HORSES CHANGE LIVES

Local Nonprofit Offers Life Coaching with Horses

By Camille DeVaul

One local nonprofit is using horses to help people embark on life-changing journeys. Life Coaching with Horses, located just outside of Paso Robles, has been operating as a nonprofit for the past three years.

Master Facilitator Coaches Kasia Roether, and Jutta Thoerner began Life Coaching with Horses as a for-profit organization, conducting workshops, but at the start of the COVID pandemic, they sat down to discuss the future of their organization. Working for profit never felt right to Kasia and Jutta. The two wanted to give back to people and other nonprofits who don’t usually get to receive.

“It instantly felt better,” said Kasia about their transition. “We both have experienced the value of this work, and we’ve seen the benefits and results when working with others, and we wanted to make it available to a wider range of people.”

Since becoming a nonprofit, Kasia and Jutta have worked with Hospice SLO County, Lumina Alliance, Resilient Souls and more. They support military personnel, law enforcement agencies, first responders, firefighters, medical staff and mental health workers, but anyone can reach out to them for services.

Jutta explains the reason behind including horses with life coaching: “Horses don’t judge us — we can show up however we feel.”

She explains horses have the ability to mirror people’s emotions — even if we try to hide them. But as she said, the horse’s nonjudgement has a way of making clients feel safe — a horse’s natural instinct is to feel their best self and that can project itself onto the person working with them, creating a calming or relaxing sense.

During sessions, Jutta and Kasia offer honest feedback to any human behavior changes, emotion, or intellectual state, providing the participants with unique support.

“It’s a joyous experience for me when I can see how people love what we are doing and how grateful they are. That’s what giving back is all about,” said Jutta.

Jutta and Kasia both come from horse training backgrounds that eventually evolved to include life coaching.

Jutta grew up on a horse ranch in Germany, where she spent her time in nature with her dog and pony. She developed a deep connection to both the horses and nature, which set a precedent for her future. Her education background includes horse breeding, physiology and all aspects of horse husbandry, as she earned a Master’s degree in farm management in 1983.

She immigrated to the U.S. in 1995, continuing to work with horses. Later, in 2010 she became interested in life coaching and enrolled and completed the Martha Beck Coaching program. In 2017, she graduated from the Center for Equus Coaching as a certified equine master facilitator and coach.

Kasia, who is from Poland, was first introduced to horses when her parents owned a draft horse that she cuddled with in the barn when she was a little girl. That sense of peace was planted into her soul, and never forgotten.

“I had the memory of how I felt around the horses when I was a child and that never left me,” she said.

In 2000, Kasia came to the U.S. to expand her knowledge and experience with equine through training a multitude of horses with professional trainers from top-rated, globally recognized breeding and boarding farms in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and California.

Kasia went on to collaborate with programs like PATH, EGALA, Morning Star Youth Ranch, and veterans organizations to facilitate and coordinate the use of horses for therapy, counseling, and alternative forms of support.

She too, eventually studied under Martha Beck and completed Center for Equus Coaching training and becoming a certified equine master facilitator. Kasia and Jutta met through a life-coaching training and after learning they both lived in North County, decided to work together.

“Our work helps people center, balance, and reconnect with themselves and figure out who they really are,” says Kasia. “Life coaching in general, is about looking at things now and making forward progress.”

At the start of becoming a nonprofit, Kasia and Jutta were thankful to have a beneficiary help them with start-up funds. Since then, they have been able to receive a few small grants to help with ongoing costs. While they will not turn anyone away seeking their services, donations are always appreciated to help them serve more nonprofits and keep their operation going.

Find more information at lifecoachingwithhorses.org

Amountainous region with aging oak trees, cooling breezes, fog, and limestone soils that yield world-class Rhône style wines and Cabernet Sauvignon, the Paso Robles Willow Creek District are one of the region’s most picturesque landscapes. But is there also an aura or mystique about this district?

One way to answer this question is to ask not what is in the Willow Creek District but who. One of 11 Paso sub-appellations, in the past decade, this district has become synonymous with wines garnering high-90 to 100 points from noted wine guru Robert M. Parker Jr.’s The Wine Advocate and other wine publications, names such as Saxum Vineyards, Booker Wines and L’Aventure Winery.

This is not to say that other Paso sub-appellations don’t nab high points. So, what is it about this area and the wines it produces?

“Birds of a feather have flocked together,” quipped Eric Jensen who was recently honored as the 2022 Wine Industry Person of the Year by Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance.

The founder of Booker, Jensen, was referring to the “originals,” his neighboring winemakers, Justin Smith (Saxum), Matt Trevisan (Linne Calodo Wine), and Stephan Asseo (L’Aventure.)

