My name is Betty. I am a devoted horse lover, and I am passionate about helping humans with the help and guidance from my horses.
I am a certified Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) Practitioner. I studied at the Equine Psychotherapy Institute, Victoria.
My goal is to promote the profound healing abilities of horses.
Horses are a wonderful example of how to live in the moment. They live, eat and play, in the now. Like humans, horses have an emotional and sensory range of experience which means they are adept at helping us with our emotional regulation, and social -emotional development. When you watch this experience, it sometimes looks like nothing is happening but the reality is very different. The co-regulation of emotions, somatic experience and energy all come together for an often deeply meaningful experience for the human.
All of this has a positive influence on both your personal and professional development.
The Wilkydoo herd will help your journey of self-discovery, dealing with behaviours that no longer serve you well while learning the freedom of simply living in the moment.
My mission is to introduce you to EAL and support you in your equine experience here in my peaceful surroundings at Wilkydoo Equine Connection. While at your EAL session, you are in a no-judgment-zone; a safe space where you can explore and learn on a personal level, at your own pace.
“Horses see the real you.
Being seen is incredibly healing.”
Meg Kirby
At Wilkydoo Equine Connection, I keep the conversation plain and uncomplicated, and you have the empowering freedom to tell the horse whatever you need to!
Together we work as a team to realise the deep feelings and sensations within you and how they may present out in the world. The horses will help you explore the patterns of behaviour and deep belief systems that are no longer serving you well and may be holding you back from living your best life.
Horses have so much to offer humans. They are great confidants, and they can support you to learn with co-regulation, mirroring, awareness of emotion and mood, and understanding body language.
I grew up around horses and have spent most of my life in country areas. My Grandpa influenced my learning about horses and horse behaviour, he showed infinite patience and love for the wonderous horse. As with many of his generation, he had working horses on the farm and understood the great care and empathy required for a good partnership with the horses in their care. Fortunately for me, my family supported this love, and we spent many years as children working and playing with our horses.
After finishing school, I trained as a nurse and went on to work at and study numerous interesting things in my life. It became evident that not everyone had experienced the guidance, and intuitive wisdom of horses that I had grown up with. It was clear how important my connection with horses had been, and I kept searching for a way to work with horses other than in the competitive arena.
I initially studied natural horsemanship, where I learnt more about myself than I ever would have imagined and achieved natural horsemanship certification in Online and in Liberty modules.
I looked at different ideas for equine assisted ways to help others, but they had elements that I felt didn’t consider the horse adequately in their role. The Equine Psychotherapy Institute, with the I-Thou Horse-person-ship model and self-paced, safety focus for horse and human, proved to be an empowering experience. The rest, as they say, is history. It is quite the experience for me, and I am still going on with my never-ending self-development journey.
The Equine Assisted Learning Practitioner training provided me with a deeper understanding of the profound healing abilities horses can share with humans. Their beautiful presence can help to slow and re-focus your mind, just like mindfulness with horses! They permit you to be present, awakening an individual curiosity to experiment with ways you can show up in the world and interact with others.
I hold a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and a Diploma of Business – Human Resources, among other certification which supports my EAL practice.
My work-life experiences, and training help me to be a holistic practitioner.
Please reach out to me if you’re wishing to support yourself in your own personal development journey.
Before you book, we will chat on the phone to talk about what you hope to get out of your time at Wilkydoo Equine Connection and ask questions. If you aren’t sure what you would like to address, that’s ok. I am here to help with that. I can assist with finding what you feel you may want to experiment with during your equine experience.
“If you always do what you’ve always done,
you’ll get what you’ve always got.”
Jessie Potter 1981
