Quisque: Porttitor

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Equine Learning Experiences Australia

Newsletter # 4 Oct / Nov 2012

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The ELEA horses are enriching people’s lives! The last month has been busy at ‘Equine Learning Experiences Australia’. We have had the arrival of a new herd member ‘Ruby’ (pictured on the left) who was kindly donated to ELEA by Maxine at ‘Howling Wolf Ranch’ miniature horse stud. Ruby has stepped into the role of an equine assisted learning horse with enthusiasm and a strong heart connection. We are very grateful to have Ruby join us and continue to be amazed by the support that organisations and individuals within our community provide to our equine assisted learning programs.

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What I have learnt from the equine learning program and my highlights from the program – Carrina

During the equine learning program I have learnt many important life skills; they have all been important and practical for my personal and professional life. Some of the most important areas that relate to me and I have gotten the most out of have been, positive body language and how to be positive when communicating and interacting with people, being congruent- honouring my feelings and accepting them, not hiding them and learning to be grounded which has helped me to be aware of all my feelings and surroundings and not be focused on one specific emotion or situation. The most important and practical lesson I have learnt for myself personally is being congruent. I have never been aware of the importance of honouring my feelings and being honest about them, which I think has led me to constantly get to a point of boiling over and blowing up. I have learnt that if I identify and honour my feelings and why I am feeling them then I can deal with them and let them go and therefore not get to a point of blowing up and losing control and getting overly stressed and emotional.

Finding Futures Employment Readiness

6 week program

I have previously struggled to maintain employment because I have felt a range of different feelings and I have constantly suppressed them and kept them inside me which then leads to these situations turning ugly and getting out of control. With the new skills I have learnt about being congruent I now know that I have the ability to be honest about a situation and true to how I feel and I also have the ability to communicate this. I feel I will now be able to handle situations in a professional well-handled manner and I will be able to fix these situations before they blow up and get out of control.

I had an amazing “aha” moment when I was doing the leadership activity. I had to lead sally through an obstacle course and at times she wouldn’t cooperate because I wasn’t communicating to her properly, I just expected her to know what I wanted her to do. This is when I realised that often in life I expect people to know how I’m feeling, when I’m feeling it and why I’m felling it, like if I’m angry I expect everyone to know why and I get really agitated when they can’t read my mind. I have learnt that I need to be able to communicate my feelings and emotions to people without pushing my emotions on to them when I am trying to do this. I have learnt for example when I am angry, when I’m communicating these feelings to someone, not to yell and speak aggressively- pushing my emotions onto them but to communicate calmly, clearly and to be patient waiting for a response.

Since beginning this program I have become more confident and positive in many ways. I am more confident in myself and in the way I present myself to others with my body language and communication. I am more positive thinking and becoming more of my authentic self instead of being my false self (negative) and I feel I am now ready and able to secure and keep a job and I have the tools to maintain it and further thrive in my personal life and my professional life=)

I owe a big thank you to Emily and the horses for teaching me these important lessons. Thank you for working with me and giving me the time, space and ideas to help me realise and relate all these lessons and positive behaviours to my personal and professional life, and helping me work out how they connect to the way I have conducted myself in the past and how these behaviours can help me change some of my past bad situations into positive, helpful and controlled situations in the future. I think I am very lucky that I got to participate in such a special and amazingly helpful program! =)

Young Adult Empowerment Program

Empowering Young Adults in our community through interactions with horses . Through the course of the day, the YAE participants experienced learning around mindfulness, awareness of self , leadership, boundaries and problem solving - Thanks to Pam Anderson and the Committee for Ballarat for a great job in putting this program together. The progress these young people are making from the YAE program are life changing.

ELEA - 3 Part Womens Program

The first ELEA Womens program has kicked off on Saturday mornings and we have been exploring many themes that impact women in todays busy world. It has been a humbling experience to date , supporting the participants on a journey of self awareness, discovery and empowerment through specific activites and interactions with the ELEA herd. The ELEA Womens Program will be ongoing on Saturday mornings and covers themes that include..

• Mindfulness, • Honoring Your Emotions • Listening to the Intelligence of your Body • Healthy Boundaries • Heart Coherence • Authenticity

Participants are supported to honor their mind, body and spirit and to incorporate a renewed sense of balance again in their lives.

If you are interested in knowing more about this program or would like to be a participants please contact Emily at ELEA on # 0415 991 115

Sponsors and Supporters: Ø Greg and the Team at the Haymarket

Ø Andy Stock at Mr Ed Equine Products

Ø Finding Futures – Disability Employment Service Provider

Ø Committee for Ballarat – Young Adult Empowerment Program

Ø Tracy Landt – Unicorn Park Equestrian Centre

For all enquiries about ELEA programs either for Youth / Schools, Women , Disability sector, Employment Readiness or Team Building please contact Emily McVeigh by phone on # 0415 991 115 or email on emily@elea.com.au or go to the ELEA website for more information www.elea.com.au