In December 2008, after several compelling phone and email chats, Capra and Dr. Maria Katsamanis (formerly Karavidas) made plans to meet at Spring’s barn (CC liked the idea that Maria was as interested to the meet the horse as much as the human part of the team). Once in person and face-to-face, these two professional and horse loving women felt an immediate connection and a magnetic draw to this union. It was ultimately Spring who made the decision clear. Upon meeting Dr. Katsamanis he showed his unmistakable approval, trust and cooperation that THIS would be our initial triad treatment team.
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The Genesis of Spring Reins of Hope, LLC
Christianna Capra • November 12, 2009
The Launch of a Dream
The genesis of Spring Reins of Hope, like many dreams, began with a notion, a yearning, and a desire to fulfill one’s destiny. Officially launched in 2009, the road traveled from conception to inception included a few years of researching, training, planning, strategizing, and just plain leaping. As a result experiences developed which produced amazing breakthroughs, synchronicities, and several lessons on faith. No mistaking it, there have been obstacles to face and overcome. Yet there has always been a series of consistent signs, or clues guiding toward the visionary goals ahead. When the road became adverse, there did appear a path that may have seemed out of the way, yet yielded another light at the end of the tunnel. The main driver always came back to the work. The witnessing of how Horses help us to navigate life from a deep inner wisdom of knowing what is right for us, or not.
In 2006, founder Christianna Capra (“CC”) discovered Eagala
(Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association) through her beloved retired event horse, Spring Thaw, who had become chronically ill with Lyme disease. After two years of conventional drug therapy, this slippery illness led us to the internationally respected holistic veterinarian Judith M. Shoemaker, DVM of Always Helpful Veterinary Services
in Nottingham, PA. Indeed after 8 months of a regimented sequence of herbs, homeopathic tinctures, oxygen therapy, acupuncture, and immune supports we did cure our Lyme disease problem! Dr. Shoemaker also pointed CC in the direction of The Eagala Model by indicating that this horse (once he was well) had another career ahead of him, he wanted to become a healer and a teacher.
Upon introduction to Eagala, Capra knew that she had finally found the calling for a career, and ultimately her life’s work. The next 3 years took a winding yet poignant path of physical healing, certification process, emotional healing, searching for the right Mental Health Professional to partner with, locating a facility that would allow this work to take place (proved to be the hardest part as over 90 farms were contacted and more than 40 interviewed/visited). Envisioning the scope of this incredible life-changing work, its impact, and the ripple effect of that is what kept CC moving forever forward with the idea that somehow this business would be launched.
What’s in a Name?
For nearly two years Capra would envision many things about this program, calling it XYZ Program, because no matter how hard she tried no appropriate name would come. Shortly after meeting Katsamanis, two words arrived from her – Spring Reins
– we stayed with this for a while. Not much later after that, the - of Hope
- came in as the completion.
“Spring”
represents the season of growth, rebirth, new beginnings, a clean slate, etc.
If you start looking at the word Spring the several definitions are synonymous with the work we do in EAL and EAP: To become resilient or elastic, to come into being, to leap or jump suddenly, to make a great leap forward, to produce or disclose suddenly or unexpectedly, to release or cause to be released from confinement.
Synonyms for the word Spring are also interesting to us: Rise, Arise, Emanate, Emerge, Originate, Flow, Proceed, and Stem. And lastly but not in the least, it is the name of a horse who has guided this entire vision from the beginning - Spring Thaw.
“Reins”
are the communication line between horse and rider, and while there is no riding involved with EAL and EAP the work is largely based on communication lines between the horses and the humans. Also Reins – when spoken, sounds like “rains.” Every year the spring rains signify a life force where gentle warming rains act as the jumpstart for rebirth, new growth and all the new beginnings of the season.
“of Hope”, came to us one night while driving home from the barn to NYC, the phrase from a song kept ringing in Capra’s head – “what the world needs now, is love, sweet love.” She remembers thinking, with the economy in a mess, job loss at its peak, the never ending war, and so much widespread suffering - what the world really needs now is HOPE! A good healthy dose of hope, could bring us back to the love that heals.
“Getting to the Horse of the Matter”, came to us while Capra was doing some meditations with her horse atop a high but small hill that looks out over the entire landscape. The tag line had originated as “getting the heart of the matter” based on a truly magnificent photograph that was taken of Capra’s two horses’ posturing the exact moment they first met.
