So you got your tax return back from your CPA, or your tax program filed it on time. Here are some things to do with that information:

• Make sure that the CPA firm provided your adjusting entries so that your books match the return. This becomes a big deal when you go to get a loan at the bank or you want to sell your business.

• Purge all of your old accounting and tax records. I recommend that you keep all documents for 5 years, but if it has to do with the “basis” of property it should be kept forever. I also recommend that you keep your tax returns forever. Electronic documents are considered the same as paper, so if you can get it on a CD that would save space.

• Most companies only keep 1 year of information in the office. The rest should be stored in a different location. On the personal side, all of the prior year should be stored away….most people don’t need that stuff handy.

• Lastly, get organized. I just hired a person to get my company files in order…if you can’t find things then it is probably time to get a handle on it. And don’t wait! It only gets worse.

Mike Sowinski, CFO Consultants

Hey Everyone!

This month's topic will be on aspects of "Spring Cleaning" your business, getting ready for what is usually a busy summer season for many of us.

Elizabeth, Mike, Brenda and Lisa will all chime in from their area of specialization on ways to get your house (and barn!) in order. Today I'm going to talk a bit about some Spring Barn Chores that are regulars for us here, and might be for you, too!

Shedding: When it finally gets and stays warm enough, we begin the process of shedding out all the horses (and building lots of minis with all the leftover hair!).

Washing: We wash all the horses on the farm at least twice a year, giving them a good scrubbing! Some love it, some aren't so fond, but...hey, it's gotta be done! During that washing, we soak all that horses' grooming utensils in a tea tree oil mix to get them nice and clean, too.

Stall Art: Although our horses don't spend much time in stalls, we still pull out all the floor mats and hose 'em down, and scrub the walls free of what I affectionately call "Stall Art." You may have a Stall Artist in your barn, too. You know, the one who backs up to the wall of the stall and....voila! Stall Art!

Barn Cleaning: At this time of year, we also move all our winter equipment into storage (like any heaters we use in the barn), and bring out all our fans. As we do this, we walk through the barn and arenas looking for anything that needs repairing, making a note of it and a plan to get it done.

Hope this short list of must-do items helps you get ready for a busy summer!

Happy Trails!

Howdy everyone!

Today Lisa and I spent the day in Morganton, NC attending the North Carolina Gang Investigators Association's Gang Awareness Symposium, and all-day event designed to educate about gang and gang activity in our state.

As many of you may know, we are active in serving gang-involved and youth at-risk of gang-involvement in Western North Carolina, and events like this keep us informed and aware of new trends and developments that affect us and the kids we serve.

Today's symposium had an Overview of Gangs in North Carolina and, although no one would really expect North Carolina to rate high on such a scale, there are over 550 gangs across 62 counties in our state. Pretty surprising numbers, wouldn't you think?

Also part of the day was a presentation on Psychology Behind Gangs, along with a presentation by Gang of One(tm), a Charlotte-based program that offers a variety of services, such as prevention, intervention, suppression and reentry of former "gang-bangers" back into society. It's a large collaborative effort that is well worth a look!

Like the many programs involved in Gang of One (tm), Horse Sense of the Carolinas is part of a larger collaborative effort in our own Buncombe County called the Gang Violence Prevention Program, begun in 2006. Our Running With Mustangs curriculum is the culmination of our five years of work in the field with adjudicated and incarcerated youth.

To learn more about gangs and possible gang activity in your area, visit this website called Helping Gang Youth. While there, be sure to download the National Youth Gang Survey 1996-2000. Although a bit outdated, it's still a great reference. Or, contact your local police department and ask if they have any upcoming trainings or educational presentations about gangs in your community!

All the best,

It used to be having a website was a novelty; now having a website is a marketing necessity. A website is probably the Number One piece of collateral you should develop for your program.  In my line of work, websites are a big focus for clients, and rightfully so.

But now, more than ever, it is the wrong time to have a website built by your sister-in-law’s brother’s pet squirrel. Here are the import elements and considerations to factor in when thinking about starting your program’s website:

• The Foundational: Please, for the love of horses, DO talk to several website development vendors before starting. In addition to finding a widely divergent array of prices, you’ll find some alarming differences in capability. Some vendors are heavy on the technical side, with no professional visual artists or graphic design capability. Others might look good but have poor back-end software.

