
{"id":858,"date":"2007-09-06T06:05:27","date_gmt":"2007-09-06T14:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/09\/06\/recently-%e2%80%98it%e2%80%99s-all-about-balance%e2%80%99\/"},"modified":"2007-09-06T06:05:27","modified_gmt":"2007-09-06T14:05:27","slug":"recently-%e2%80%98it%e2%80%99s-all-about-balance%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/09\/06\/recently-%e2%80%98it%e2%80%99s-all-about-balance%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Recently: \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about balance\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/recently090607.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/recently090607.jpg\" height=\"191\" width=\"255\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nDeborah Pearson-Moyers holds Pinto Bean (L) with Nancy Proia, and Flynn (R) with Mary Todd Peters, while guiding the women through warm-up stretches as part of her Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Intuitive Riding Group. Photo Courtesy of Valarie Schwartz<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>By Valarie Schwartz<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;while attending a ceremony at Emerson Waldorf School, Deborah Pearson-Moyers sat down and brightly asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who are you?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>My response gained an invitation to see what she does at her Blue Skies of Mapleview horse farm off Dodson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crossroads. Driving home after observing a lesson Tuesday, a question for the ages tumbled around in my head: What is it about women and horses?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the answer lies in the name of the sessions Pearson-Moyers leads \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Intuitive Riding. Women and horses following their intuition fare pretty well; working together, they can move mountains \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and negative energy.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Two seasoned riders returned from summer break for the first meeting of the fall session. Nancy Proia thinks this is her third year of doing both fall and spring sessions; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the fourth session for Mary Todd Peters.<\/p>\n<p>After a short catch-up visit while sitting in the shade of a horse trailer, Pearson-Myers instructed the women to choose a horse for bare-back training. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Walk out and see who asks. If you do well this week, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll earn your saddle,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said jokingly. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I honor that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve left a lot to be here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she told me. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re grown women with commitments.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been riding off and on since I was 6,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Peters, the mother of three young girls. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My mom died two years ago and I needed to do something for myself. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not therapy, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s therapeutic,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said while brushing Flynn, a dark chocolate-colored steed. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The class is very encouraging. Deborah focuses on what you can do. Growing up, lessons were about what you couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do. This is real comfortable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Experiential learning happens in the stalls while the women brush dust and sand from coats and clean hoof bottoms, establishing a commitment to the horse while gaining his trust.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A horse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s feet are their principal form of defense,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pearson-Moyers explained while Proia lifted each foot of Pinto Bean, sometimes having to lower a leg for a weight shift before being able to clean it. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all about balance . . . in life, horses and nature.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Horses have always helped me through rough patches,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Proia said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t articulate \u00e2\u20ac\u201d life is spinning out of control and I get on a huge animal and guide it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nSometimes merely being in the presence of horses does it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153One woman came and sat and wrote during the whole class; one woman played her fiddle for the horses,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Pearson-Moyers, who minored in women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s studies and has a degree in counseling from the University of Illinois. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Usually, something comes up during a lesson. I found a woman in a stall weeping on her horse because the memory of abuse came bubbling up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Horses are therapists of the four-legged variety.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A horse is a living, sentient being,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Proia said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thrilled to have found this group. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s marvelous \u00e2\u20ac\u201d there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing that can compare.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Call 933-1444 or see www.blueskiesmapleview.us for more information. Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00c2\u00a0 Deborah Pearson-Moyers holds Pinto Bean (L) with Nancy Proia, and Flynn (R) with Mary Todd Peters, while guiding the women through warm-up stretches as part of her Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Intuitive Riding Group. Photo Courtesy of Valarie Schwartz By Valarie Schwartz &#8230;while attending a ceremony at Emerson Waldorf School, Deborah Pearson-Moyers sat down and brightly asked,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-recently"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}