Higher Ground Healing

Eeeekkkkk I’m so excited! Bianca built me an egg stand and I’m obsessed!

I’m hoping to add Oliver’s dandelion products for sale and maybe figure out gardening enough some day to offer fresh veggies too.

For now come and grab some fresh eggs!
$6 a dozen cash or Venmo 🙂

Money goes right back to feeding our ladies well

The barn at night.

These dogs are some of the best around! River and I were having a snuggle and he leaned too hard and I toppled over.. I decided to stay there and get some snuggles in with the whole pack. Well they decided and I went along with it :)

Happy Monday everyone!

Pictures from Shannon Watkins our equine massage therapist from last week.

Every 2 months our healing herd gets a day of healing themselves. You can see in these pictures how they release after their bodywork. Yawning, farting, stretching, smacking their lips and nice long naps afterwards are ways to indicate they are releasing stored tension.

One of my favorite things to see is that as soon as river sees Shannon’s car he climbs up on “his” couch, ready for his massage. He gets them because of his autoimmune condition. He really loves them and they seem to help his pain.

Every single member of the herd and farm loves Shannon! We are so grateful to be able to give back to the herd after all they give us to us humans.

Thank you to those who support HGH through financial donations, volunteering, and as clients. We appreciate all of you.

Camp for kiddos ages 11-14 starts tomorrow! There are a couple last minute spots available. Please check out the details on the website and text me 720-266-8265 to get signed up.

Well I know I may be a little biased but these hens are proving that two mamas are better than one 🌈🌈🌈

Four of our hens went broody this year. Broodiness happens when a hen starts to sit consistently on a clutch of eggs. She will do this whether or not they are fertilized. There’s several ways to stop the behavior and intervention is sometimes needed to keep the hen from starving herself. Because we do have fertile eggs I let each broody hen sit on a clutch of 4, and put a few in the incubator as back up. Unfortunately they all didn’t brood properly and none of the eggs made it to hatch. (I have a plan for more success next year)

I took the hatched chicks from the house (and a couple more from JLB feed because I was worried we didn’t have enough) and put them under the mama hens. Two of the four changed their minds as soon as they saw the chicks. But the white chicken Coconut, was an instant mama. Susan, the brown chicken, took a little more convincing but she watched coconut. The first few days they each had their own chicks and didn’t get near each other but a couple days ago they merged and are now co-parenting all 5 chicks together. Today I watched Coconut take two out for a bit while Susan stayed with the others.

I personally prefer chicks being raised by mother hens rather than in a brooder with humans. We still handle them daily so they trust us, but the mamas can keep them safer, teach them how to dust bathe, scratch for bugs, and keep them warm at night. Coconut will go completely Mama Bear if another chicken even breathes near her babies.

Babies are Praline, almond, cashew, peanut, and hazel. The black chickens come from our rooster Clyde and various hens, the other two are from the feed store, one is a Blue Cochin and I can’t remember the other type 🤦🏽‍♀️

Welcome to our flock babies!

Can we talk about what we assume is safe when it comes to horses? What the rules are around horses and how we apply that to the world around us?

Try as we might to separate our human selves from animals, we are first and foremost, animals that rely on the intake of outside cues to determine what is "safe" in the world around us. This is why if we are sitting relaxing and a loud noise goes off nearby, we jump into action. This is why we remember cues (sights, smells, sounds, etc) of our past experiences to catalog what types of experiences we want to avoid or experience again in the future.

Its logical that when people arrive here at HGH, they often say "I know not to get behind the horse, and I should watch so they dont bite me, etc" They want to learn the rules so they can stay safe. I intentionally almost never give direct rules, and I certainly dont teach any kind of horsemanship (unless thats applicable to what we are doing for therapeutic reasons). If someone wants to run up to a horse without stopping to pause, thats just information. I once had a client who routinely would move horses and then throw themself on the ground and lie down in front of them. It was often a very poignant, and significant pattern that we used therapeutically. Can you imagine how much would have been lost if I said NO dont do that!!! its dangerous! Trust me this person was no stranger to confronting "danger" outside the arena.

Here is the problem with black and white RULES around things. We miss everything beautiful that happens in the grey. Sure, you could avoid the front and back of a horse and never risk getting kicked or bit. But the odds are you will avoid really observing and listening to the horse to know what they are actually saying. Just like people, they dont randomly decide to just start kicking and biting. Just like we dont sit calmly talking to someone and decide to just punch them in the face. I encourage people to put the "rules" aside and just show up. Look with your eyes, listen with your ears, feel what's happening on the inside, notice patterns, and what is the horse actually saying.

What I am actually asking people to do is trust themselves and the moment and notice how much we ASSUME about what is true in the world. We all could use more of these lessons....

And yes, I was bit today. Twice by a rooster (love ya, Fred), and once I was stepped on by a goat. Not because I dont know the rules, but because I didnt take the time to listen to them in that moment.

So, I encourage you to stop assuming you already know the answers, and just start asking more questions and listening more acutely.

Due to lack of signups, we have condensed this workshop into 1 day!! Please feel free to share.

Medicaid accepted

Our May volunteer day was rescheduled due to snow. If you’d like to join us for some belated spring cleaning please throw on your boots and get ready to get dirty

Saturday June 25th

10-noonish

Please text 720-266-8265 or message us here on FB

Please join us this summer for our teen group. Medicaid accepted. Feel free to share with others.