• The Functional: It is very expensive to go back and retrofit an existing website. Think ahead now so your website can handle the things you want in the future. Most people today want the ability to change content on their Events page, or add photos to the News section. These folks need a Content Management System (or CMS), integrated onto appropriate pages. Some will eventually sell manuals, T-shirts, or products on their site, and need to plan a shopping cart function. Others want to have a blog.

• The Visual: strong visuals and proper navigation, appropriately and strategically thought out, are enormously important on the Internet. It’s very easy to spot an amateur job from a professional job. Invest in professional visuals so they can be an accurate reflection of your program.

• The Verbal: the effectiveness of beautiful visuals is instantly destroyed by poor written content. Just like the visual, invest in professional writing so that your program is accurately and intelligently presented, with all the right pieces. These pieces include a strong tagline, benefits-driven key message points, language tailored to your customer, and the right balance of information/call to action. And don’t forget to integrate the search engine optimization tactics: keyword saturation, meta tag development, etc.

There are so many other things I could tell you about website development...the latest trends in software, the latest studies in readership style and readability, or the latest trends in layout and design. But hopefully this will get you started

The Riding Writer,
Brenda Dammann

Horse Sense has just launched our new pilot program of "Cowboy Poetry" here in Western North Carolina.

After having studied with Strides to Success, we have begun our first "Cowboy Poetry" EAL School Curriculum at Edneyville Elementary School, and it's a big success!

Kacey Cramer and Laura Anthony, both EAGALA Advanced Practitioners, are the facilitation team for the Edneyville School program. "Mr Richard," pictured above, is the cowboy who helps them with the horses. The kids think he's the best!

Sargeant Gus, known by the students as "Sarge" (pictured), and Masada are two of the horses who make the trip twice a week to the school campus, where we set up a small arena each time. Scout's Honor has also joined the boys once or twice and showed them about branding!

This program was implemented with the support and assistance of Rob Curtis and Kelley Dull of Henderson County Schools. Kelley is a counselor at Edneyville Elementary, and assists Kacey, Laura and Richard with the program each week.

The pilot will last 6 weeks, with 2 weekly sessions. Kids are learning, reading and writing about respect, punctuality, imagination and a variety of other key life and development skills.

To find out more about how to implement this curricula in your community, visit Strides to Success.

Read the article, see the pictures and view the video that appeared in the online paper by clicking here.

Hey guys! Last week we talked about getting started on your website. Here are some specific resources to help you turn your ideas into reality!

Very low budget: Start with a blog! It’s a great way to build an internet presence, they’re easy to set up and use, and you can modify all of the content yourself. Check out sites like www.wordpress.com, www.blogger.com and www.typepad.com.

Low-medium budget: Consider a DIY (do-it-yourself) site. www.GoDaddy.com has a program called Website Tonight that is very popular. Also check out www.webpowertools.com for a low-cost but professional looking alternative. Another great resource is www.elance.com where you can get bids from people all over the world for your project.

Medium-high budget: Hire an experienced website designer! Personally, this has been my choice over the years and it’s yielded terrific results. It’s more expensive financially but it’s often less stressful to turn it over to an expert. Shannon and I both use www.totsie.com –they create exceptional Plone sites (you are able to manage the content yourself) for businesses around the country. Or if you want to hire someone in your community, check out your local Chamber of Commerce. If you hire a web designer, be sure to shop around and get several bids.

I have coached dozens of clients through the process of creating a website. If you need support, give me a call for some coaching! Good luck!

Hey everyone!

I'm so excited for our Monthly Teletopic Call on Websites next week (April 22nd at 4pm Eastern, if you haven't already heard! Click here & scroll down to learn more). I've been immersing myself in information about usability and navigation of websites for the past month or so, and can't wait to share what I've been learning with you!

One of the main problems I see with websites (and with most marketing material, including brochures and videos) is that they are often written from the perspective of the business or organization, instead of written for the the user/reader/viewer.

