How did HORSES NATURALLY! start?
HORSES NATURALLY! began in Santa Fe in 2001. It grew out of the founder's passion for horses, her dissatifaction with the conventional "wisdom" of traditional horse-keeping methods and her consequent explorations into the newly emerging natural and more intuitive ways of relating to horses. She was not alone. Horsepeople were searching for alternatives in training and caring for these magnificent beings. The voices had been whispering for quite some time - Bill Dorrance, Linda Tellington Jones, Pat and Linda Parelli, Monty Roberts, Klaus Hempfling, Ray Hunt and others spoke eloquently for Horse and were beginning to get the ear of even the mainstream horseworld. No one "expert" had all the answers but what was more notable, a new climate of questioning was emerging.
Consciousness was awakening in all areas of life as we passed the millenium and HORSES NATURALLY! was a part of this in a small and local way, here in Santa Fe. A very loose group of horse people were in the habit of attending various "fringe" clinics and from that evolved regularly scheduled events. Guest presenters covered topics such as barefoot trim (Martha Olivo introduced Santa Fe to Dr. Strasser's rehab work), massage, accupuncture, chiropractic, PMU alternatives, homeopathy etc, etc. Unfortunately, few presentations were documented. But interest was growing, even vets were attending and HORSES NATURALLY! was filling a void.
The group meetings discontinued abruptly, however, when Sheila took a sabhatical to focus on "making a living" - she and her husband operate three restaurants in Santa Fe.
Now, at this writing Oct. 2005, much of the info we researched and presented has become (almost) common knowledge. There is always more research and education to do but sources such as Natural Horse Mag, Parelli Natural Horsemansip and many other credible visionaries are proliferating that info with skill.
...and HORSES NATURALLY! evolves...