For my LINK internship, I will be interning at Buffalo Woman Ranch. Buffalo Woman Ranch is a place where people interact with horses through Equine-Experiential Learning. The ranch offers workshops, counselling, horse interaction, and shamanic journeying among many other things to help people with personal growth and healing. They usually focus on one individual at a time for a personal and one-on-one experience and the power of the horses to reflect and respond to human emotions and attitudes. It’s located in Dove Creek, Colorado, two hours away from where I live in Durango. It’s a warm and welcoming ranch house with several other buildings and a herd of eight horses, each with their own personality and abilities that make them unique to assisting people. My mentor will be Robbie Nelson. She’s the co-founder of Buffalo Woman Ranch and is an occupational therapist and energy kinesiology practitioner. When I met Robbie, she exuded warmth and kindness, as well as a wisdom that I’m excited to work with and learn from. As I go into this internship, my goals are to learn about their philosophy and ideas. I want to understand the different facets of the business, the care of the horses, and the work with people. I believe that I’ll personally grow because of the people I’ll be surrounded with and the fact that I’ll be living independently and on my own for the first time. I think that I’ll definitely be able to achieve these goals through learning from Robbie and also from completing my LINK project (a project that the Juniors do during LINK; it should be something practical and useful as well as engaging/beneficial to my learning). Some ideas for my project could be incorporating art into a project for patients, creating a social media page, or promoting the sponsoring of a horse. I’ve already started to prepare for my internship by reading up on what formed their philosophy and getting a clearer picture and idea of their mission. I have started to read a book that is very influential on the ideas and foundation of Buffalo Woman Ranch. The book is called, “The Tao of Equus”, and it outlines and explores the very interesting idea that horses are a reflection and embodiment of feminine values and they can act as guides for us to personal growth. The process of getting my internship was no easy task. Honestly, I wouldn’t even call it a process. It was more like crazy good luck or better yet, fate! There were many challenges that arose during my search for the perfect internship. Originally as I started out my search, I just knew that I wanted an internship in the area of psychology/therapy. I want to explore this area because I have a curiosity and a passion for it and I’m not sure if that’s something I want to go deeper into. So I contacted several eating disorder treatment facilities and local therapists to talk to them about an internship. However, the treatment facilities weren’t looking for an intern without a degree or under the age of 18, and local therapists couldn’t let me into a personal session and didn’t have enough group therapies to fulfill my internship requirements. I worked with a therapist to see if we could get a bunch of local therapists to collaborate with us and I would be able to help with different therapies around town. However, time was limited and most people’s schedules didn’t line up. I was about at the end of my rope until my internship coordinator told me about Buffalo Woman Ranch and what they did. I was very interested because it involved a type of therapy that was more action-based, outside, and focused on horses. We contacted back and forth, and they were able to offer me an internship if I wanted. Being just about ready to accept anything at this point, I set up an appointment to go out to the ranch and meet people. I had internally decided that even if I didn’t really like it, I would still take the internship because I had no choice. But when I met Robbie and the two hands, Cody and Isaac, saw the ranch and the horses, and got a true feel for the place, I knew immediately that this was an amazing opportunity that I want to take. There’s an honest, down-to-earth, and earth loving atmosphere at the ranch that I want to be apart of. Now it’s only a couple of days until my internship, and I’m so excited! I get to go to a ranch where I’ll be surrounded by inspiring people who I can learn from, and I’ll be living on my own for three weeks. I think that this is a huge step, not only in learning about horses, but also in my own self. I expect to see myself personally grow. Who knows what problems I’ll be faced with. These problems make me a little nervous to think about, but I know that I’ll grow because of them and learn more about myself. I think that I’ll find that I can overcome the problems like an adult and communicate and connect with people on a deep and personal level. And in the end, I know that no matter what, my internship will have been an amazing experience if I choose to look at it that way, and I hope that it’s something I’ll never forget.
First Day
Here's a selfie from my first day! I'm staying in an adorable yurt that you can see a little bit of in the picture. I'm definitely still a little nervous! But I'm excited for what I'll learn and the experiences that I'll have. I hope to really feel at home here at Buffalo Woman Ranch.