In this edition, founder Linda Kohanov shares photos she took of spring flowers at her Eponaquest at Eagle Way horse facility and the surrounding desert last year, while offering an update on the equine-facilitated workshops featured this spring.

The Desert Blooms at Eponaquest

As record snows hit the East Coast, spring is in the air in Amado, Arizona. One of our apple trees is blooming; our rosebush is bursting out with leaves, and desert wildflowers are already lining the roads in the neighboring arts community of Tubac. It’s a beautiful time of year to attend workshops with the Eponaquest herd. And so I thought I’d offer a quick overview of our workshops through mid-April.

There’s one spot left in the advanced workshop Black Horse Wisdom March 6-9. http://eponaquest.com/workshop/black-horse-wisdom/.

A few spaces are also available in The Power of the Herd March 14 to 17 (click here for workshop description) and Harnessing the Invisible April 9 to 12 (click here for full description).

As usual, I will be leading these three popular workshops, which can also be used as prerequisites for the Eponaquest Apprenticeship Program. But we also have two new workshops this spring featuring some special guest facilitators:

Season of Awareness

April 3 through 6, Eponaquest at Eagle Way will host Season of Awareness led by two of my dearest colleagues in this fast-growing field. Barbara Rector, the widely acknowledged Grandmother of equine facilitated learning, will be joining Mary-Louise Gould, an Eponaquest Advanced Instructor and faculty member, in offering a workshop to support your opening to the message of spring – a re-awakening and re-birth into the peace and freedom lying beneath the distractions of everyday life. As they say in their course description:

Ask yourself if this Spring is the time for you to give yourself the gift of a life-expanding experience of awareness, of connection to your deepest truth, beyond your fears and vulnerabilities, and the discovery of a doorway to peace and freedom, as mirrored and supported by the ageless wisdom of Horses?

I understand and appreciate the opportunity they are offering, for the journey of awareness to peace and freedom is an ever un-folding one. As I wrote in Way of the Horse:

“True freedom demands relinquishing limiting patterns and beliefs. A part of you must die to be reborn. We are not born to live and die, but to die and be reborn many times before leaving this earth. Yet underneath this strange roller-coaster ride, a timeless core asserts itself. In gaining the courage and fluidity to undergo constant metamorphosis, we access a deep peace capable of embracing the ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows of life.”

To see the complete course description http://eponaquest.com/workshop/season-awareness-access-peace-freedom-horses-live/

Primal Reunion

And finally, I will team up with my husband, composer and recording artist Steve Roach, for a three-day integrative experience April 18-20: Titled Primal Reunion, this workshop offers you tools to harmonize aspects you might normally consider opposites: spirit and nature, logic and feeling, sound and silence, masculine and feminine in order to strengthen and deepen your relationship to life, love, leadership and vision.

Be ready to spend time connecting with nature and horses in the heart of the desert, immersing yourself in transformational music, exercising creativity, and accessing your own personal myths of balance and transformation. (No horse experience or musical experience necessary.)

Over the last decade, many people who’ve attended workshops and apprenticeships at Eponaquest have appreciated the music Steve has created for our guided visualizations, transformational journeys, and horse dancing, as well as the music making circles he’s led that boost creativity and nonverbal group communication. People with no previous musical experience, people who were in fact initially shy picking up an instrument and joining the sonic conversation, have been surprised at how much fun they’ve had, and how great their group improvisations sounded. Many have used the CDs Steve made of their musical improvisations for their own meditation and yoga practices. And a number of participants have commented that they’d like to attend a workshop where the music is integrated daily into the work with horses, rather than offered as a one-time event. And so, Steve and I decided to create such a workshop. For a more complete workshop description see http://eponaquest.com/workshop/primal-reunion/.

Primal Reunion is for individuals as well as friends and family who would like to attend an enriching experience together. We’ve already had inquiries from people who wanted to attend this workshop with a close friend or family member as part of an Arizona vacation that will include some enriching experiences rather than pure tourism.

And so for this workshop, we’re offering a special couple’s rate, but this is not only for spouses and life partners. Family members and friends will enjoy attending this life-changing seminar together while learning plenty of tools to support each other when they return home. To be clear, however: We will not be doing “couple’s work.” Everyone will be supported in integrating their own masculine and feminine sides, as well as bringing logic and feeling, spirit and nature, creativity and practicality into balance in order to lead a more innovative, empowered, joyful life.