Greetings to all my dear friends, certified trainers and founding members, from the land of cheese, tulips, windmills, wooden shoes and magnificent horses. In other words, hello from Holland!
April is a time of resurrection. The season when we can all experience an old life being reborn and beginning anew. And this, thankfully, is very much the theme of the moment for me.
In many ways this past winter was the most difficult time of my life both personally and professionally. And yet, just like the horses will change and allow us to guide them once they know that our intention is to help them find the “sweet spot” in their frame of body in order to feel good in their frame of mind – I am experiencing a similar shift as I seek the critical balance between “making life happen” and “letting life happen”. To be more specific – I am emerging from a winter where “survival of the fittest” required finding the sweet spot between “letting go and letting God” and “God helps those that help themselves”.
And so it is a sheer JOY for me to share with the spirit of springtime that SHIFT HAPPENS! The message of EAPD is real – we truly CAN do for ourselves what we can do for our horses. WE CAN EVOLVE into peace with our body, mind and spirit. We can indeed train our own inner horse to be the best that we can be! Miracles do happen, JOY is available to us, and we can live healthy and happily.
So, aside from this glorious natural high I am on these days I do have some business news to announce. First and foremost is that my new website will be launched within the next few days.
It has been a long time coming but I can assure you that this new website is far less complicated and much more user-friendly to experience. However, for those of you who subscribe to the Video Training Library, please know that it will take a few days, or possibly a week or so, before the library is back on line. We’ll need some time “live” to work out all the glitches and challenges that come with offering so much video from the website.
So please be patient with us during this brief time of technological changes and challenges. I can assure you that all of us involved with Horsepower Productions are doing our very best to upgrade and improve the quality of services we provide.
With the launch of the new website you will find my 2013 event schedule. Thanks to the growing awareness for my work this will be my busiest season ever for travelling to clinics. I am happy because more important then my being able to work from home is for me to be able to serve the growing interest in my way of working with horses. Since calls are coming in from far and wide to be of service as a coach it is time for me to answer the call rather then to continue to develop Riversong.
With the call comes the need for integrity. And nothing challenges my integrity more then “biting off more work then I can chew”. So this year I am not taking in horses for training or working students at Riversong and I am not going to produce new videos or attempt to find time to write another book. My focus must first and foremost be the quality assurance of the experience I offer students and horses attending my clinics and workshops.
So, in essence, this is not going to be a year of “growing” as much as it is a year of “refining”. No new markets to develop, no new products to announce, just a dedicated focus to be the best that I can be as a coach, living in the moment, one day at a time, at all the venues around North America and Europe that have honored me with the request for coaching.
I am also seeing that more and more people are looking for help with their horses by finding and hiring a Certified Trainer from my website. And so it is, with a dedication to quality assurance, that this new website will only promote Certified Trainers that I have worked with in recent memory that I know for a fact are retaining and improving their competencies with the horses. This update has been needed for a long time and will be implemented with the new website.
And so a special reminder to all Founding Members of the Irwin Institute that your lifetime discount always applies to any and all events and merchandise anywhere I offer a clinic or workshop.
In closing, I can sum up this message by saying that this year I am not raising the bar to jump higher in the horse industry but instead training to be able to jump the same heights with better balance for more enjoyment and fulfillment.
This is the season where, speaking for myself, there is less and less distinction between horsemanship and EAPD. I say this because it is so simply true that to be the best horse trainers we can be requires our own ongoing personal development. It is what it is. Our own internal Shift Happens when we think horse, speak horse, play horse games by horse rules and become the best horse that we can be.
And so all the best to you and yours for healthy and happy trails and may the road rise to meet you, may the wind be at your back, and may you strive to be the best horse you can be.
Be the change,
Christian Irwin