Rewild Therapy and HGH will be teaming up to offer several workshops this summer. Starting with….

Future offerings including a similar format but for individuals transitioning from middle to high school, a weekly teen group, and in collaboration with other colleagues, a fourth trimester postpartum group.

More info to come! Please feel free to share this flyer

Medicaid accepted

Today at HGH! It’s chilly and a storm is rolling in. We all are so ready for spring. Yesterday was a warm sunny day, the birds were chirping the animals were all sunbathing and finding bits of green grass.

We are ready for you warm weather!

Summer Camp 2022 link is up!

https://www.highergroundhealing.org/summer-camps-2021

Summer Camps 2022 | highergroundhealing

Hi humans! It’s me, Fred the Rooster, I’m just catching up on a few things here in the office… 🤣

Question for you all: Which animals do you feel most connected to here at HGH!? We are putting together “sponsor a herd/flock member” gifts for the holidays and for our upcoming years fundraiser and want to make sure you don’t miss out on your favorite.

There will of course be Fred, Frankie, Stella and River options because we know how much you loved those them but who else would you like to see?!

Sponsoring an animal means in exchange for your donation you will receive updates, photos and for locals, visits with your chosen animals throughout the year.

Once upon a time River would jump up any time he felt like it to give hugs. This proved to be a problem because duh he’s giant, so I trained him to only hug on cue….. and the cue is “dancing queen”. So clients and volunteers you now have the secret password to the cure for hard days, loneliness and heartache. Well a 10-15 second cure anyway.. he can only hold this pose for so long:) I’m thinking we should start an album of “River dances” so please snap a pic with him and send it to us!

Recent studies conducted by the Institute of Heart-Math provide a clue to explain the two-way ′′ healing ′′ that occurs when we're close to horses. According to researchers, the heart has an electromagnetic field larger than the brain: a magnetometer can measure the energy field of the heart that radiates from 2.4 meters to 3 meters around the human body. While this is certainly significant, perhaps more impressive than the electromagnetic field projected by the heart of a horse is five times larger than that of a human being (imagine an electromagnetic sphere around the horse) and it can influence straight into our own heart rate.

Horses are also likely to have what science has identified as a ′′ coherent ′′ heart rate (heart rate pattern) that explains why we can ′′ feel better ′′ when we're close to them. Studies have found a coherent heart pattern or HRV to be a solid measure of well-being and consistent with emotional states of calm and joy-that is, we exhibit such patterns when we feel positive emotions.
A coherent heart pattern is indicative of a system that can recover and adapt to stressful situations very efficiently. Many times, we just need to be in the presence of horses to feel a sense of well-being and peace. In fact, research shows that people experience many physiological benefits by interacting with horses, including lower blood pressure and heart rate, higher beta-endorphins (neurotransmitters acting as pain suppressors), decreased stress levels, decreased feelings of anger, hostility, tension and anxiety, better social working; and greater feelings of empowerment, confidence, patience and self-efficacy.~

www.heartmath.org

Oh dear…. It’s gonna be a long day.

Poor thing isn’t a happy camper about looking like Cindy loo who in front of the clients 😉😂

HGH is collaborating with another non profit, Resilience 1220, to offer Equine Assisted Therapy to individuals ages 12-20 who are experiencing grief/loss of a loved one.

If you or someone you know would like to join us for some healing time with the herd and one another, please reach out to HGH or directly to Charis (info below) to RSVP.

This is a free event. However, if you would like to contribute to keep these groups/events coming, we are suggesting a donation of $40.

Higher Ground Healing updated their business hours.

Next week is camp for 11-13 (ish) year olds! Grooming/bathing/riding and more! We had a few cancellations so if you would like to join us please sign up. The website has all of the camp info, paperwork, and link for payment. We would love to see you

www.highergroundhealing.org

More Announcements!

I am not great at putting together the marketing, organization, and scheduling of groups. Which is a bummer because I LOVE facilitating groups. Here is what is on the docket, please message for more details.

June 28th 2:00-3:30 PM TEEN GROUP ages 12-15(ish). This will be a trial group to gauge interest, fit, and goals. It will be a 90 session with lots of play, animals, connection with each other and nature. Inclusive of all genders, and neurodiverse individuals welcome! Medicaid accepted, $50 for others. As always, sliding scale available.

Kids social skills group: ages 7-10. Date/Time TBD based on clients needs. This group will run for 4-6 sessions this summer. Focus of this group will be social skills, emotional expression/regulation, intro to somatic/body awareness, and of course lots of connecting play with animals and nature. Inclusive group for all children.

Also, what groups do YOU want to see? Message me and lets customize some horse healing time around what you think is needed. HGH loves to collaborate with other healing professionals so if you have a group idea in mind, message us and lets make it happen.

Its Camp Time! We have TWO spots left for camp next week for our younger kiddos (ages 8-10). Camp is M-F, 9:30-1:30. Let me know if you would like to sign up! The days will be full of playtime with animals, grooming/bathing the horses, art and games, unstructured outdoor play in nature and one day of riding.

I wish I could have captured this session on film. Wow, the horses have a way of just knowing what needs to happen. This picture doesn’t exemplify the magic that transpired in this session but just trust me. It was a sight to behold.

Summer is here... which means groups! Workshops! And extended hours.

If you or someone you know would benefit from equine therapy, please contact us :)