My time with horses has been a transformational experience. Horses know when we are comfortable and they know when we are anxious and scared. What they don't understand is when we act differently than we feel. When we send those mixed signals it's called incongruence. Incongruence also describes the wall we put up when we meet someone new and aren't sure we trust them, but we let them in just a little bit. We send mixed signals for many reasons. Sometimes it's because we don't feel safe, because we discount our own feelings, because we want to feel differently than we do, or because we want to please someone else. Anyone who's been badly burned and struggles with trust can behave incongruently. Horses read incongruous energy loud and clear. Energy is not something you can see or hear or taste, but you definitely feel it. It occupies the space between. [...]

Our friend Fée Halsted, founder of Caversham-based Ardmore Ceramic Art, has been honoured for her contribution to the arts in South Africa at the glitzy Mbokodo Awards, held at the Inanda Polo Club in Johannesburg, on Thursday, December 8. Halsted was nominated in the category of traditional and indigenous art, which celebrates women whose work, be it music, painting, handicraft or other form, is created using indigenous materials, based on traditional methods and meanings within the context of a given culture. “It was a very special occasion and an honour to be nominated alongside all these dynamic women,” said Halsted. Other categories include: women in media, literature, jazz, visual arts, poetry, fashion and design, shining light, music, dance, theatre, opera, girl child of promise, lifetime achievement and film.  Previous winners include Nadine Gordimer, Sibongile Khumalo, Mary Sibande, Gcina Mhlophe and Antjie Krog. Carol Bouwer, of Carol Bouwer Productions, which hosts [...]

Horses read people.   No matter how sure of ourselves we think we are, or we convince ourselves we are, horses know.   I'll never forget my first lesson after 15 years away from any serious riding. The trainer knew I had previous experience and she had seen me helping my daughter prepare for her lessons.  She felt comfortable enough with what she had seen to send me down to the lower barn to prepare a horse to ride.   I was so excited and I must say, a little apprehensive. I had ridden for a long time as a kid and had been super comfortable in my skin back then, but now I was different. I was older now, and a single mother of two girls who needed me. You know how it is when you're a parent. All of what you have goes to support your children, especially when resources are limited. I couldn't [...]

Only 15 days have gone by since the beginning of the new year, and already some are saying that the resolutions they made are unobtainable. I can hardly count the number of friends and family members who have given up on or lost track of the goals they set for 2017, and I know many more who did not set any at all simply because they thought that change was impossible. In reality, out of all things, change is perhaps the most possible. Change happens all around us. It happens every single minute of every single day. Over the course of a year, almost every aspect of your life will become different in some small way, whether you notice it or not. Maybe you will lose a good friend, or gain a new one. Maybe you will get new job, or get better at doing your old one. Maybe you [...]