A photograph taken by Artist Michael Colavito truly captured the moment of recognition between two horses. The way in which the horses are looking at each other was intense and the arch of their necks and chest, suggested that of a heart. Being that EAL and EAP is focused on getting to root of the problem or issue – it seemed like a good fit to have “getting the heart of the matter” as a tag line. Until…
One day while up on top of this special hill with her horse, Capra witnessed him lie down and put his head flat against the ground, he lay there motionless for several minutes. Then he moved his position, while still laying flat on his side, he arched his head and neck and pulled his feet together so that where they met it came to a point. From an aerial perspective he was making a heart with his body. Then he made eye contact with Capra as if to say, “do you get it, see my heart, I am a horse, see my heart”… Walking down the winding and steep path from the hill that day, Capra said out loud – Getting to the Horse of the Matter, and it stuck. We now had a name, something to call ourselves.
Our Logo
After smelling each other’s scent on Capra for over a year, the day came when the new horse (Dane) would meet the veteran in the family (Spring). The photograph capturing this magical moment was taken by Artist Michael Colavito on a beautiful September day and shows clearly the recognition between the two horses. Normally there would have been a fly mask on Spring while in his turnout which would have changed the image completely, and for whatever reason, on this day there wasn’t one. The way in which the two horses are looking at each other and the arch of their necks and chest, suggests a heart. With our name and tag line established we wanted to somehow utilize the energy from this photograph to create our logo. Artist Libby Corbin, whom Capra has known for several years as a practitioner of Therapeutic Massage and Cranial Sacral Therapy (CST) for the horses, was recruited to render the photograph into a logo image. Seeing the logo for the first time was really a cathartic moment for us, it was as if all this work and preparation to get this off the ground was all so worth it. Now looking at our logo, it all began to feel real. We now had a face, an image to live by.
The Process to Become Real
During the spring / summer 2009 we thought we would be seeing clients since it had already taken 2 years to get certified, another year of searching out the right partnership, another several months to find a facility that would accept the EAL / EAP practice to take place on their property, we thought we were done with the waiting and the overcoming of obstacles. We knew we would need to register an LLC and get insurance coverage, but then we also realized that we needed presentation materials and a website.
Both Capra and Katsmanis will attest that as we began to draw up an outline for “what we do” neither had the intention of spending an entire summer (and relinquishing many perfect weather riding days) to arduously put our shared vision on paper. Creating the content for this program and website was not easy, in fact it was a most long and painful labor (of love) that we both hope will never need to birth again.
Precious Timing
One thing that can be so frustrating to learn once you do find your purpose or calling in life, is to then wait for the right time to take action on it or to see anything develop even though you are diligently working to make it happen. When Capra discovered this work, she wanted to be in the arena with a group of people the next day! Hindsight is always a great friend, in that several things had to line up in order for us to launch and with a solid foundation and support system. There were a few signs that helped to support this belief.
On an airplane from Rancho Mirage, CA to NYC in 2008, Capra was on the red-eye and couldn’t sleep, so instead she wrote a story to send in as an entry for a contest from The Angel Animal Network titled, Horses With a Mission. Capra wrote, and wrote on that flight, putting down her story about how instrumental her horse had been to putting her on a destiny path. The story was submitted and got an honorable mention in the contest. Then it went even further and made it into the final book, published by New World Library and released in September 2009. This story details all of the signs that were laid out like breadcrumbs for discovering this path, and the breadcrumb spreader was none other than a very wise, 4 legged friend. The simple fact that this book was released in the fall of 2009 and Spring Reins of Hope is in it, launching at the same time seemed auspiciously fun.
Next came getting the word out. For nearly 14 years, Capra earned a living by doing marketing and public relations in NYC. She began to mention to her close media relationships that the dream was about to become a reality and many of them volunteered to interview us for our launch. Before we knew it we had over 20 radio stations who wanted to help introduce Spring Reins of Hope to the world. To us this was another sign that we were finally ready.
We now have our master healer well and ready to work, we have developed a synergy between our team that will carry over to the work, we have our name, we have our tagline and logo, and after searching and talking to over 90 horse facilities in New Jersey we have finally located a farm in Stewartsville, NJ to be our beginning. Never realized how difficult it would be to find a farm that would agree to host an EAP/L EAGALA business! We realized also that we will need more than one horse to work with as the business grows. Sadly locating horses that need homes these days is abundantly easy, we will look to rescue horses / ponies that need both a home and a job. A launch date for Spring Reins of Hope was set for 11/11/2009 – all the planning, strategizing, meeting, researching, searching – has all come to a head; we have a good base start and we are focused and ready to complete the mission by actually doing the work.
