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Text Oliver XPhotos Chris Holloman

Eddie Floyd, Jacquie Chandler, Carolyn Brown, Karen Joy Fletcher and Rachel Jane Flower

Contributed to this Series

The Lessons of Mick Dodge - Part Four

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“When Mick Dodge learned of Wynema Ranch and the Nevada collaboration, he left the rain forest for the high desert of Reno. He joined Jacquie Chandler, Rachel Jane Flower, Eddie Floyd and the crew at the ranch, honoring the wild creatures, while preserving a piece of native heritage and freedom.”

Shari and Eddie Floyd's Wynema Ranch Wild Horse Sanctuary is located just to the west of the base of the Petersen Mountain range, which are aligned north and south near the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Dogskin Mountains. The Petersens run through northern Nevada's high desert north of Reno, near where I-395 meets the Hallelujah Junction north of the California-Nevada state line. Wagon trains transported miners bitten by the fever along the nearby Beckwourth Pass in the Sierras during the Gold Rush era. Now designated as a “natural area,” the Petersen Mountain grassland basin and range is on “public land” administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The air has the fresh scent scent of juniper, sagebrush and soil. The vegetation is rich in rabbit grass, Indian rice grass and cheat grass. The region is home to pinyon pine, deer, antelope, chuckar, valley quail, coyote and puma. There are natural springs in the east portion of the Petersen foothills – just off the ranch – where cattle graze.

“The Wynema Ranch is surrounded by BLM,” says Eddie Floyd, a realtor, radio station owner and popular personality, concert promoter and magazine publisher. “There's only a couple of fee simple properties that are not Wynema ranch which we have first right of refusal on. When I first met Shari twenty years ago, she had two twenty-acre parcels there. Then, with me personally being involved in real estate, I wound up researching all the property. I found out that, with the exception of a 230-acre piece, everything else was divided up in twenties. What they had done was, they had made a bond district in the late 40's to raise money for schools, and they sold them off for like $500 or $600 dollars. People had them for years and years. So I found

out who owned them, and wound up buying what is now the Wynema Ranch consisting of what is now approximately 600 acres. We acquired the entire ranch over a period of about six years. You can do simple land splits on every twenty and every parcel there – meaning you can cut it up into four, five-acre parcels, or one seventeen acre piece with three one-acre parcels. And you don't need a subdivision map to do that. You can drill a well on each parcel. So, it lends itself to subdivision, but we have no intention of doing that. We want to keep it open for the wild horses.”

According to Floyd, his wife Shari originally used the property to raise mules. “She had a mammoth jack and then she raised paint horses,” says Floyd. “She had cattle and then she raised exotic African cattle breeds: zebus and Watusi. Watusi are the largest horned cattle in the world. Zebu means 'hump back.'”

The oldest living stand of mountain mahogany (small, flowering, nitrogen-fixing deciduous trees) in the world is in the Petersens, due east from the Wynema Ranch. Biologists have stayed with the Floyds while studying the remarkable genus. Renowned scientist-conservationist and author, Craig Downer, famous for his advocacy to save endangered creatures world-wide, from wild horses to tapers, has asserted that the Petersens are the primitive, ancestral home of wild horses here in America. Floyd says, “Since the top of the Petersens is a reserve that can never be sold by law, Downer wants to reactivate the reserve and have the wild horses run free again someday.”

Downer's is a complementary goal in line with the mission of the Wynema Ranch Wild Horse Sanctuary: to preserve a vital part of our American heritage physically embodied in the wild horses and burros who should be allowed to roam free.

Not coincidentally, this ethos is shared by The Barefoot Sensei, Mick Dodge, and his Earthgym enthusiasts, who walk the earth and commune with nature in wild lands across the country. Here

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in our final installment of our four-part series, Tahoe based Earthgym pioneers Jacquie Chandler and Rachel Jane Flower share their stories, philosophies and views, and wax poetic regarding the holistic confluence they found in their renaturing practices and the powerful resonating connection they experienced at Wynema Ranch Wild Horse Sanctuary.

