Starr Horse Retreats

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Minden, CA
Starr Horse Retreats

www.starrhorseretreats.com After living 30 years in San Francisco, my husband and I moved to Minden, Nevada to buy this 30-acre equestrian facility.

Starr Horse Retreats is a sacred sanctuary where horse lovers and starseeds from all walks of life come together to awaken their divine purpose, rediscover their soul family, and embrace their gifts with bitless partnership. We spent the past 2 1/2 years restoring the center and guest houses to roll out the Shamanic Horse Healing Retreats. With a degree in health education from San Francisco State University, and after traveling extensively, I began hosting annual consciousness gatherings called Gaia Gathering. I have hosted many plant medicine circles, and am so excited to launch our Horse Healing Retreats monthly to share the shamanic medicine of the horses.

01/03/2026

As we enter a new year, the horses remind us of something simple: presence is enough.

To stand with a horse, to walk beside them, to watch them eat hay together in the quiet morning, brings the body back into coherence. Their steadiness settles the nervous system. Their rhythm entrains the breath. Their presence invites calm.

There are seasons for learning and shaping, and there are seasons for simply being. Winter is a season for grounding. A season of listening. A season of allowing the body to recalibrate.

The horses hold the field as we move into 2026. They stand. They breathe. They carry the weight with grace.
StarrHorseRetreats.com

01/01/2026

To stand with a horse is to stand before a mirror.
They don't see the masks we wear, the stories we tell, the costumes of identity.
They see straight into our energy. Into our emotions. Into our truth.
Sometimes, what they reflect back is hard to face, but they don't judge.
They simply show us.
And in showing us, they invite us to release.
This is the whisper beyond words.
It is not spoken in language, but felt in presence.
It is the horse saying, "Come back to yourself. Come back to balance. Come back to love."
Happy New Year of the Horse!

12/31/2025

When Horses Play in the Mud… Things Get Slippery Fast 🐎💦
After wild weather moves through, the herd at Starr Horse Retreats releases pent-up energy through play, sliding, running, and full-body expression. Young Solar takes a tumble. Jasper slips and recovers. The mud turns into a playground, and the horses remind us to have fun.

This is what horses do when they feel safe, connected, and free to be themselves. No forcing. No training session. Just herd dynamics, weather energy, and pure equine expression.

Watch closely and you’ll see communication, relationship, and joy moving through the body.

Filmed at Starr Horse Retreats near Lake Tahoe.
www.StarrHorseRetreats.com

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas and Happy Fire Horse New Year!

2025 was the year of shedding and remembering.
2026 is the year of embodiment and ignition.

May the Fire Horse awaken courageous, heart-led action,
and may wisdom find its home in the body, the land, and the living present.

The Fire Horse carries the medicine of right action.
This is not impulsive fire.
This is fire that has learned restraint, responsibility, and care for the whole.

Galaxy, our thoroughbred herd leader, and Aries archetype, teaches that true leadership does not charge ahead.
It holds the center.
It listens to the herd.
It moves when movement serves life.

2025 cleared the battlefield.
Old war patterns, inherited urgency, and lone-wolf survival fell away.

2026 restores the sacred flame.
Fire returns to the hearth.
Action returns to the heart.
Leadership becomes stewardship.

This is the year Mars is healed.
The year Aries fire matures.
The year the warrior becomes the guardian.

What was remembered now becomes lived.
What was carried now becomes embodied.
What was wounded now becomes wise.

With love and gratitude,
Melinda Starr
Starr Horse Retreats

12/23/2025

Ho, Ho, Ho! 'Tis the season of joy between the storms! Watch Galaxy, the thoroughbred, rear up with River, the pinto!💫🐴🎄

12/22/2025

Happy Holidays and winter solstice from Starr Horse Retreats!
I wish you all a warm holiday blessing and a happy New Year as we enter the Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse in 2026.
Our documentary film, Letters from the Herd, has been selected as a Finalist for the Roy Dean Grant through From the Heart Productions, and we are now fully in post-production.
Letters from the Herd follows seven people who arrive at Starr Horse Retreats to learn positive reinforcement clicker training, only to discover that the horses are teaching them.
The film is currently being edited by Emmy-nominated director Chihiro Wimbush, with the goal of completing a rough cut by the end of January 2026.
Because the project is fiscally sponsored by From the Heart Productions, all donations are tax-deductible, and contributions go directly toward post-production.
If this speaks to you, you’re welcome to pass it along.
May your holidays be filled with peace, connection, and the quiet wisdom of the season.
Learn More www.lettersfromtheherd.com/
Warmly,
Melinda Starr

12/20/2025

As the world grows louder, faster, and more disconnected, the medicine of the horse grows more essential.
We cannot return to the old way, using them as tools, locking them in cages, silencing their voices.
The horses are calling us to a new way. A way where they are free to roam, free to express, free to live as partners instead of prisoners. A way to honor their role not as servants but as teachers.
This is not just about horses. It is about humanity remembering who we are. For when we learn to live in harmony with horses, we also learn to live in harmony with each other, and with the Earth. That is the future they are asking us to create.
The herd is calling humanity back. Back to partnership, back to respect, back to remembering that all beings are sovereign.
We were not given horses to conquer. We were invited into their circle to learn balance, humility, and love.
Their presence is not just healing for individuals; it is planetary. To walk beside a horse is to step into the memory of freedom.
To answer their call is to awaken.

12/18/2025

We call them horses.
But perhaps, we should call them shamans.
They carry the medicine of the herd, the medicine of the land, the medicine of memory
older than humanity itself.
When we allow ourselves to enter their field, something shifts.
The frantic pace of modern life slows down.
Our nervous system resets.
Our hearts remember how to open.
Each horse has its own medicine.
Some are warriors, helping us face fear.
Some are nurturers, teaching us compassion.
Some are mirrors, showing us where we are still broken.
Together, they form a council of healers,
waiting for us to listen.

12/17/2025

Why Separating Horses Causes More Stress Than You Think
Horses are social animals, and they want to eat together, the same way we do. We gather with family and friends and share space when we eat. Horses want to as well. They stand next to the ones they like, they move when they need to, they chew and breathe together. Eating together is regulating for horses. Once a basic herd order is established, which happens surprisingly fast, shared feeding lowers stress, supports digestion, and reduces conflict. Being in the open air, on solid ground, with freedom to move allows their nervous systems to regulate naturally.

12/16/2025

Horses are symbols of freedom, yet we confine them to stalls.
They are grazing animals, yet we keep them in dirt.
They are herd beings, yet we isolate them.
They are healers, yet we restrain them with bits, whips, spurs, and cross-ties.

What have we normalized?

It’s time to rethink how we home our horses.
It’s time to let the horses run.

Address

2801 Tamara Court
Minden, CA
89423

Telephone

+14153707092

Website

http://www.starrhorseretreats.com/

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