Skip Navigation

Epona Equestrian Services' on-site group events are human-development workshops exploring creativity, intuition, emotional fitness and authentic-community-building skills.

Generally, these programs are facilitated by Linda Kohanov and/or Epona Approved Instructors. Often, if a workshop is theme specific, appropriate guest facilitators may be brought in to assist. Each workshop covers the basic philosophy, skills and activities of the Epona Approach™ to Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning. In addition, each workshop focuses on an area of special interest. See detailed descriptions below.

Additional Epona Approach™ workshops are offered by apprentices as their final projects during their last week of training. These workshops are supervised by Linda Kohanov and/or Program staff. See detailed descriptions below.

Participation in one of these workshops is a prerequisite for individuals wishing to do advanced work at the Epona Center and is also required prior to acceptance into the Epona Apprenticeship Program.

Covered in each workshop are the following basics of the Epona Approach™

  • Using emotion as information
  • Accessing a more authentic, creative presence
  • Recognizing and moving beyond conditioned behaviors and thought patterns
  • Boundaries: establishing and maintaining clear and consistent personal space
  • Body Scan: using the body as a sensing device
  • Hands on activities with horses as guides
  • Developing essential skills for building authentic community

    We regularly update our schedule. Please check back!

Listed below are the 2010 introductory workshops. Click the links to read the workshop description, including sign-up information.

The Tao of Equus: Mindfulness Through the Way of the Horse

Facilitator: Linda Kohanov
Sunday, January 17 through Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Cost: $2000

Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily, includes lunch. Enrollment limited to four people.

This Introductory workshop explores the practical art of mindfulness through interactions with horses, the master teachers of self awareness. What seems so difficult for a grasping, hoarding, controlling, competitive human being comes easily to these highly social, intensely aware, nomadic prey animals. To become more horse-like, by developing a mindful approach to everyday reality, is a powerful, efficient, and fun way to awaken the delight of touching life deeply in every moment, and a path to greater peace and self-acceptance.

Horses not only embody these attitudes and skills, they can offer humans an accurate, yet innately non-judgmental form of biofeedback for self-awareness. Workshop activities with horses will include reflective work, which exercises being and sensing, energetic and subtle body awareness. Active round pen work develops inner stillness and balance within movement. Participants will also receive guidance in simple, traditional mindfulness practices as well as an opportunity to enhance their sensitivity to the nonverbal nuances of awareness through meditative musical experiences.

If you would like to attend please email booking@theeponacenter.com or call 520-394-2777.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation up to 30 days prior to the event start date results in a credit of one-half the workshop tuition. There is no tuition credit for a cancellation 30 days or less before the event start date.

Back to Top

Horses as Healers for Trauma Survivors

January 23-26, 2010
Facilitated by: Shelley Rosenberg and Nancy Coyne, MD
Cost: $2,300

Workshop begins at 10:00 a.m. on January 23rd and concludes at 5:00 p.m. on January 26th. Fee includes lunch and snacks every day.

Horses as Healers for Trauma Survivors is a four-day workshop utilizing experiential learning and corrective emotional experience with horses as our wise co-facilitators. Each day will include specific information on trauma and healing from trauma. Work with the horses will mobilize healing and help restore damaged trust. Tools for healing and self care include mindfulness exercises and yoga practice, creative process-drawing, writing, and painting to awaken creativity, attention to the body, food and exercise. Work on safety, boundaries, authentic relationship and community, and emotion as information will be reviewed and deepened. Other available strategies--body work, psychotherapy, EMDR, medication--for healing from trauma, will be discussed and may be demonstrated. Ample time is allowed for walks, pleasant meals, and good conversation.

The daily schedule will include interaction with horses on the ground and on horseback. No riding experience is required. Tools will be reviewed and practiced, including the emotional message chart, skills for authentic community, body scan, reflective round pen and reflective riding. Shelley Rosenberg will offer the connected round pen and journey ride as well as ritual pony painting. Nancy Coyne will offer yoga, creative process--to record the horse-human experience in images and writing. Riding lessons will be available, as well as psychotherapy sessions, individual and group yoga coaching and massage.

Shelley Rosenberg is an accomplished dressage trainer, rider and judge. An Epona approved advanced instructor, she is the author of recently published My Horses, My Healers, a memoir chronicling her journey to healing from a childhood of neglect and sexual abuse. She is also a gifted horse artist. She is the ranch manager at the Epona Center in Sonoita, Arizona. dressagecenter@theriver.com

Nancy Coyne, M.D. is a psychiatrist with many years experience working with trauma survivors. An artist herself, she uses creative process--writing and drawing, yoga and bodywork, EMDR and equine facilitated psychotherapy, as well as talk therapy, to help people heal from trauma and flourish in their lives. She is an Epona approved instructor and psychiatrist in residence at the Epona Center. ncoyne@gwi.net

Questions and registration may be directed to Shelley Rosenberg by email at dressagecenter@theriver.com and by phone at 520-455-5918.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation up to 30 days prior to the event start date results in a credit of one-half the workshop tuition. There is no tuition credit for a cancellation 30 days or less before the event start date.