Jacquie Chandler – Earthgym co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer

“...It is now time to carry a circle of stone/And sing this sing this song across the land/To woman and children and all sorts of Man” - the Hoh Song, a walking directive from the Forest

“Mountain Man, Mick Dodge, uses this map (see illustration) as a compass to guide that journey. It defines the three terrains of our planet and the walk that weaves them together. People in urban areas venture out to explore into the “open fenced lands” and some go deep into our “gated wild lands” (all wild land is now gated). The “Sitty” on the left, is our World – the urban area dominated by people doing a lot of sitting. The Earth, on the right, gated wild places with few, if any humans, but there is no ‘free’ land…it is all gated. And in the middle are places that weave some of each and transition.

“Tahoe and the urban gateways into the Hoh Rain forest provide that middle ground. So what do a sea-level rain forest and a high desert share in common? The Hoh Rain Forest and Lake Tahoe are both unique watersheds dominated by pristine water. The Hoh Rain Forest is the only old-growth rain forest in America carved by glacier water and spring water that provides a benchmark for drinking water. And Tahoe, America’s largest high alpine fresh water lake, is most famous for its pristine water and clarity. Both our destinations seeking to host incredibly sensitive terrain in a way that will not compromise it. Both have native indigenous tribes whose cultures live in the shadow of modern thinking.”

Meeting Mick Dodge“I met Mick over two decades ago when a strong wind blew me into the Two Fools Café in Half Moon Bay, California. He asked if I was from the Hoh. I asked if he knew any local trails. We left

the café and headed into a marshland hike near the ocean. From there the adventure began. Eventually, our diverse movement styles merged (my background is dance and yoga), as we uncovered training opportunities on any terrain, from driftwood on a beach to a lamp post in downtown LA. (Wild to tame). “Traditionally the masculine right brain directive has been to explore, hunt or gather and bring back the stories to the feminine right brain principle that serves the circle of community. This evolved to become a guiding principle in the Earthgym training. Stories have no meaning without being shared.

“Mick soon transferred to Fort Lewis to be closer to his Hoh homeland, and began taking deeper and deeper quests into the forest. His quests revealed more insights and clues than we could decode in a month, sometimes years. Mick would share these insights with me, and eventually, as each one of us quested, we would come together and explore the deeper meaning that became the Earthgym practice we all share today. First it was the four directions; then letters that make up words; then the words that make up stories; postures that influence moves and moves that influence minds, and minding that influences matter, story… which becomes reality.

“My freelance design work transferred me to Lake Tahoe, where I learned about watersheds and started to feel responsible for my basin footprint. Somewhere along the timeline of lake activism, story coaching and kayaking, something shifted. As a designer and mother, my life always felt to be in service to my daughters, employees, vendors, vision and customers. But when I felt called by the water, my story shape shifted. It wasn’t long after running up Tunnel Creek Trail at dawn that the water, wind, sun and water began to speak to me. The verses emerge like pearls rolling around a table until you gather and carefully string them together. One verse came while watching a fire; the next one while running, trying to separate breath from wind. Eventually it all made sense:

“Like Wind…I breathe and I blowLike Water…I nourish and flowLike Fire… I consume and I radiateAnd Like the Earth, I sustain and I cultivateI am Spirit in rhythm with the creative forceLiving in the abundance of loves infinite source”

“Mick wonders if it is co-incidence that ‘listen’ and ‘silent’ share the same letters. Hmmm. The easiest way I’ve found to listen to the earth is through my feet. I walk to touch, receive and make sense. Make sense of my own story and its part in a cultural story that measures well-being with unsustainable consumption.

I use sticks and stones to stretch and tone, so when I go outside I will feel at home. I follow my feet, so the earth can teach. What has it taught me? Water! No ‘green’ without ‘blue’…It’s all about the water.

“As destinations, Lake Tahoe and the The Hoh Rainforest ‘sell water.’ Rivers, lakes, flora, fauna, fish, trees, wildlife, resorts, property values…all here because of this water. So how we host this ‘water’ is key for our ability to thrive and survive. In the 2006 National Geographic Geotourism Scorecard, Lake Tahoe scored 69 of the 110 top world destinations. Our weakest link: showcasing our wildlife and indigenous heritage.” Wild Mustangs“I’ve never been a fan of riding horses. I prefer watching them run, inspiring me to gallop. I was also fascinated to discover the vital role wild horses play as gardeners of the earth, especially the desert, ensuring water sustainability. (Savoy Institute has shown the power of migrating herds to stop desertification). Wynema Ranch feels like the Middle Earth Shire for Mustangs. They can be wild, although not fully free. However the sanctuary boundaries that protect them also provide an authentic love, respect and desire to share in the learning. What can you learn? You will know when you look them in the eye, watch them fly by, or feel their breath as they reach to know you. Mick’s decision to journey to Tahoe to meet the Wild Mustangs and honor those protecting them, served to amplify the calling our clan all share from the water: there is no separation, only distance, and every journey is two feet.

