What a beeeeeautiful morning I had and such a fantastic way to spend part of Earth day. I feel like I died and went to heaven!
My friend, Rachel, who I’ve talked about here on my blog before and who I began co-facilitating workshops with this past December. She is also founder of LaValley Nature and Equine Sanctuary, along with her partner, Jeremy. She just happens to also be a yoga teacher.
So today was the day I hired her for her services for a one-on-one yoga practice lesson. And shhhhh, but secretly I was hoping with all my heart that she’d show me her horses and show me around her twenty acres of wooded property, complete with a retaining pond stocked full of fish.
While I didn’t want the yoga session to end as the view out onto her wooded property was divine, and her kitty’s out on the screen porch, looking in while we held various yoga poses was so sweet, along with the fact I could have stayed in Savasana pose forever, I was ecstatic when Rachel asked if I had some time and wanted to meet the horses.
Oh yes, oh yes, did I! And so I had to confess I had a pair of jeans in my car, along with a warmer jacket, and my rubber boots, just in case. 🙂
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve purposely driven past Rachel and Jeremy’s place just to see the horses outside. And it is, of course, so much more than that. Having connected with Rachel now more often in the workshops we are putting on together, and getting to know her better, has brought such joy to my life.
While she is almost twenty-two years younger than me, she is wise beyond her years. We share so much in common of our belief’s. Being with her I could talk for hours and hours and it would feel like only minutes had passed. She is such a dear soul.
I met the horses first – Dancer, Marna, Nattie and Hank. All horses that come to the sanctuary are considered seniors and so they only take horses over eighteen years of age.
Hank is the original inspiration for LaValley Sanctuary. Rescued in 2011, and in need of rehabilitation, and after being nursed back to health from malnutrition and arthritis, he received professional training from local trainer Tracy Auch to help improve his quality of life.
The Hank I met today is very affectionate, and I was lucky enough to receive two big, warm sniffs from him. One on my face and one in my hair. He seemed to really appreciate my organic conditioner and hairspray I use!
I must confess that I’m feeling quite smitten with him, too!
After meeting the horses we walked the paths that are maintained to enjoy the views and the sounds of nature. To have done yoga, followed up with being with the horses, and now the wind blowing through my hair walking these paths in nature, well, you can see why I said I felt like I died and went to heaven. DIVINE it was!
And again, being with Rachel is always so inspiring and something I continue to feel so grateful for. We talked about our plans for our next workshop, which we are just beginning to put thoughts and details to. But it will be a workshop about connecting with nature and creating walking sticks. We hope to do this all at her property, so stay tuned if you are local and are interested. It will be on Saturday, June 24th. To be notified when registration opens, be sure to sign up here for my newsletter where I announce upcoming workshops.
And so I shall end with LaValley’s mission statement, which I truly appreciate and admire:
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