When we sit down to develop our website, we think of all the information we want people to know about us. But oftentimes viewers never read all that material, even if it's well-written. Instead most people who are on the internet come to your site with a very specific need or question they are asking.

Think about how you navigate when you are on the web. When looking for something specific, like the answer to a question, how do you search? Do you find a webpage and read every word on the page, hoping and trusting that somewhere on that page will be the answer to your question, or do you instead skim and scan, looking for subheads and bullets that will tell you if this page will even answer your question?

Research (and my own personal experience) shows that we do a lot of skimming and scanning, and not a lot of sitting down with coffee and reading the whole website page by page. We grab and go with information on the web. And the design of our websites needs to reflect that fact. Hence Usability and Navigation have become my buzzwords here in the office.

So, of course, I'm now in the process of redesigning the Horse Sense website, actually splitting it into three sites to improve usability and navigation, and to help avoid confusion. Keep up with this redesign process for me and for Horse Sense on this blog and on the telecalls. I always love helping people learn from my mistakes!

Happy Trails,

Don’t have a website yet? You need one!

Over the past year, I’ve read several articles that point to the fact that most Americans are now using the internet as much as they are watching TV, if not more. Wow! I think it’s safe to say that if you want to be successful in business in the long-term, you’ve got to have a website because that’s where consumers are going to make their buying decisions. Sure, networking and advertising and other traditional marketing methods are important. But having an internet presence is key to establishing both visibility and credibility which lead to profitability!

Here are a few simple steps to get you started.

1. Buy your domain name. Visit www.godaddy.com for the cheapest domains on the web. If you're not sure exactly what you want, buy a few for just one year. That way, you'll have some choices.
   
2. Research other websites of your competitors. This includes other EAP and EAL practitioners (in your community or around the country), but it also includes other similar service providers in your community. Make note of what you like and what you don't like about their sites.
   
3. Sketch out your initial ideas of what you'd like to put on the site. Consider your target market--who are they and what do they want? how can you help them to solve their problems? Be sure to include descriptions of your services, photos, testimonials and what action they should take next.
   
4. Consider your budget. Decide if you want to try and create the site yourself or if you want to hire someone else to do it for you. There are costs with building a website and then also hosting it and maintaining it. Factor all that into your planning.
   

Tune in next week, as I'll share resources for low, medium and high budget websites!

Hey everyone!

Well, another group of boys from the Youth Development Center (YDC) here in Western North Carolina (WNC) are about to graduate from our Running with Mustangs program. We are always sad to see them go!

From rather simple beginnings and with the collaboration and efforts of the YDC, our Running With Mustangs program is the counseling and vocational element of the multi-agency Gang Violence Prevention Program in Buncombe County. Running with Mustangs has grown into one of the cornerstones of the programming at Horse Sense of the Carolinas, and we really feel that others are looking to us as leaders in the field of innovative treatment of this specialized population.

As those of you who have attended our trainings know, we're passionate about adjudicated youth, and we're honored and grateful to be able to provide such an effective intervention.

Running with Mustangs, our curriculum for working specifically with incarcerated youth, is comprised of four components:

• Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP)
  
• Natural Horsemanship
• Vocational
• POETIX

We always begin with EAGALA-model EAP, and then progress into Natural Horsemanship. The Vocational and the POETIX components run concurrently with the EAP & Natural Horsemanship.

Today the boys prepared for their graduation ceremonies, in which they will perform some of their spoken-word poetry, and also demonstrate "freestyle" some of the skills they've learned playing with horses. The confidence and satisfaction in their eyes always fills us with gratitude.

As soon as we incorporate these boys' poetry into our Mane Lines book, we'll make them available for you to buy. All proceeds from the Mane Lines goes to support the Horse Sense Scholarship Program.

All the best as we continue to make a difference, together!

Click here to learn more about our Running with Mustangs program.

