Arnitsis Ranch Equine Therapy

27/11/2024

A famous old cowboy wrote this poem about me. We would chat about life and I would tell him my stories of being a counselor. However, I believe everyone can find their joy. I hope that you all are able to do just that this holiday season.

God bless!

05/10/2024

I hope you dance!

I want to thank God for giving me this wonderful horse. I want to thank my husband for making me laugh this whole weekend and helping me in so many ways.

This song is to my daughters! Just dance!

17/03/2024

13/03/2024

What is your interpretation of the significance of bowing down?

How do you express gratitude in your life?

In a situation where someone holds an incorrect belief, such as 1+1=5, how do you handle it?

Do you have a desire to be right or can you compromise?

What do boundaries with others look like to you?

All of these things are important with growing not only with horses, but with people. How can horses help you with these things? Horses are wonderful at teaching boundaries as it is necessary in their herd. When learning new things with a horse they often allow you to be wrong and go about their day anyway. Horses compromise with their wants and yours if you listen to them. These simple conversations then can be translated to others in your lives.

Ask me more and come learn this journey with me.

05/03/2024

People that have high self-esteem live longer, are happier, get sick less, get over sickness faster, have better relationships, and achieve more than people that tear themselves down. Be your own best friend and tell the negative voice in your head, “to be quiet! Yes I can!” When one feels bad about themselves they tend to tear others down and who wants to be friends with someone that is mean to you? Stay positive! Live positive and enjoy each moment! There is nothing wrong with liking yourself.

27/02/2024

I love how she includes Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs with this. This also can be viewed with human relationships. Individual’s whether kids or adults want to know they are with a strong person that can care for them when needed and that will not fall apart when things go awry. They want someone they can count on and look to as a support in their life.

23/02/2024

Diamonds are made out of pressure!

How many times have you heard that? It’s the weak person that lets their emotions control them instead of controlling their emotions. Horses don’t allow people to be weak. If a person is weak; the horse will just explode more due to the individual’s anger or anxiety the horse immediately feels coming off of their human, which in turn activates their prey instincts causing the person to have a huge animal exploding along with them.

Here I am in front of thousands of people. I had thirty seconds to complete the obstacle where I put a blindfold on Retta causing her not to be able to see at all and have her trust me with the crowd noise and her knowledge that there are obstacles to go around. This is such a big ask.

I could have let my anxiety creep up when she was saying, “no, mommy I’m scared.” But, instead I said to her it’s ok I got you as all of these people watched her be afraid and my desire to win was all there.

Horses teach us to not be embarrassed or anxious, because when we do they respond. They teach us to control our emotions, because if we don’t we could get hurt. Horses teach us to focus on what really matters, which is being the calm in the storm.

15/02/2024

This is such a fun yet challenging competition. Equine Affaire, Inc. (Official). You have thirty seconds per obstacle and you never know what kind of obstacles they are going to throw at you. It definitely takes trust, training, and skills to get through this competition. Retta and I have been top ten every year we have competed at this and we have competed at this for years.

12/02/2024

BABY STEPS VS. SUCCESS?

Are we setting our kids up for failure? If we acted as if our child taking their first steps was literally them achieving everything; wouldn’t that make the child feel as if they obtained everything and stop trying?

I know this seems like a crazy concept, but bear with me. I recently endured a 20 kid that is working as a working hand who believes that he is at the same level riding for two years as a world champion. Now we all know that someone that has only been riding for two years as a working hand is just learning. That they have many years ahead of them to achieve being considered a true horseman. We understand that just like doctors, counselors, and other professionals there is a schooling process that horsemen need to go through to learn so much about the wonderful skill, which isn’t all acquired in two years. We understand that there is a hierarchy of things and it takes time and effort to get to that kind of level. We understand that the individuals that are in the schooling process have a lot to learn, but it’s wonderful that they are on that journey.

What if these steps are skipped and parents act as if their child has achieved their end goal and are super successful having newspaper articles written about their child while they are just in college and haven’t even hit their internship programs? What would happen then?

What I am seeing in the horse world is just this happening. Those of us that spent the time and understand the necessity of the steps think this is absurd and it is going to get someone hurt; yet here I am seeing it all over.

I look at Craig Johnson a 19x world champion who has been doing this game forever and still learning and I see these children with grandiose senses of self and I think; what is going on with our sport?