Back to Top

Introductory Way of the Medicine Horse

February 24-25, 2010 or April 12-13, 2010 or May 11-12, 2010
Facilitator: Carol Roush, LMT, AAI
Cost: $550

Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily, includes one night's lodging, meals, and materials.

The Way of the Medicine Horse workshop is designed to improve horse/human relationships, strengthen connection to the intuitive authentic self, and bring awareness to old survival patterns of behavior that block our natural desire to move from surviving to thriving. The workshop will include the following basic Epona philosophies, skills and activities:

  • Message Behind the Emotions: The Emotional Message Chart
  • Congruent vs. incongruent emotional messages
  • False Self (Conditioned Personality)/Authentic Self Metaphor
  • Boundaries: Establishing and maintaining clear and consistent personal space
  • Body Scan: Full body scan to determine baseline emotional and physical state
  • Meet the Herd activity
  • Reflective Round Pen Work
  • Eight Essential Skills for Building Authentic Community (an introduction)

This is an introductory-level workshop and meets the Epona prerequisite for individuals who wish to do advanced work at Epona, including the Apprenticeship Program.

For more information or to register, contact booking@theeponacenter.com or 520-394-2777.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation up to 30 days prior to the event start date results in a credit of one-half the workshop tuition. There is no tuition credit for a cancellation 30 days or less before the event start date.

Back to Top

Accessing Your Inner Horse Whisperer

THE EPONA APPROACH TO INTEGRATED HORSEMANSHIP AND ENLIGHTENED RIDING

April 6-12, 2010
Facilitated by: Shelley Rosenberg, AAI

With other Epona Approved Advanced Instructors

Cost: $2,300

Workshop begins at 10:00 a.m. on April 6th and concludes at 5:00 p.m. on April 12th. Fee includes workshop materials, lunch, snacks, and bottled water each workshop day.

Shelley R. Rosenberg is an accomplished horsewoman, trainer, rider, artist, teacher, and author of My Horses, My Healers, a book about healing from childhood trauma with the help of her horses.

Rosenberg's skills with horses and humans help people develop awareness and authenticity within themselves and in their relationships with others. As a U.S. Dressage Federation "L" judge, she also continues to provide lessons and training for riders from beginners to the Grand Prix level. Riding since the age of 12, she has over 30 years of experience training horses, teaching riders in western, jumping, dressage, hunter, and driving horses. Rosenberg's experience with horse breeds spans from Arabians to Haflingers, Warmbloods, rescued Mustangs, and horses recovering from abuse that require rehabilitation. In her long career she has successfully competed for the long-list on the U.S. Olympic equestrian team; co-created and run (with Barbara Rector) a therapeutic riding program for adolescents at Sierra Tucson; and conducted Dressage clinics. Rosenberg was president of the Tucson Dressage Club, and for 18 years ran her own Dressage Center in Oro Valley, Arizona.

Shelley Rosenberg's Integrated Horsemanship and Enlightened Riding Programs incorporate the Epona Approach to developing emotional fitness applied to the relationship between horses and humans.

This unique and powerful workshop applies the Epona Approach principles (emotional fitness, body awareness, mindfulness, and authentic interspecies community building skills) to working directly with horses, taking into consideration the physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual dimensions of both species.

Throughout this extended clinic, participants will explore innovative ideas on riding and relationship building. Participants will learn to recognize and respect the energetic boundaries of the horse, as well as themselves and the other participants.  90% of our interspecies communication is non-verbal and goes unacknowledged creating dysfunctional relationships and unhappy horses leading to dissatisfied owners.

Shelley says “When you begin to learn how to read 'misbehavior' as a form of communication you will be well on your way to developing your inner horse whisperer."

Daily mindfulness practices along with the core Epona principals are combined with riding and training experiences, teaching participants how to more efficiently and enjoyably develop authentic and satisfying relationships in the saddle as well as on the ground.

Assessing Your Inner Horse Whisperer ultimately explores ways of more effectively collaborating with these remarkable animals, of finding that often elusive balance between setting boundaries and giving your equine partners choices, as well as listening to the needs of your own body and soul. The week-long class includes a day of integration for relaxation, reflection, connecting with nature, and herd observation. The agenda will incorporate at least 3 private riding lessons for each participant, with your own horse or one of ours.

We welcome new horse owners, people who are just getting back into riding/training, as well as accomplished riders and instructors in all disciplines. Some previous riding, training, and/or horse handling experience is suggested but not required. 

This class is limited to 12 participants, and involves a brief application process.

If you would like to attend this 7-day clinic, please send a letter of interest to dressagecenter@theriver.com attn: Shelley, briefly outlining your horse experience, your training/riding challenges and interests, your general fitness level, if you have attended a previous Epona workshop, and your goals for attending this program. Don’t forget to include your contact information (email and phone number).

The workshop fee of $2,300.00 includes all workshop materials, lunch, bottled water, and snacks each workshop day. For more information or to register and make payment arrangements please call Shelley Rosenberg at 520-455-5918. A deposit of $500 is required upon registration with final payment due no later than March 8, 2010.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation up to 30 days prior to the event start date results in a credit of one-half the workshop tuition. There is no tuition credit for a cancellation 30 days or less before the event start date.

 

to top

Copyright © Epona Equestrian Services