The marketing professionals (like Brenda the writer for Horse Sense) told me that a website is not only important, it is essential marketing. As it turns out, I had about a half dozen clients that contacted me as a direct result of just simply having a website (several from out of state), and almost all of my clients and competition have checked out the site, and given good feedback. It has given me a level of professionalism in the marketplace, and a resume to show the entire world. Here are the essential pieces of a successful professional services website:

Home: This should be a really fast snapshot of what the company is with logo etc., it should not be wordy but provide easy navigation to the rest of the site

Services: What your company provides

About our Clients: Who your clients are, and how you work with them

Case Studies: What you have done for your clients

Bio/Staff: Who the people are behind the company, and their background

Contact: Don’t forget this one! Your phone and email should be on every page, with one page dedicated to it. I have used this many times when I forget someone’s contact info.

Lastly, don’t forget that this is marketing…you get out of it what you put into it. Good luck on developing your website!

Mike Sowinski, CFO Consultants

Visit Mike’s site at www.cfoconsultants.net

Hey everyone!

Just back in the office after a demonstration at University of North Carolina-Asheville as part of their "Life is Calling" week. Designed by the Career Center at the University to help people "discover their life intention," my husband, Lisa, Liza, Dreamer and Scout all packed up and went to college today!

We set up in the "mini-quad" of the Asheville college campus, and had over 150 students, teachers and the general public join us during the 3-hour event. Richard and I brought step in posts, and set up a 70' area with 2" tape at the top. It was a simple and easy enclosure that I recommend for your calm, well-behaved horses (and clients!).

We invited members of the audience to join us, and facilitated various activities such as "Select & Halter," "Magic Carpet," "4 Hoof Pick-Up," and "Extended Appendages," all simple activities requiring very few props, but uncovering a wealth of information for discussion and reflection. We had over 30 participants in the demos, and lots of students from the Psych Department and a Communications class. I got interviewed by a lot of students from that class!

Dreamer and Scout were excited that the grounds-keepers hadn't mowed, and they tasted (and gave the "high hoof" to) oranges from one onlooker. We all really enjoyed the event, and will definitely bring the horses to college again soon!

Click here to read about other events that are part of "Life is Calling," including a labyrinth and a Feldenkrais workshop. This was a great way to create more awareness about Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Equine Assisted Learning!

All the best,

“Marketing people spend money, accountants hoard money. Never the twain shall meet.”

...Or at least that’s what folks usually think. People are often surprised to learn that crunching numbers plays a huge part in the strategic marketing world (or at least it ought to). Numbers tell us the nature of the goals we’re shooting for, what percentage of effort needs to go into different initiatives, and yes, where to set our pricing.

I know how painful this is for some of you; I personally saw Shannon’s eyes glaze over many times when crunching numbers during last fall’s marketing planning. And there’s no hall pass for you non-profits, either. While you might not be out to earn profit, you DO still have to crunch numbers and set fundraising goals that cover operating costs and salaries. So...if you feel your own eyes glazing over during this, stick with me! I promise it’ll make sense.

Pricing, first and foremost is a factor of program costs played against your staff’s capacity to serve clients. The most simple calculation: operational costs divided by the number of staff hours (capacity) available for client sessions. If you have $120,000 in operational costs and 1000 hours of available capacity (see Mike’s blog to determine this), your baseline hourly rate should be $120. Congratulations! You now have a starting point.  

If I’m your marketing person, my first consideration is determining how feasible this rate is to your program. I need to know two things: how many clients does this translate into? And where does the hypothetical rate of $120 fall in relation to similar service providers in the market? In other words: is this price realistic? Is it in line with similar service providers? Does this market have the potential to attract this number of clients? And can you attain these numbers?

As you can probably guess, it does no good to be sailing along with numbers that aren’t grounded in reality. And no marketing effort, no matter how super-human, will accommodate goals that can’t be reached.

Happy Pricing!
Brenda the Riding Writer
www.CreativeInc.net

Hey guys!

Just getting back in from the 3rd Annual Youth Violence Prevention Conference in Charlotte, NC, which took place today, March 25th. There were some wonderful presentations on a variety of topics. The focus of the conference was "Girls Gone Wild: The Rising Tide of Violence in Young Females."

