Ingrid Gunby - Potent Coaching

01/08/2022

I’ve been very quiet on social media for the last couple of years. A few more months of study to go and the normal flow of photos of the herd should resume! In the meantime, the sun finally came out today and I got a bit of downtime with Djinni. Such a beautiful old soul - and check out that amazing mane!

Happy official Southern Hemisphere birthday to all our equine friends 💚

21/07/2021

This has to be one of the loveliest birthday presents ever. Dallas and Justine Woosnam have been secret squirrelling on this portrait of Anam Cara in his summer glory for months 💚💚💚💚 If you'd love a portrait of your beloved animal friend, check out Justine's work on her page Drawn To Nature, and get in the queue for a commission 🤩

19/07/2021

Luminous dusk on the last day of my fifty-second year on this beautiful earth. Mucking and feeding and checking rugs, and time for a quick whiskery nuzzle from Luka before I head up to the house, where the lights are on, the fire is lit, and someone else is cooking (bliss!)

I’m infinitely grateful for these beings and this place and all the people who’ve made this life possible 🙏💚

13/07/2021

For anyone who missed this beautiful film, and the talks that followed it, when it was broadcast a month or so ago, here's another chance to watch it for free. Follow the link to register.

Watch The Wisdom of Trauma Movie on July 28-August 1, Featuring DR. GABOR MATÉ Plus a 7-day teaching series on trauma with leading experts!

13/07/2021

“We realise who we are only in community with our fellow human beings and in the closest intimacy with the world of nonhuman beings.”
~ Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life

As the community of beings here has grown to include chickens, sheep and a cat, as well as the horses, dog, and humans, and the wild animals with whom we share this land, I’ve been struck by how each finds their niche and creates their own relationships with all the others. One of the chickens likes to lay her eggs in the horses’ hay bins while they are eating, and they calmly eat around her, leaving the egg resting safely on a little pad of hay. The cat greets the sheep nose-to-nose on his purposeful way through their paddock, and occasionally joins in sessions in the corral. The sheep charge down to play on the arena, join in the hay-eating, and use the horses’ salt lick, despite having an identical one of their own. The dog greets visitors, and materialises from nowhere when there are tears. Anam Cara wants to draw me into a sharing of breath, my face resting against the sweetness of his muzzle. In doing so, he reveals a sweetness, a fullness in me that I had forgotten or maybe had never quite known.

All of these relationships reveal more of all of us to each other and ourselves. We expand, become more whole, generous, and flexible. This is one of the great gifts, I think, of outdoor therapy in partnership with animals: discovering that we are more than what has happened to us or who we have believed ourselves to be, through unfolding, deepening intimacy with a community of our fellow beings 💚

27/05/2021

“Why do so many of us reduce and domesticate our one journey through this universe? Why do we long for the invisible walls to keep us in and mystery out? We have a real fear of freedom. In general, everyone is in favour of freedom. We fight for it and we praise it. In the practice of our lives, however, we usually keep away from freedom. We find it awkward and disturbing. Freedom challenges us to awaken and realise all the possibilities that sleep in the clay of our hearts.” - John O’Donohue, Eternal Echoes

The blood moon, a hard frost, and a couple of cancellations made for a slow day soaking up sunshine (and trimming hooves). I was thinking about the life we’ve made here, a hand-made life, as Clarissa Pinkola-Estes would put it, that fits us as no other life could. It’s freedom, but it’s also a lot of work - and the ongoing commitment to realising those sleeping possibilities is scary as hell at times!

So thank you to the people in my life who also choose freedom and uncertainty. You make it feel that little bit less scary 💚

24/05/2021

While we wait for the autumn rains that never quite arrive, the soft dust powders everything. The car park has become a rolling spot, scuffed and swept by hooves and bellies and tails 💚

19/05/2021

Elder horses 💚 Cherokee will be 20 on 11 September this year, so is just entering his sage years. Like our other elder herd members Joshi and Lulu who are no longer with us in body (but are very much present in spirit!), he brings emotional stability, wry humour, groundedness, and a less-is-more approach to sessions, that I wouldn’t ever want to be without. Thank you to for trusting me with him 🙏

17/05/2021

“There are people whose presence is encouraging. One of the most beautiful gifts in the world is the gift of encouragement. When someone encourages you, they help you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own. [...] Encouragement also helps you to engage and trust your own possibility and potential.” John O’Donohue, Eternal Echoes.

Over the weekend, I saw the power of encouragement up close. Co-facilitating, with my dear friend Margaret Pickering, a clinic for riders on working with fear and trauma, we got to acknowledge the pain of encountering criticism, bullying and judgement when we were struggling or uncertain - and then to feel how growth comes (more) easily when we offer each other our encouraging presence.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with such beautiful souls - two- and four-legged. And also for a quiet-ish day at home today to integrate and reconnect with the herd. It struck me, observing Djinni here, that a lack of encouragement is just as dispiriting for horses as it is for people. Of course it is.