“Recently, standing at the edge of Crescent Lake, Washington, I was training with one of Mick’s hammers. Held out in front of me, almost over the water, I began stirring it clockwise. After the momentum reached a continuous flow, I shifted the stirring to my body holding the stick steady. Soon a dance between the spirals formed and water spoke (in a vision). The lake became sucked up into the spin, moving from my feet through my body out my head, spinning my hair straight out. A spiral of translucence; white and blue water flying through me, then engulfing state and country; the planet into the infinite space until there was only this spinning DNA spiral of water and nothing else.

“I walk to touch and touch to feel my way to a path that makes sense. I breathe in the oxygen trees provide me and breathe out carbon trees breathe in. Is it enough?”

Rachel Jane Flower - Masters Degree in Writing

Through her writing, coaching and wellness practice, Flower weaves the wisdom of the Earthgym. She trains and coaches, entrepreneurs and artists to develop their leadership instincts by accessing their wild side. She met Mick Dodge, and Jacquie

Chandler in 2005 and began extensive Earthgym training, which had a deep impact on her relationship with the land and her work in the world. Drawing from a background in mind-body-spirit practices, meditation, as well as quantum physics, she developed a program called “Quantum Walkabout,” designed to heighten perception and stimulate creative thinking. Living on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, she leads workshops and retreats, that include Earthgym practices, meditation, music and aromatic essences. In 2006 she established The Senssoma Institute to bring more ‘wild wisdom’ into the arts and business. Always a nature lover, if you can’t find her any time, she’s sure to be up the mountain or swimming in the lake.

Born in England, Flower spent every available moment exploring the landscapes that defined her world. Wonderings that wove between urban and wild terrains. Yet, it was her fascination with the musings found in the fields, rivers, mountains and forests that formed into a deeper questing about how all things worked in nature, spirit and matter. Her academic and spiritual pursuits resulted in a BSc degree in Physics and a plane ticket to Hong Kong to study meditation. Flower recalls, “While still processing the scientific perspective of matter, I dove into my unconscious. I learned meditation practices that began to reprogram the eco-system of my mind; at the same time, re-aligning my senses to pieces of my surrounding previous unnoticed.” Flower trained in Buddhist and Indian spiritual practices designed to enable finer fields of perception to become tangible tools for waking states of consciousness. “And then comes the test on how well you ground enlightenment in reality. So…game on: I started a meditation center in Thailand; helped Thai Hill tribes create water transit systems to connect source to need, and trained teachers in a Thai-Burma refugee camp how to help displaced children work through grief of loss. These pivotal projects challenged my inner growth and deepened my understanding [about] how it is the connective tissue between land and culture that shape shifts our personal and collective story. Once these children were re-aligned with song, dance and ceremony that carried the callings of their land of origin, they could successfully map a way forward in communion with where they were now.” Flower then traveled to Australia, earned a Masters Degree in writing and created a personal growth process called Passion-Mapping. “We guided people in nature to find something significant in the earth that would trigger a remembering of their authentic self. The most radical results came from those living deepest in the corporate story. I witnessed the value of weaving between the tame and the wild to find that middle path of balance, and flexibility,” Flower notes. In New Zealand, she supported the emergence of a cultural center that honored the Maori’s ancient

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Mick Dodge’s Earthgym Landing Near You!