Among our keynote speakers was Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, a nationally recognized public health leader and author of Sugar & Spice and No Longer Nice: How We Can Stop Girls' Violence and Murder is No Accident: Understanding and Preventing Youth Violence in America. It was an honor to hear her speak about the topic, and I'd like to draw attention to a few of her key points.

She talked about there being 3 Waves of Youth Violence in the United States, pointing to the First Wave of young male violence in urban poor neighborhoods, such as in Chicago, New York and other big cities. We're all familiar with that wave. The Second Wave is the one characterized by the suburban, rural, smaller-town feel, such as Columbine. The Third Wave she points to is with girls and young women, the topic of today's conference. (She hinted at her thoughts toward a Fourth Wave, that of much younger children and violence.)

Perhaps the most interesting idea was revealed when she spoke about the Risk Factors that foster youth violence. They include:

• Poverty
  
• Access to Guns
• Alcohol/Drug Use
• Biological/Organic Abnormalities
• Culture of Violence

The first 4 risk factors are equally evident for both boys and girls (girls and boys have similar rates of poverty, similar access to guns, etc.). She pointed to the last one as on the rise for girls, that our society is now actively "marketing violence to girls," a la Zena the Warrior Princess and such. While violence has always been marketing to some degree to boys, it's now being "sold" to girls more and more. I'm intrigued by this idea, and find merit in it.

If you have a chance to look at her work, I think you'll find it illuminating. And she was just one speaker among many for the day!

All the best,

Shannon

Breaking Down The Rates

by Mike Sowinski, CPA

Back when I started my business, I was working full time making a salary. Before I went out on my own, I had to come up with a calculation for my hourly rate and believe it or not, it replaced my salary exactly so something worked! Here are the steps I used:

– Determine your daily labor rate (Your annual salary/180 days*)
– Determine your monthly expected business expenses (yep, need a business plan here or, for an example, see below) and divide that by 180
– Add the daily labor rate and the daily business expenses above and multiply by 1.2 or higher (this is your profit for taking the risk!)
– Divide by an eight hour day and there you go

Example
$30,000 salary / 180 = 167
$12,000 annual expenses / 180 = 67
Total: $234
$234 x     1.2 = $280.80
Total per day    $280.80/8 hrs a day = $35
Total per hour    : $35

*So what is with the 180 days?  Well, 365 days a year minus Weekends (104 days), minus Holidays (8), minus Vacation days (10), minus Sick Days (5), minus Paperwork/Admin Days (24), minus Marketing days (34) = 180 days.

Breaking down aspects of your business into weekly, daily, or hourly segments can also be a very powerful tool to make decisions based on the revenue and expenses of the segment. I highly recommend thinking about it. Here’s a quick ballpark example you might relate to:

Total Billable hours per day = 4 (as in 4 EAP/EAL clients/day)
Billing Rate per hour = $100
Total Daily Revenue = $400 per day

Monthly Expected Business Expenses & Cost Per Day
Therapist cost per Hour = $20
Hours per day =         8
Labor Cost =                                     $160 per day
Payroll Taxes (10% of payroll)             $16 per day
Employee Benefits                              $16 per day
Employee Training $200 per mo         $7 per day
Horse Feed = $40/month                   $1 per day
Horse Vet = $200/Qtr                        $2 per day
Rent     $1,000/mo                            $33 per day
Utilities $500/mo                                $17 per day
Advertising $500/mo                          $17 per day
Repairs and Maint $200/mo                $7 per day
Insurance $200/mo                            $7 per day
Office Supplies $100/mo                    $3 per day
Travel Expenses $300/mo                  $10 per day

            Net to owner                $100 per day

Hey Everyone!

Just getting my feet back under me after returning from the EAGALA conference (and if you've sent me an email in the past week, know I'll get to it as soon as I can!).

There were so many excited and exciting individuals at this conference...over 200+ people there for the first time, I believe. The arena day was provocative and a great learning experience for everyone in the audience. I was most excited and impressed by the "three" sessions Mark Lytle and Lynn Thomas did that day with one client. They showcased the EAGALA model, and I think are getting ever better at clearly and concisely articulating the EAGALA model. This was a great way to thread the model throughout the day, and reinforce what EAGALA is (and isn't!). Oh, and I tried to fit that adorable burro into my carry-on, but was busted at the airport!

