Heiwa Equine Connection, LLC

05/01/2025

Inhale. Exhale. Horse.

04/16/2025

02/24/2025

“So many folks take a lesson about working with a horse and turn it into a lesson for themselves. Many don’t even realize the inner troubles they need to work on, but working with horses always seems to bring personal issues into focus for most of my students. I am always thinking about the things that are important in making a person a good horseman — no surprise there — but those things are also necessary in finding a good companion or friend, someone real desirable to be around. Over the years, I have found eight solid characteristics or qualities that horses have that I believe effective humans should have as well.” -Buck Brannaman

Buck Brannaman and his philosophy of working with horses helps horses accept humans and work confidently and responsively.

02/17/2025

If we want to be kind to our horses, we have to start being kind to ourselves.
A lot of equestrians I meet put themselves under a lot of pressure. I know, because I was one of them, not too long ago.
I’m an ambitious person and I love making progress. When I met the academic art of riding, for the first time I had the feeling that even I, a just moderately talented horse person, could actually achieve something. And the results came fast. It felt very good. I put in the work, my horse and I developed.
At some point, my ambition met my horse’s physical limits. Intellectually, I accepted that. Nobody pushed me to do more, and yet, this slight disappointment grew. It is fairly normal to have a plateau in the training, I was told, it will pass. Well, it didn’t pass for a long time.
I didn’t know that I felt that pressure until I started to develop another horse and we started to work on more “fancy” exercises. Suddenly, the pressure was off. And that’s when I became really conscious of it. And felt deeply sorry.
It’s not that I was hitting my horse or doing anything harmful. But I was unfair in other ways. Such as stopping to develop him or trying different approaches, which must have been confusing. Just not being as happy about what he could give me. Not so much looking forward to our time together as I used to.
When we work with horses, we will meet sides of our character we managed to keep hidden or that we wished didn’t exist. Horsemanship has a way of bringing that to light. And that’s ok, and we have to forgive ourselves. If we cannot accept ourselves with our flaws, I believe we also cannot truly accept our horses.
So, don’t be so hard on yourself. Horsemanship is a great journey of character development. For all of us. We all have flaws, and we will all meet them at some point. If not, we just haven’t done it long enough or sincerely enough, and we haven’t felt that deep wish to truly understand horses.
“Look into the eyes of your horse, but don’t be frightened by the truth.” (Bent Branderup)

02/07/2025

"One day, the mountain that is in front of you will be so far behind you, it will barely be visible in the distance.

But the person you become in learning to get over it?

That will stay with you forever.

And that is the point of the mountain."

~ Brianna Wiest, 'The Mountain is You'.

Art by Jody Bergsma

07/18/2024

Finally ready to get going on the equine/animal side to my skillset! Welcome to Heiwa Equine Connection, LLC, a business focusing on trauma-informed equine assisted learning and holistic health and wellness for horses (and other animals). First project is underway; a collaboration with Woodford's Hollow to be held at Creek Side Horse Park. More information coming soon!