“There’s a unique group of homegrown winemakers that have been in this district such as Justin, Don Burns [Turtle Rock Vineyards] and myself,” agreed Mark Adams, founder/winemaker of Ledge Vineyards. “The three of us were roaming these hills as kids long before we decided to become winemakers.”

The second and most important answer to any mystique is terroir.

“Willow Creek has the sweet spot, the ‘goldilocks spot’ that has calcareous soils that it shares with Adelaida [District] and a cooling effect that it shares with Templeton Gap,” stated Smith. “The two perfectly come together — the temperature and the soils.”

“What looks like a massive wave cresting over the Santa Lucia Range to Willow Creek is the coastal air,” said Trevisan, who acquired his 77-acre ranch in 2002. “It’s all part of the growing conditions here. I bought into it.” Trevisan went on to recall his experience of working in 1992 with Smith and his father Pebble.

“We were one of the earlier ones,” agreed Smith, referring to 1980 when Pebble Smith settled on this cattle grazing land after searching all over California. “There weren’t many wineries. There were several vineyards like Turley’s Ueberroth vineyard.

“My dad liked the combination of being close to the Pacific, the elevation, the Santa Lucia Range, the shale soil and higher rainfall. It was the right combination for growing quality grapes.”

It’s this magical terroir that speaks through Willow Creek wines, rich and lush fruit with an attitude yet expressing profound elegance, albeit with high alcohol levels. “Yes, 15 to 16 percent [abv] is normal,” insisted Smith, “but they are not overripe because you have great acids. They’re ripe but fresh. Alcohol is just a number.”

Jensen reflected on the terroir, “In simple terms, because of the way the rock formation settled thousands of years ago we have on the west side mostly linne calodo, high calcareous and siliceous soil. Then we have the afternoon cool breeze and steep hillsides.”

Adams, who grew up in Templeton on his family’s 40-acre cattle ranch, began his winemaking career at Saxum before he planted 15 acres of Rhône varieties to the family ranch. “This region is special because we have wide variety and complexity of soil types, elevation and proximity to the ocean.”

Tucked along Highway 46 West, with 1,400 acres under vine Willow Creek is renowned as a Rhône outpost with impressive wines coming from wineries such as Clos Solene, Paix Sur Terre, Caliza and Villa Creek. Yet this is where you find some of the oldest Zinfandel vineyards such as Pesenti (planted in the 1920s) and Ueberroth (planted in the 1880s), both now home to Turley Wine Cellars.

There’s a selection of Italian varieties at nearby Pelletiere, Burgundian at Jack Creek Cellars and Bordeaux varieties at Jada, Denner and Niner, among others.

And there are superb blends. Take L’Aventure’s founder Stephan Asseo, who planted Bordeaux varieties to blend with Syrah. His signature Optimus, a Cab/Syrah blend with a touch of Petit Verdot, would set the trend as the seminal Super Paso wine. On his arrival in 1996 from Bordeaux, he said, “When I did the inspection, I knew everything was right, the soil, the elevation and topography.”

Anita Sahi concurred, “It’s the dirt.” Co-owner of Copia Vineyards, Anita, and her winemaker husband, Varinder Sahi, are among the group of new arrivals here. “Our appellation is special for the confluence of the soil type and the microclimate.”

For Adams, Willow Creek has always been his center of gravity, “It’s home, and I feel lucky to grow grapes and make wine here.”

So, the mystique of Willow Creek has as much to do with the local winemakers and their camaraderie as with soil, wind, and fog.

“More importantly, the hard-working farmers in the [Paso] area who can translate what terroir can do.” enim rectur sam eos volupta suntias mo et ut o cie nistibus, sum exerum essusda volo eatquam ius, odi omnienime exped ende vid et atioremporum atur? Ga. Ris esed quam volor provid quissusantis explit dit renit ant unt ulla ipsam niendandes aut quassunt. Sin endit velloriate vollam quae senihicia di simod qui omnimpe necerro o cte eum ea de non praes pelenis del id mil modis aut latis maximpor sequia doloriassum, odisci o cim ande voluptaqui volor aut as mil in prat di repel mi, quideri ssecturiam solorep erorepudae doloreperro estem. Pudanimosam ipsae volupti in eosam ute pratum essimus, comnimosto earciasi consenti cum voluptat fugia doluptat volupta de velecea pro quos volorrorat volupta adicipsunt. Magni in rerio cusdam se et ut ea vel estis rescipistio et velibustem. Omniae sim vitisin renihit, eaque nam liquamus es anto idundip iendelis minte la sum fugiaes totatur ra inctota tendipiet que ipsanim pelenda nimillo ribusanti cus de nonsequ untibus, cupta volorem facitius