The next two days' of breakout sessions were wonderful and, as always, we walked away with many great ideas for bringing the work that others are doing into our community. There's just so much creativity and "juice" flying around during breakout session days. The booths as well were full of innovation and electricity (or is it just my enthusiasm for this field?). We brought out BodySense curriculum, our Policies & Procedures CD, and premiered our Running with Mustangs curriculum on working with adjudicated and/or incarcerated youth. The response was overwhelming!

We put lots of faces to email addresses, and got to meet a lot of new folks interested in bringing EAP/EAL to their community. With EAGALA's help, we all just keep getting stronger and better!

See ya next year, in our own backyard, as the EAGALA conference will be here in Asheville!

Happy Trails,

Shannon

Ah, the joys of figuring out your fees. What I manage as the Practice Administrator of the group is individual rates, family rates, group rates for EAP,  and then also EAL pricing. What I will share here are some of our strategies on how we set rates.

EAP Rates for EAP are based on regional averages. We surveyed what the average price was for an hour of therapy and went from there. We adjusted our rate to accommodate the fact that we are an experiential based program and NOT a talk therapy office-based program. We added 25% to the average cost so as to assist in covering expenses traditional therapy does not have. We have different rates for individual, family and group. Again, we looked at the professional market rate.

Horse Sense has not adjusted rates in five years and will in the coming months. My experience in health care is that rates for direct service (not merchandise or products) adjust every 3-5 years. The adjustment we make is based on reasonable percentage adjustment and increased operating costs. On average this could run from 5-15%. I will caution you on a double digit percent increase to services unless this is in line with market adjustments occurring within your community.

EAL Rates for EAL are different from EAP. This is because this is a different service, different market, and the market value for experiential personal, professional or corporate development is higher. Again, this is determined by regional market value and incorporates operating costs. We do adjust for non-profit and for-profit groups, and I would encourage you to do the same.

Getting prices together can be cumbersome. Take advantage of the resources you have at hand to determine these figures. There are good tools out there to help you determine fees thus saving you time and money.

Until Next Month,

Lisa

Remember my Undespair file? Remember those wonderful notes, letters and calls from former clients? Well, we've just had a few and, since I often talk about the "unsexy" side of running an EAP/EAL business, I thought I'd share some of the good stuff, too. I got the following email from Amy Gaddis, the newest member of the Horse Sense Herd,

I was at Bruegger's getting my daily bagel, sporting my lovely HSOTC jacket when the cashier saw the logo and got a little teary eyed.  She told me that every time she sees our logo she has the biggest feeling of gratitude.  Apparently, her little sister was one of our client's and had a huge transformation! It was so good to see the changes we made in someone's life, I felt so proud to be a part of this!  Thanks guys!

This same day, as I was going from Meeting A to Meeting B, I saw a young man in our waiting room, with a horse t-shirt on. I didn't recognize the shirt, and saw writing underneath, so asked what it said. He proudly puffed up his chest to show me. It said "Horse Sense of the Carolinas." He loves coming out here so much he'd made his own t-shirt, which the treatment team tells me he wears for every session. I was blown away, but again not surprised at the profound impact the work we do has on people.

With gratitude,

Shannon

When I first became a coach back in 2000, I learned a very valuable tool from my own coach to help me set my first fees.

First, choose a number that you wouldn’t bat an eye at to say to someone else. For example, let’s say that you would feel comfortable asking $75/hr for your service.

Second, take that number and double it. Did you almost choke at the thought of charging $150/hr for your service? If you did – good! You’re a step closer to finding your fees. (If you didn’t almost choke, well that’s an indicator you started off too low to begin with!)

Third, now that you have the higher number that feels just a wee bit high, back down from that number and see how easily it rolls off your tongue. So if you try to say “my fees are $140 an hour” and it’s still too hard, get down to a number that you can comfortably say (you might still be a bit nervous but it will come out of your mouth). Perhaps it’s $125/hr or even $100/hr.

