Whisky Meade Farm

A beautiful day at the office! Fridays are spent co working with counsellor Ellie, my gorgeous horses, and our fabulous ‘healing with horses’ group participants. Very thankful!

Casper and his ‘to-go’ leaf for later snacking 🙂. Hope you are all enjoying a lovely spring-like day.

I would love to celebrate Rebecca Wootten, our amazing Whisky Meade team member for her efforts today at the Special Olympics regional competiton. Rebecca dedicates so much time and effort to her passions, and it is so wonderful to see her thriving in her chosen discipline. Congratulations to Rebecca, to her lovely loan horse, and to all the other athletes who competed today.

Hope you are heading into your holidays with these vibes…..:-). Thanks to all our amazing clients this year - we appreciate you all so much!!!

Very proud of my glamorous miss Emily. She is away for a few days for an adventure, a trip in the horse float, meeting some new friends, and a few days stay in a strange location. She is not a very big fan of travelling, but despite some nerves about the float, arrived at her destination her curious and confident self. I feel very lucky to have such a a kind and flexible pony friend, who rises to any challenge asked of her. She seems to greet new challenges with the mindset of “this seems like it might be pretty interesting”.

Not letting the weekends rain get in the way of some horse time! The joy of play based training -normally ‘scary things’ like umbrellas represent fun possibilities instead. Wren couldn’t wait to get under that umbrella!

EAGALA Certification training is coming back to NZ in Jan 2025. Make the most of having this on our doorstep (I had to go to Auzzie to do my training!). Anyone wanting more information, please just send me a message - I'm happy to answer any questions.
https://my.eagala.org/event/275496

There’s a pretty huge scandal unfolding in the equestrian community at the moment. It’s raising a lot of issues for people around how we treat our horses. It’s making people question whether the human desires & expectations we place on our horses are fair.

For a lot of people, equestrian sport is the only context in which they ever see horses. But for many years, there has been a groundswell of people questioning whether this was the only way. People who love horses so much that the thought of being without them physically hurts, but who have no desire to show, compete, or in some cases, even to ride. Those people exist. But there is often no clear pathway for them.

Thankfully, this is changing. Horse work based on connection, kindness, attunement & relationship is possible. We can be benevolent guardians for our horses & choose to be with them & care for them regardless of what we get in return. We can respect them as sentient beings with their own thoughts, feelings, wants & needs - just like us. Just as important as us. We can learn to be safe around them & they can learn to be safe around us. Together.

A different way is possible. It just requires us to find those places that allow us to connect with horses while staying true to our values. Places that honour those beautiful, different things about us that make us unique. It starts with giving ourselves permission to be authentic. To trust that when our instincts tell us to be more gentle & compassionate, they are right. We don’t have to listen to the pressures of world when they tell us we have to be harder or harsher to be successful. We can show what it looks like to be successful through softness & grace. We can redefine what success looks like.

That’s what we hope people can take away from these most recent events…that there IS a different way. Change is possible. And the most powerful change comes from us 🌈🦄💖

Miss Snowy finding her light! A lovely evening to have a play with my buddy. Snowy has been on a break from any training for quite some time as we worked out how to help her asthma problems. She is feeling a bit better, and was happy to be included in todays play with Vince Meineke

If anyone has been negatively impacted by the recent changes to disability funding, please provide your feedback 🙏🏾

Share your examples: In order to capture the impact of changes to purchasing for carer support and Individualised funding accurately, we are asking the community to share specific examples of their requests for reimbursement or quotes provided being declined. Please provide as much detail as possible. Your anonymity wil...