May 2/3Earthgym Class

May 2Earthgym Spring Fling Berkeley, CA

Cultivate your personal practice with the Land

TheEarthgym.com

May 9/10Earthgym Alchemy & Hammer Training

May 7Deer Download & Earthgym Integration

For details visit www.TheEarthgym.com

May 17Find Your Feet, Find Your VoiceNorth Lake Tahoe, CA (see flier)

Snohomish, WA

Portland, OR

See also weekly events in WA and OR

Oakland,CA

ways, using her freelance writing skills to highlight the connection art, culture and heritage have through a tangible touch. “We lead similar retreats in underground dugouts deep in the outback of Australia. We used chanting and meditation to call on the land spirits to guide us.” It was 2005 when Flower discovered America, entering through San Francisco Bay. Hungry for the wild, she found her way to Lake Tahoe and met Chandler at a native American water ceremony meant to activate a surge throughout the water world for clarity and healing. Inspired by Tahoe’s temple of water, Flower brought two Maori elders to Tahoe to share their Haka for Life ceremony – an ancient ceremony that integrates sound and movement using dance, song and intent. The sessions were well-received, reinforcing her instincts to make Tahoe her U.S. base camp, where the culminate of her questing would further flower. Enter Mick DodgeChandler connected Flower to Mick Dodge and Rachel brought Dodge to the Maoris. The touching of these two primal movement currents generated an instant charge, and the Earthgym clan expanded its roots.

As Mick was becoming known as a “Barefoot Sensei,” (one step ahead) in his walk), Flower was refining her role as a sensei in personal development, weaving the earth-based practice of the Earthgym and other modalities into her business coaching. “My daily Earthgym walk brings me in sync with the nature right outside my door. I open myself to receive a daily download from the forest and the wildlife and the water. This vitamin EG fuels my creative process and informs the way I show up for everything – my relationships, my coaching, my retreats and programs.”

Flower offers Earthgym retreats and workshops at Lake Tahoe and the San Francisco Bay Area. Chandler's geotourism advocacy, (influenced by her Earthgym practice) was set to serve the wild and the tame. The annual Tahoe Expo, produced by Sustainable Tahoe, provided a sampler of a geotourism menu which included hosting Nevada’s Wild Mustangs as a wildlife viewing attraction. Passionate about stewardship and sustainability, Flower has been an avid supporter and volunteer for Sustainable Tahoe. The efforts of many local groups willing to take a shared stewardship in sustaining the native balance of life and land has resulted in ways to find that middle path that can respect and honor the wild, while still serving the tame. Wynema Ranch is one of those models.

“I have been riding horses from age seven,” says Flower. “I had always felt an ancient and solid rapport with their spirit. This motivated activism around any issue us involving the mistreatment or misunderstanding of these beautiful wild creatures. Having learned about the Nevada Wild Mustangs' challenges through my work with Sustainable Tahoe, I watched Jacquie continue to inspire the tourism industry to see the value and revenue connected with wildlife saving. It is so heartening to see these beautiful creatures receiving the awareness and protection they deserve."

Mick Dodge carries a calling from the Master OG (Old Growth) asking us to follow our feet so the earth can teach. A simple mantra, that when followed, shape shifts story, weaving you into a holistic eco-sytem of mind and matter. A minding of matter being our sacred oath to the earth that sustains us in abundance.

When Mick Dodge learned of Wynema Ranch and the Nevada collaboration, he left the rain forest for the high desert of Reno. He joined Jacquie, Rachel, Eddie and the crew at the ranch honoring the wild creatures while preserving a piece of native heritage and freedom.

Connecting to the Earthgym movementAs part of the Earthgym core clan, Flower has influenced the shape of the offering into various markets and groups, delivering workshops for men and women, children, students and business owners. “As an Earthgym trainer, I weave the elements of nature and movement and body awareness into my coaching to help my clients get grounded and clear in who they are in the world."

An example of that was a recent retreat led by Chandler and Flower where they guided professional women through a three day quest that wove corporate messaging with personal growth, crafting, Earthgym stick training, questing and water art into one mind matter movement. Unleashing to power from find the feet to find your voice. Theearthgym.com EventsThe next Earthgym workshop in the Lake Tahoe area is “Find your Feet, Find your Voice” a one-day Earthgym retreat for women. Sunday, May 17th at the Lake Tahoe Wellness Center, 695 Wolf St, Kings Beach, California. Call 415 827 2623 for details or visit: clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/admhome?studioid=221929

For other classes and events in Tahoe, visit TheEarthgym.com or call Rachel at 415 827 2623. Rachel Flower, Lake Tahoe Senssoma.com.