Happy Holidays! First of all, I am naming this newsletter. I realized I have sent out simple communications in the past, but it really is better to have a more official newsletter with a name. I hope you like The Mammalian.
 
Inspiration
I have been enjoying the podcast Getting Psychic. Suki, the host, uses herself to test the theory that anyone can 'Get Psychic'. She has a range of guests on her show. I was very intrigued with Dana Kippel and her conceptualization about Plasma. She defines Plasma as the Fifth Element. She calls it God’s clay and it makes up 99.9% of invisible matter. It can be: The Sun, Lightning, the Northing Lights, neon signs, and even Fire is a weak Plasma. Finer Plasma could be considered: Aether, Sophia, Mana, Qi, Animal Magnetism, Indra’s Net, The Field, and Dark Matter. I find these examples help visualize the ambiguous concept of Plasma. 
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Holding the concept of the existence of Plasma in my daily life is revealing magical outcomes! A couple of weeks ago, I was riding Jasper in an indoor arena that he doesn’t know very well. It had been many weeks since I had ridden him because has been off with soundness issues. So, there were some fear thoughts in my mind: What if he spooks? What if I fall off? What if I look like an idiot? So I visualized Plasma all around me, like a transparent and friendly goop. And then I felt calm. I felt held. I felt CONNECTED. The key feeling for me is the feeling of connection. I wasn’t going to fall off because the Plasma was holding me. Jasper wasn’t going to spook because we were both connected and felt safe. It didn’t matter if I looked like an idiot because I felt content and secure with my beautiful horse. So I encourage you to experiment with this concept of Plasma in your daily life. 

If you want to enhance your reality, here are four key points Dana mentions. Plasma is co-creating with you so you can directly influence your reality. 
-Emotional coherence.  Processing emotions rather than suppressing them. Let emotions move through you like a wave, with awareness. 
-Play and imagination. Go through your day with a childlike awe. This allows magic to happen. 
-Trust in the unseen cause and effect. We may not always get our way because the universe has a bigger and better plan, it may just not be known yet. 
-Letting go of validation from the outer world.  Be your authentic true self, by letting go of conditioning and people pleasing.
If you want to learn more, she has a book entitled: “New Force: Plasma, Consciousness and the New Human Potential.”  I think you will find her work very fresh, inspiring and original. 

Publicity
​The 2026 Canadian Horse Annual has be published with an article on Animal Communicators across Canada. Charlie Fiset  interviewed 6 animal communicators and I was one of them! She summarized the essence of our conversation with truth and detail. The article offers a comprehensive taste of the field with its variety and similarities across different practitioners. Here is the my piece and if you want to read the full article, you can get the magazine at national newsstands, tack shops, trade shows, major retail chains (Chapters, Indigo, Walmart, Shoppers Drug Mart, Safeway, IGA, Co-OP, Loblaws, London Drugs), and local farm supply stores. 

Gift Cards
As it is the holiday season, I am offering Gift Cards. It is the perfect gift for animal lovers because it is original, different and tailored specifically to the recipient. The gift cards can be used anytime in 2026. You will see the gift card offering on the STORE page of my website and here is the direct link to the gift card.  If you need a last minute gift idea for someone who has everything and loves animals, an animal communication session is a thoughtful and unique gift. 

Classes
I am offering classes in the New Year. Starting in February I will be offering the Beginner Animal Communication Class series which includes Beginner Animal Communication, Talking to Your Own Animal, and Death and Beyond. In March I will offer Talking With Nature, Lost Animals,  and Advanced Animal Communication. 

I will offer a new class: Animals As Teachers and Guides. The date is TBA. If you are interested, please let me know because it helps me put it in the schedule. I will be offering new classes too: Medical Intuition, Counselling Animals and their People, Manifesting for Ourselves and Our World.  I plan to offer an Animal Communication Masters Program for students wanting to be Professional Animal Communicators.  

