Take A Leap With Horses

One of the hardest days of my life was saying the physical goodbye to my incredible mom! It’s amazing how strong we must get when we have to and I knew I would have to be strong to write and read this at my mom’s funeral as I knew no one else could do her life justice in what she did as they didn’t know here like I did. There was no other like my mom, Faye! This was a little unorthodox that I, her daughter, said the eulogy but so was my mom, so I believe this was a great fit as she gave me everything in life. For myself, the loss of her seemed and continues to seem greater every day because I simply just miss her. I miss her voice; I miss calling her for every little simple question and just being able to talk with her. Within the first month of her passing, both my youngest daughter and I tried calling her home number and cell number because it seemed quiet, too quiet, without her presence. Mom and I had an incredible relationship not just as, mother and daughter, but we were soul ...

Christmas is coming, and it’s hard to know, what to get a horse person that’ll make them say “Whoa! This is my passion - my dream come true!   A career helping people - and horses too!” Where does this come from? Is there such a combination? It exists and its real, at the Equine Connection! Five days of learning and a family on top, plus the whole business part - which makes it tiptop! No reinventing the wheel, we’ve set you for success, We have built your foundation and give in excess! So, on Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen on Comet, on Cupid, on Donner and Blitzen! Get them a course where they need no translator, a complete package career as a facilitator! A course that’s for them, as much as for all, Today is the day, so hurry and call!

In September we had received an email from South Korea asking us if we would be interested in being a reference for their government initiated study for program development through horse and healing programs. How exciting is this?! A group coming all the way from the other side of the world conducting a research piece on this powerful EAL program! So of course, without any doubt in our mind, we said yes! The team that came down were composed of university professors, doctors and horse specialists. They came, researched, asked questions, ran through a couple programs, and studied our unique educational approach! However, this blog isn’t necessarily about their research. It’s about how AMAZING having a language barrier was. They had spoke some English - but not all of them. And yet, we all understood each other through the power of body language. The night before they came out to our facility, they had asked us if we would like to go to dinner, so yet again, OF COURSE! We had met up a...

Calgary AB October 3, 2011- Owner and Senior Facilitator of Spiritual Equine Connection, Kari Fulmek nearly gave up on her dream of running an Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) program after a year of trials and tribulations. This is a story of an amazing horse that has beaten so many odds to come be a part of our EAL program. EAL learning is “Where the Horses do the Teaching”. All our programs our done on the ground, “out of the saddle programs”. We work with horses and at risk youth to help build self esteem, self confidence and many life skills. We use horses because; By their intuitive nature and innate sensitivity, horses can provide facilitators with a window into the participants’ personality. They mirror back what the participants are feeling and participants need to adjust their feelings and behaviours to work successfully with the horses. Fulmek had always dreamt of being able to work with horses to help others, and her dream began to come true when she was certified as an...

It has been a cold winter in Alberta, so the opportunity to head off to Florida was perfect timing! However, our booking for this could have been thought out a bit better. The course was Starting on May 1st, but when we booked the course, we didn’t realize that Karsyn's wedding reception (Kari’s oldest daughter and Carolyn was the emcee for the event) would be the Saturday before. Generally for travelling schools we tend to get there the day before so we can check out the set up and location and to make sure we know where we are going (if you have read the rest of our travelling blogs you will understand why we need to do that). Well this wasn’t going to be the case for going to Wellington Florida. Luckily, our beautiful host Sasha was willing to work with us and send us pictures of how the set up was so we felt a little better about getting there so late. So we got up and headed straight to the airport after a beautiful reception and about 4 hours of sleep. Off to Florida we wen...

Faye came to live with me in May if 2008, she was just a year old at the time and I bought her from Bear Valley Rescue in Sundre, Alberta. She was quiet and Friendly from the start, loved being around people, getting pet and brushed. Faye grew and grew and grew, she spent most of her time eating grass and playing with her friend Gemma. My plan was to have Faye Started when she turned three, but unfortunately was a part of a terrible accident. On Monday September 28th, 2009 a terrible wind picked up and blew our horse shelter over. Faye was standing behind it and was struck by the metal roof. It cut her back open and made a huge wound. It was a big decision to save her and help her to recover in the best possible way. We didn't know if she would be rid able in the future, but deep down I knew that with her strong heart, and super spirit she would be a fighter and come back. It was going to take a lot of time. I moved her to a heated indoor stall at a barn close by and there her ...

Sydney: A Dreaded Place to a Dream Place Off to Sydney we go! We were initially nervous to see how this time would go as last time we were not big fans. We stayed in downtown Sydney and did not enjoy it at all because lets be real… We are not city people! But we knew we had to go get people certified in Sydney, so for the sake of our business we did it. We finally arrived in Sydney, far later than expected, but everything still worked out. Our lovely Australia Instructor, Jane Hemingway-Mohr, whose house we would be doing the program at, was there to pick us up and she greeted us with such a beautiful smile! Since we arrived so late we were unable to see the place where the program would take place the night before so we had no idea what to expect the next morning. Staying positive, we eagerly waited for morning as we were curious where this program would take place. Morning finally came and Jane came to pick us up bright and early to take us back to her place before...