Whatever your end result, it is likely to be higher than your gut instinct. Remember that what you are selling is a highly specialized service and you deserve to be compensated emotionally, spiritually and financially appropriately! Believe in your pricing. You must believe that your EAP/EAL services are worth what you are charging or you will never be able to attract clients who see the value.

--- Coach Elizabeth

www.elizabethbarbour.com

Hey everyone,

Well, the flu bug has gotten me and laid me low, but my weekend was brightened by a reminder of my time at Parelli with the arrival of the Parelli E-news with mine and Dreamer's picture on it (see photo). Ain't he handsome? Several of you have asked me about these courses in Florida and Colorado. Here's the skinny.

The first course of the 6 week series is called Liberty & Horse Behavior, which I took in 2006. In my opinion it should be attended by anyone serious about being an Equine Specialist in our field, even if you have years of experience with horses. The focus is on the ground and on the relationship, which tends to short-circuit many folks. In EAGALA, it's not about the activity or the goal, it's about the process. Translated into Parelli, it's not about the task or the object, it's about the relationship between the horse and the human. Hence Dreamer's long-standing hesitation to put his back feet up or in something was not about the object itself, but about our relationship and his confidence in me. The fact that he did this willingly and hung out there really speaks volumes about our relationship now. But it wasn't always this way!

The second course (the one I took this year, and also took in 2006) is called Fluidity 1, and can be summed up in the phrase "Freestyle Riding." In Freestyle, the main indicator is loose reins (no contact). The course content focuses on things like saddle-fit, shimming, being fluid in your body and helping your horse to be fluid in his/her body. But the main challenge for many people (myself included) is the concept of 49%/51% or 51%/49%. These percentages refer to which of the two of you (you and your horse) is leading, and how to flow between the two. When do you have 51% and your horse 49%? Do you ever take more than 51%? When does this reverse? The course is full of great material to think about at night, and to feel during the day.

The third course (which I've not yet taken) is Fluidity 2, about Finesse Riding, or riding with contact. When you have Control and Confidence all sewn up between you and your horse (most of the time), then you can start to play with Competence, or Finesse riding. Dreamer and I have spent quite a bit of time in the Control and Confidence stages (both for him and for me), and are just now really feeling like we can address some higher concepts. I look forward to taking the second and the third course next year. Join me in Florida in 2009 if you can!

But, if you can only take one course, take the first one. It will serve you in your EAP/EAL practice and in your horsemanship for a lifetime.

To learn more about these courses, visit www.Parelli.com.

Happy Trails!

Shannon

Hey everyone!

Just got back from Florida, and had a great and wonderful time! My horse, Dreamer, has come such a long way since we were last there, in February 2006. He was rather unconfident in new surroundings and in his leader then, and he was a changed horse this time! (I look forward to sharing my pictures of the two weeks with you in future blogs!)

One of the reasons I love going to the Parelli ranch in winter in Florida is that it gives me an opportunity to reflect and assess, and to mark progress. It’s hard for me to believe that when I was last there I was writing the text for our new website, checking keywords and trying to distill what we do into meaningful language. What a great experience that was, and I learned mounds about writing website copy, message development and the website development process by doing it.

Another major shift since I was last able to visit the Parelli ranch: I wasn’t even considering writing a book back then. Mark Lytle had encouraged me to give a presentation about the business side of EAP/EAL organizations at the EAGALA conference, and I was slated to do so, but had no idea how that one presentation would change so much. The overwhelmingly positive response led me to seriously consider writing the book you all now know as Horse Sense, Business Sense, Volume 1.

But the most significant change has been internal. Back in 2006 I was still very much learning how to be a leader, for my business and for my horse. In both areas, I wanted to be a friend and a buddy, not a boss or a leader. But what I learned was that although that may be the leadership style I wanted to embody, that was not what was being asked of me, by my staff or my horse. As I learned again at a new level, good horsemanship is being flexible enough to play with the horse that shows up, not the one I wanted to show up, or the one I expected to show up based on my play session yesterday. Being fluid and flexible, in my body, in my mind and in my leadership, is the solution.

Happy Trails, folks. And enjoy the journey!

Shannon