Timing is an interesting thing. Had we rushed to open a program in 2007, a lot could have gone wrong. So in the sake of waiting for the right time, and in that there is a right time for everything. And, as we were about to move to our first location, it fell through. Another road block with a now homeless horse! We were lucky in a lurch to be able to begin our first few sessions at CC’s show horse’s barn in Goshen, NY where Spring moved into a field with a young sassy chestnut TB mare. Ultimately we found our first official home in Pittstown, NJ and moved there October 1, 2010 with 2 geldings and a mare. We share this idea with you in case you are ever in a rush to get something done. Sometimes urgency is imperative, and sometimes patience and focus is the remedy for a well built and supported plan.
So our doors and hearts are now open. We hope to hear from you, to meet you and help you with your life path and journey. The horses really do know what they are doing with this work and they are here to help. Come and see what they can do for you, your relationships, your family, your business and your happiness.
May Peace always be with you
May Love surround you
May your path be illuminated and guided by the light
May you never lose HOPE
~ from the Human and Equine Hybrid Team at Spring Reins of Hope ~
You’ve chosen a terrific way of integrating images and text into your website. Move the image anywhere you want in this container and the text will automatically wrap around it. You can display events team members new products and more easily and creatively. To start add an image from the Image Picker and edit it as you would edit any image in the system. For example you can link the image to existing pages in your site a website URL a popup or an anchor. After you’ve chosen the image add your text. You can add text that describes the image you’ve selected or simply use the image for decorative purposes. \nYou’ve chosen a terrific way of integrating images and text into your website. Move the image anywhere you want in this container and the text will automatically wrap around it. You can display events team members new products more easily and creatively. To start add an image from the Image Picker and edit it as you would edit any image in the system. For example you can link the image to existing pages in your site a website URL a popup or an anchor. After you’ve chosen the image add your text. You can add text that describes the image you’ve selected or simply use the image for decorative purposes.
Believe it or not, it is massively difficult to find a farm home that will allow our EAGALA model work in the arena (private use of an arena with horses and clients loose at the same time), and it is even more difficult to find a farm lord that is welcoming or tolerant of the populations served by our organization to be on the property. Maybe this will change as EAP becomes more known and its efficacy more proven, but as of yet not the case. In 2008 when we first started Spring Reins of Hope and were searching for a location to work out of, it took 47 farm visits to find HPEC in Pittstown, so there is was a bit of an improvement because in 2013 we only had to go and scout out 22 farms to find one that would welcome it all. Facility Needed 2013.
I'm not completely sure when Christianna (aka at the time “Tina”) saw her first real horse. She played on the bouncy horses in the yard at University of Colorado student housing complex. We had received a new member of our family, a Labrador puppy we named Rufus, and were invited to find other housing as a result. So while her father was away on a football trip for the University, I found a new, dog-friendly home in the mountains west of Boulder, Colorado. There were two hundred people living in Jimtown, lots of dogs and lots of horses, ponies and a donkey named Jennie. We also made the acquaintance of Moses, a wild burro who lived in the mountains and was fond of sticking his shaggy head inside our window and announcing his presence with a hearty hello. Tina met Eyeore, a little pony just her size. Her babysitter would take her riding on Shotzie, a large and powerful Morgan/Quarterhorse. We were celebrities of a sort as Tina's dad was a well-known and successful defensive tackle at the University of Colorado. The boys of the town would come by and see if, "Dave could come out and play football in the street." Tina decided that it would be more fun to be a horse than a human. She opted for the four-legged even then! We created a horse-house in the corner cupboard area of our large kitchen. We spread straw for bedding, oats and hay for munching, and water for drinking. Later, when her brother David was born she outfitted them both with horse tails from my hairpiece and pinned them on their jammies. One day we went to the post office for an outing and forgot to take the tails off. Two golden-haired, rosy-cheeked children in their parkas were standing at the candy counter with a few inches of tails sprouting below the parka hems. People just looked and smiled. Every day I heard the same refrain: "Mommy, please get me a horse? I want a horse!" We read the unabridged print of Black Beauty everyday. Cover to cover. I believe she learned to read sitting in my lap as we read, and I'm quite sure she memorized the text. Soon, Tina would put on plays about Black Beauty, feeding me lines as I nursed her brother. "Oh Black Beauty, you're the most beautiful horse in the world with a tail that touches the ground!" Grammy Capra would be enlisted to repeat the lines, as well as Uncle R and anyone else who happened into our horse fantasy kingdom. One day, our neighbor Mary Ann gave me some horse magazines for Tina. I said to Tina, "Pick out a horse." She carefully turned each page and then said, "I want this one." She chose Secretariat.
