HORSE POWER GATEWAY EQUINE HEALING CENTRE HELPS PEOPLE AND HORSES FROM ABUSIVE BACKGROUNDS LEARN FROM ONE ANOTHER By Ellen Ashton-Haiste Learning to trust. Establishing boundaries. Achieving assertiveness. These life lessons aren't easy and can be especially difficult for those who come from an abusive environment. Yvonne and Leslie are two students who have been learning those lessons from some unique teachers. Amazing Grace, Contigo and Raphi are part of a small herd at Gateway Equine Healing Centre, where horses and people learn from and heal one other. “It's just amazing what you can actually learn through a horse,” says Leslie, who has concluded two eight-week sessions at Gateway. “I've never learned so much.” Yvonne first went to Gateway four years ago as a student. Today, she's working with students as a volunteer leader. “Now I get to flip and see the amazing stuff that happens in people's lives when they go there.”
Above: Gateway's newest rescue, Contigo, is shown in his stall at the auction where Nancy Drew acquired him.
Above: The Gateway staff members are committed to helping both the horses and the human students.
This photo: A Gateway student enjoys some undemanding bonding time with Grace, one of the horses that both Yvonne and Leslie worked with during their sessions. November/December, 2013
Lifestyle 29