It all began with one horse.
Having spent over a decade working in the mining industry, away from my children I started to question where I wanted my life to go. I had given up my passions, my hobbies and my interests to work, study, be a mum and partner but who was I?
I am by no means an ‘equestrian’, rather much like someone that loves the company of a dog or cat, I enjoyed the company of horses. But my city life and fifo lifestyle among family commitments and expectations meant that having horses wasnt an option. The penny however dropped when my husband and I realised that the option was just that, an option! So we made some changes, found some land and I got myself a horse. My husband and children dont really care for horses, infact they did prefer to have nothing to do with them. That is until they started to interact with them at their most vulnerable.
My husband would come home from a 14hr day and while on the phone stand with a horse. My son an apprentice would sit quietly contemplating the challenges of navigating adulthood expectations and my daughter in her adolescent years would simply fix their manes. Each of them told a different story but each one had a common thread. “The horses just seem to put things into perspective”. Its then that I realised why I loved horses, they gave me time to stop, to consider, to reflect and they empowered me to reframe my life and seek the opportunity to be better.
I can’t tell you what the science is, I can only tell you that it works!
So who am I?
Kelly Grey (and Stella)
Both Founding Partners
I grew up on a farm in the Great Southern going to a local public school I watched my parents go through bankruptcy which led us to living in state housing in the Wheatbelt. My schooling was challenging at best, from bullying to my own lack of interest in learning I soon found a reason to leave. I watched my parents loose my eldest sister to terminal illness while my other sister fell victim to drug addiction, my parents had no choice but to raise their grandchildren. Soon I would know the pain of grief and while in a violent relationship myself I looked on helplessly as my Mother passed from cancer. Eventually I found the courage to leave my relationship but navigating the trauma of family court with my two young children came at a cost, time. But I found gratitude in my own ability to push forward, I now had a supportive partner who would become my husband and he showed me how to appreciate who I was as an individual once again.
I started my working life as a 17 year old in oil and gas, flying to the north west and remote eastern parts of WA, this lead to my working in personality profiling and leadership work in the world of Equal Opportunity. As time progressed I transferred my skills to the construction industry and eventually to the FIFO lifestyle of mining. Over the next 15 years I found a passion for leadership and training, eventually completing my Masters and a post graduate in Career Development focused on helping individuals discover their career passion through workplace counselling. I finished my time with BHP having worked in the capacity of talent scouting and succession planning and commenced a journey I never saw coming. I established my hobby business Cob and Co Stud breeding Gypsy Cobs which led me to completing my EAL certification through The Equine Psychotherapy Institute of Australia after witnessing the profound impact these horses had on the lives of my son who at the time was doing his apprenticeship, my daughter in her final years of highschool and my husband who after 14 hour days would seek the peace and tranquility of horses.
What is EAL and how can it benefit me
A certified EAL Practitioner is someone who is interested in helping people learn new skills, with the horses as engaging partners in the process. EAL practitioners completed over 120 hours training, supervision and assessment in EAL, and offer it as specialist modality to support social-emotional learning, personal development and professional development such as leadership and team effectiveness skills. EAL is not therapy. EAL is an innovative form of experiential learning – where clients develop new insight and learn new skills via relational experiences with horses.
Some of the benefits reported by clients include: A sense of grounding and spaciousness. Greater team cohesiveness and appreciation for others as unique individuals. A calmer more resourced approach to life and its challenges. Acceptance of oneself. Greater conflict resolution skills. The ability to reflect on ones actions and consider the reaction. The realisation that everything is a choice, even to do nothing is a choice. The framework for healthy thoughts and the relationships.
EAL is certainly for everyone, from our more senior clients through to our professional business people, the fifo worker, the teenager struggling with the demands of highschool, the busy Mum that feels overwhelmed, the newly single, the recently married, those who have just arrived to call Australia home right through to those about to depart and might be questioning their choice.
A horse does not judge you and neither will I.
