Quarterly Magazine February 2022

Everything Horses and Livestock ® Magazine

Everything Horses and Livestock ® Magazine

The horses and I worked with Garret and over the following weeks, it became evident that at the core of Garret apathy was this nagging question as well. Who am I? The book, Dream Big, by Bob Goff explains it like this ““Our understanding of who we are and how God sees us is worth all the time and energy we’ll put into the task. The trick is figuring out what is true after all the distractions, misstatements, and misunderstandings have been eliminated from our lives. Here's what makes it worth it: when we sort through all the words written by ourselves and others, and when we discard what isn’t true or doesn’t matter anymore, we’ll find the clarity we need to choose the desires worth pursuing. What's left over will be the truest, most beautiful and lasting ambitions.” I am a horse assisted life coach and one of the reasons I love to use horses with my clients is that the arena becomes a wonderful classroom where my clients can physically use all of their five senses to help them come to an understanding of this basic question of who I am. As Garret kept coming each week and playing different games/exercises with the horses, it became evident that Garret was not a lazy and selfish person as he first described himself to be. He realized by taking care of these large animals, when he needed to he was able to focus, do what he needed to do

and actually enjoyed work. He was motivated each week to connect with the horse to learn all he could about himself and what mattered to him, as he started to gain confidence, his life at home and school started to change as well. He believed a lie for so long that he didn’t matter, he was not good enough so why even bother trying. It was easier to just be lazy and then no one would expect anything from him. Once he was able to recognize this limited belief, he could then begin the work on if he wanted to keep this belief or exchange it for the truth. The truth for Garret, for me and for you, my friend is this: “You are loved and accepted! One hundred percent. No qualifications. No prerequisites. You can’t be good enough, smart enough, or nice enough to be loved by God. He decided He would love you before you decided you were interested in loving him back. Even if God is no big deal for you, your life is a big deal to him.” (Bob Goff, Dream Big, page 45) The next time you are cleaning stalls, grooming your horse or loading hay, take a minute and let the truth of the statement above sink in and remember that you are enough! ~Jayne Hamilton is a horse life coach and her passion is helping hurting people grow in hope, experience joy, and discover freedom in their lives. She has certifications in the following: FBEAP and Trauma Recover I, II and Stable Prayer from Unbridled Faith. She is also certified as a Christian Life Coach and Professional Life Coach from Anew University. *Garret's name has been changed to protect his identity.

The Question We Have All Asked

She can be contacted through: jayne@livingliferanch.org

Cleaning the horse stalls is a time where I do a lot of thinking. There are nine horses that I help take care of, so you can imagine all the thinking that I get the opportunity to do! I have noticed that a lot of what I am processing comes back to a very basic question that I keep asking myself. Who am I? And I have lived enough life to know that you have also asked yourself some variation of this question over the years as well.

was struggling with motivation. His mom said he was lazy and didn’t seem to care much about life. Desperate to help her son, Garret's mom reached out to me and asked “Do you think that working with you and the horses will help Garret grow up and get serious about his life?” I could almost feel the desperation in her question. She had tried everything from counseling, punishment, consequences, even yelling, but nothing seemed to get through to her son.

Garret*, a 17 year old teenager,

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