This trip was exciting! Not only were we about to go train the largest group of facilitators yet, we were also there for the very first course for our new Australia Instructor, Jane Hemingway-Mohr! But before we even got to Australia, we figured that since we were going so so so very far, we should probably stop over in New Zealand! Karsyn and her husband had gone to Mount Maunganui before and told us it was the cat’s meow, so thats where we headed!! And they were right! After a LONG day of flying and wrapping our heads around the fact that we had just lost an entire day because of the time difference, we headed to our hotel. It wasn’t quite ready yet, but they were kind enough to offer us the pool so we could take a dip and wake up a little. As it turns out, we don’t really know what to do in a pool just the two of us… We dove in (or gently stepped in to avoid shock), commented on how great it felt, and Kari then looked at Carolyn and said “Now what do we do in here.”...

So down to N’Awlins (New Orleans) we went for Kari’s 50th birthday. Woo hoo! It was going to be the time of our lives for all 11 of us! Sunshine, Bourbon Street, and living it up!…. Just kidding about the sunshine. But 11 of Kari’s closest friends and family flew down to New Orleans for the weekend to celebrate the big 5-0. So we fly in, get picked up in a limo as it was way cheaper than all of us paying for cabs, and finally arrived at our little bed and breakfast. We then decide we are going to get going to the beautiful, infamous Bourbon Street. We all can’t wait, so of course, we beautify ourselves. We get outside, start walking, and it starts to rain. So Carolyn suggests that we stay under cover beneath the bridge until the rain passes. However, no one heard Carolyn, and so there we all are, trucking away in the rain, and what once was rain was now a torrential down pour. This was pretty much the equivalent of people pouring buckets of water over your head. By the time we got to t...

The course in Pitt Meadows came together pretty quick. Kristen, our host really did manage to pull everything together in the shortest time ever, which also meant we had to get all of our stuff together rather quickly as well. We arrived at the airport and started our drive to Surrey where we were staying… which apparently was bad… but we will tell you that story after. So we drove. And drove. And drove. And the traffic!  My goodness the traffic! Usually we can get our bearings within a couple of days, but this time, we never got ahold of it. We never even managed to play any tunes in the car as we were far to focused on what the gps was telling us to do. Speaking of the gps. This was it’s last trip. After a couple more mystery tours as a result of this thing, we will be hosting a “GPS is going in the garbage”party shortly upon our return. The traffic was unreal! And if you have read our past blogs, you will know how Carolyn feels about this. This was more of the ...

There is something comforting about heading off to a host school where the hosts are already facilitators! We were so excited to go out and see Rachel and Flo from Flar Equine in Hubley NS! The flight time was the good ol’ red eye! We figured we could fall asleep on the way so no problem!  Well, that’s not how we work so no sleep for us! We arrived at the Halifax airport and grabbed our rental car. A little different from the one in Texas, we went from the little blueberry car to a nice MASSIVE SUV! A little more fun to drive for sure, that is until we saw the underground parking at our rental apartment. Not quite the space or turning radius that was needed for pulling in and out. Every time we tried to leave the parking garage it became the scene from Austin Powers where it took 16 little turns to be able to leave. The apartment itself was lovely! Nice size and perfect location. Just a couple little things. Firstly the hallway looked almost exactly like the hallw...

South Padre Island is the kind of place that makes you sit back sigh and say “Ahhhhhhh” as you sit back and watch the waves lap up right in front of your balcony. How beautiful this place is.

 Getting there was a little more of a challenge. First of all, we got our rental car. Possibly the smallest little blue car we have ever driven. As Carolyn described it, there was simply a hamster running on a wheel under the hood where the engine should be. Getting up a hill was really an exercise in becoming the cheerleader for the little car to get to the top. “You can do it little car, just a little father!  After we get up the hill you will be able to coast down the other side!” Aside from driving a blueberry around, we, once again, utilized the GPS. Once again, It took us in the wrong direction. Once we finally got on track we were on our way to the location for the course. WOWZERS! The host facility was amazing! Gorgeous location and even the classroom was maybe the best we had e...

If you had told me ten years ago that I would be working with horses facilitating life skills, I would have called you a liar. I’m a little different than most of the people that have done this course in the fact that I had no horse experience - and never really had a desire previously to get any.  I had grown up with dogs and thought that was good enough. It was not until Kari asked me to come on board to help with marketing and technology stuff that I started to truly understand the teaching power that they possess.  So initially Kari asked me to come out to Saskatchewan with her to see some programs and meet the program designer. So I went out and it was cold. I don’t deal well with being cold and I don’t hide it well either, so Kari was very aware that I was not super impressed with being there. At first, I didn’t get it. All of these people were so in love with the horses and talking about how amazing they were, but I hadn’t yet connected the dots. In fact, they kind of ...

After completing the program, Maclean approached Carolyn and said “we all came here strangers but today we are leaving here friends.” Through the power of the horses, they were all able to bond and have a strong connection. Once strangers, now friends.

“Never give up on someone with a mental illness. When “I” is replaced by “we,” illness becomes wellness.” -Shannon L. Alder. It is very important to ensure those who feel this way, find comfort and happiness in something. Through the horses, we can make sure this can happen. Sam had always faced many mental health issues which resulted in her abusing substances and not being able to be herself. Her mental illness resulted in her life being changed drastically and she never could find true happiness in anything she would do.     A few years ago-after a bit of convincing- she decided to give the program a try. She came very scared and wasn't completely for it. But she faced through her fear and came anyways.     The first day she came; we went out to the field to caught a horse for her to work with. Due to her fear, she was hesitant to picking a horse and therefore, stayed away. Suddenly, a horse came out of the herd and picked her out. This special horse w...