Thoughts on "The Traveling Horse Witch?"

[Sticky_Situation]

Really, it seems like it’s basically Parelli all over again.

She’s selling an aesthetic … “see look, you form a magickal bond with your horse AND it’s better for their body than ‘regular’ training!” Like any half-decent trainer, she probably has adequate horsemanship skills which can seem like magic when you’re a beginner or struggling amateur. And she’s conventionally very attractive with just enough of the witch/pagan imagery to evoke a “connection with nature” but not so much that it scares off the more traditional folks. She uses a good healthy dose of pseudoscience to try to lend it all credibility. What middle-aged amateur doesn’t want to be a beautiful woman who has a wonderful, deep connection with her horse?

Where are the videos and photos of the end result of her training? For those that joined the masterclass, does she show them there? If so, why not use bits and pieces of those videos/images to advertise … it would be easy enough to do so with giving away the Secret Training Method™.

Why do we never see her riding a horse whose Thoracic Sling she sorted out, and showing how sound and capable of upper level work it is? All the riding photos available to the public seem to show pretty basic lower level stuff like you’d find on the website of any ordinary local trainer … Training-level looking dressage, jumping small fences, etc.

[Lunabear1988]

Don’t forget that she drops the f-bomb during podcasts to show how down to earth and bada$#@ she is. She’s mystical and hardcore at the same time.

[MapleBreeze]

This all sounds like the Pagan Parelli method of excellent marketing. Im just going to sit over here in the corner and try to figure out how my horsenality affects my thoracic sling and color a new wheel…

[enjoytheride]

This I don’t care about. Life would be easier if I didn’t have to watch my language in other settings

[Lunabear1988]

I don’t care about the cussing. I definitely don’t have the cleanest mouth lol. But I don’t think it’s natural in this setting and I think it’s a marketing thing to be honest. There is a lot going into building a brand. I think it’s a persona more than anything. Not an innocent slip of a word but maybe I’m wrong.

[K_VanOlst]

Interesting

[skydy]

@K_VanOlst

I understand what pre-vet classes are but I still maintain that it’s sketchy AF and intentionally misleading to say “pre-vet Doctor of Veterinary Medicine” at a specific university that doesn’t offer a DVM program. Does she have a BS in Animal Science? Possibly, although given her penchant for inflating the rest of her credentials I am sort of starting to doubt that claim as well

I agree that her claim, "Studied Pre-Vet I Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) at University of Hawai’i (sic) at Hilo, is a very odd thing to list for a CV under “Education”, especially if Hilo does not have a DVM program.

Not a straightforward CV whatsoever.

[Scribbler]

Pre med is basic undergraduate degree,making sure to have organic chemistry in the mix and other sciences. I was a grad student in a humanities discipline teaching first year courses at a school with a strong medical program and hence lots of premed undergraduates. But you can do pre med anywhere, your grades and test scores and etc will be what determines what med school you get into just like law or a PhD. You don’t need to attend a school with a med program to do “pre med.”

But it’s also a meaningless term except to describe your current undergrad program. Nobody gets a degree in premed. They get a major in biology and a minor in kinesiology or history or music or whatever combo makes sense to them. You don’t put premed on your CV

Likewise I am sure pre-vet. It’s going to be some mix of hard sciences and animal sciences and maybe Ag. You would put your attained degree on the CV

Unless you dropped out after Christmas of first year after taking a couple of animal science courses. Nobody says “studied” or “attended” if they got an actual degree or certification out of the experience. To say studied means you dropped out without completing a degree.

[skydy]

I believe that most people understand this.

[MapleBreeze]

I have a b.a. in biology. I could apply to vet school tomorrow. I also have never said i have a pre-vet degree or that i even did pre vet bc my classes were same same as pre med.

[skydy]

Exactly. This person seems to be exaggerating their CV in the hope that some people are unaware that it is a dubious distinction.

[MapleBreeze]

I also dont tell people I have a masters degree in education, because I quit 8 credits shy of my degree because I couldnt justify taking out more student loan debt to learn to teach when I could walk out that door move to another state and get PAID to teach.

So I say things like, “I was a teacher in x place” or “I have a background in education” when the helicopter moms ask for that stuff.

Or, “i spent 20 hours in a special ed classroom” so I am familiar with your asbegers child but that was a long time ago so please keep me up to date with any changes or needs from her high school teacher."

[Sticky_Situation]

It does seem like she did actually train at the Equine Natural Movement School for horse massage, although it looks like she doesn’t have active “Practitioner” status which I’m guessing involves some sort of continuing education or paying dues or something. The program is 3 separate 1-week modules and doing “homework” of some sort in between.

[K_VanOlst]

Now her acolytes are claiming she has a psychology degree - so which is it?
(This is from a public post)

[Scribbler]

@K_VanOlst

Now her acolytes are claiming she has a psychology degree - so which is it?
(This is from a public post)

Does psychology do neuroscience?

[K_VanOlst]

No idea, I don’t pretend to have degrees I don’t have just interesting to see how the claims evolve depending on the context.

[Scribbler]

Yup. I Googled and yes there are degrees that combine psychology and neuroscience now. But honestly if someone has an honest CV their degrees should be just up there plain and simple. The fact that there can be debate between acolytes suggest dishonesty and padding resume.

[skydy]

Perhaps @LexInVA could lend a hand and suss out the actual CV of the “Traveling Horse Witch”.

Lex, you’re our good research guy and if you have the time, perhaps you could check out the “Traveling Horse Witch’s” bona fides and possibly get some straightforward answers about their not-so-clear CV.

[LexInVA]

There really isn’t anything out there about her beyond her own business promotion - which seems to be from the last 3 years - and her LinkedIn doesn’t have anything beyond her own business and getting a degree in “Animal Sciences” from Hawaii, which I can’t confirm, though she was in Hawaii at one point, based on the other information I found. She claims to have studied massage therapy and been employed as both human and equine massage therapist, but I can’f find anything that backs that up. Her Pinterest has a smidge of horse stuff, but it’s almost entirely hippie stuff and girly stuff. The records for her business don’t match what’s on her LinkedIn, so that’s a bit of a red flag.

Then you poke through the superficial layer presented to you to get to the “other names” and she’s gone by a few different last names. Even then, there’s not much there, except a lot of moving around. Her family seems to have ties to Hawaii, hence the going to UoH and getting a degree in Animal Sciences. I can’t confirm that she has said degree, but she did apparently reside in Hawaii at one point [edit]. Her family apparently has/had a farm in Tacoma area, where she learned to ride and do other stuff. As far as being an Equestrian goes, it looks like she briefly dabbled in Dressage and nothing else, riding for the owner of the farm she might have been working at. [edit] As far as her age goes, I’m not sure how old she is, but the information is conflicting, though she appears to be in her late 30’s/early 40’s and has “changed her look” for “The Traveling Horse Witch”, which seems to be something that she just came up with in the last few years, after getting married.

If you really want something more, someone local to the scene in Seattle/Tacoma/Washington State would have to offer up some information or personal experiences.

[sascha]

@Sticky_Situation

program is 3 separate 1-week modules and doing “homework” of some sort in between.

Omg, no wonder my horse’s REMT who spent years studying, gets a little fiery about being called a “bodyworker” and about so called bodyworkers somehow equating their work and depth of knowledge with theirs.