to lose my Dad, three days later. I was already dealing with my life altering injuries and the loss of my career due to a very serious motor vehicle collision in March of that year (2007). Death x 2 and my life altering changes caused by the motor vehicle collision was more than I could handle.
Actually it was death times more than just two as I was finding out throughout this healing journey.
It was December 12, 2007, I was on my way home from my Dad’s funeral and drove by a farm that was listed for sale. I looked at it longingly as I drove by and I immediately heard the words “Equine Healing Centre”. I knew that what I was hearing was a gift from Dad and Sandaro. That is how HEART Retreat was born. I started unwrapping this gift.
I started serious therapy for both my physical challenges and the emotional ones. It was during this process, I found myself spending as much time with my other horses as I could possibly tolerate physically. Even if my injuries were so severe that I could never ride again, I found myself wanting to spend more and more time with them.
There was something profound and incredible going on that I could not put into words.
Me & Sandaro
Every single person that has come to HEART Retreat uses the same word when we do our check-ins after being with a horse. That word is …….. . Well you will have to come and experience it for yourself. Connect with HEART Retreat and experience that one word and more.
As someone who has been touched by our herd tells others about his experience, “I can’t explain it …….. but it works.”
The Magic
of Horses
I have spent my entire life with horses. When I was very young, I used to dream about them. When I was six, I rode a pony that bolted from the handler and took off across a field, it exhilarated me and scared the SH*T out of my parents but I wanted more.
The summer I turned 9 years old, I fell off my sister’s horse and broke my left arm in two places. I asked the doctor, when can I ride again?
When I was 12, I started baby sitting and saved all my money so I could buy my own horse because that was the deal with my Dad, you want it, you pay for it…all of it! Well, I did, I bought Sandaro when I was 14 years old. For 33 years, I paid for all of it, my parent never has to put one cent towards my beautiful equine partner.
Sandaro and I started our relationship on the ground because he was only 11 months old and had never even had a halter on. Which looking at my track record of staying on a horses back was probably a good idea.
This is where my first life lessons started. Sandaro was a beautiful, patient, kind teacher and steady in his teachings.
He was there through everything I went through. 33 years of “life”. I was unaware of how much horses could do for us. I am talking about the deep healing they can offer us, the support, the lessons, the growth and as I found out just recently the balancing of our bodies.