Rates
My rates will be going up slightly in the New Year. But you can book sessions now for 2026 to get the 2025 rates. 
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Animal Update
​Leo just had major dental surgery. He had 6 teeth extracted.  About 3 years ago he had an appointment with a feline dentist to have two root canals for cracked canines. But under anesthesia he had a heart murmur, so they didn’t go further. Now he is 15 and I actually had a failed root canal earlier this year which led to an extraction. So I consulted with a very kind vet in my town, and we decided to extract the teeth despite the risk of the jaw cracking. And Leo did great! He didn’t show any signs of heart murmur and his jaw is intact. He is feeling so much better now.

Teddy is back in the Kootenay with us after his sojourn in Alberta. I know he misses the sanctuary vibe of the acreage but he will return. He has an important job now, to work with my daughter through the official Equine Canada rider levels. She will receive high school credits for going through the various levels,  demonstrating her abilities and knowledge of stable management and riding. Teddy is so well schooled and safe that he will help build my daughter’s confidence when she has to demonstrate the jumping phase. We are very grateful to our coach Brandy Saunders to offer this level of testing in our area. And she took this amazing photo of my daughter with Teddy. 

Toby is getting the winter off at the acreage. He has been working consistently for 10 years. When he arrived a few weeks ago, It was a little overwhelming for him to have so much open space to himself. Debbie tried putting him with the two mares but the threesome dynamic didn’t work for him. So we bought him a friend, a pinto gelding, named Luke. They are very sweet together.  He came from a feed lot so he is in a much better place now. He will be Toby’s companion and we will educate him so he can have a good life

Jasper has two wonderful leasers in Cochrane. He couldn’t stay on the acreage because he kept loosing a shoe on his one challenging foot. It is better for him to be in a paddock and be consistently exercised. I hope to bring him back to the Kootenays in the Spring. He is very loved by all who work with him, as he is such an old kind soul, and a true gentleman. 


Atlas is always with me, my loyal best friend. Many of you know him as he sits behind me on the antique couch during sessions. He holds space, so grounding and joyful. He reminds me every day that play, love and connection are the truest and purist experiences on this wild ride on Earth. 


Gratitude
Most of the beautiful photos were taken by Debra Easton. It adds so much value to visually show my life with animals through stunning photography. I am also very grateful to Debra and Eileen Easton for welcoming my horses to the acreage. The horses love it and can just be horses, playing with friends, running in open spaces and foraging for food as well as having huge hay bales to eat from. It is a magical place for animals and I feel touched every time I go there. 


Happy Holidays from my family to yours. Atlas and I especially hope you enjoy warm cozy snuggles with your animals. 
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I am so happy Teddy is back. He has been back for about a week and a half from his sojourn in Alberta. Emily is having so much fun on him, feeling bold and brave, working on transitions, cantering, and riding bareback too. She deserves this so much, to feel safe and comfortable and practice her skills. He is a great horse for her to achieve her Rider Levels for high school credits. 


I am practicing and expanding my training, too. I have been taking Teddy in the back forest behind the barn, the 150 acre park land. We start out in an easy walk to warm up. After ten minutes of walking, we warm up doing trot circles around a tree. There is a significant hill at the back of the property so it gives us a chance to warm up until we get there. I have been trotting and cantering him up the hill to get him using his hind quarters. It is both strength and cardio training. We extend the distance every time we go. When we get to the top, we slow down, turn around and walk down the hill so he uses his core to support himself. We turn around and canter up again. We repeat this interval training with hill work 3-4 times.   After hill work, we do intervals of walk and trot home. We have Atlas with us and Teddy likes to race him so we have to practice WHOA or he will gallop at full speed all the way home to win the race. It’s so much fun to use natural obstacles and features to work on interval training and transitions. It feels like a natural progression from where we left off a year ago, I am feeling engaged by the new challenge of working in wild terrain and it’s keeping him fit so he can do some jumping with Emily in the Spring. 

​I have noticed that the trees have been very present for me as I walk the dog through the woods in the back of the barn where I board my horses. Sometimes I put my hand on a tree to feel grounded and calm. Sometimes I look up to the trees for help and guidance. 
When I was really sad one day last year, the trees answered my call. I felt that my divorce was a failure for my children. That I didn’t protect them from the hardships and grit of human life. I wanted a happy, loving family. My vision was that they would be protected in a bubble of love and nurtured to grow to be their best. My vision popped, I was so disappointed for my children. I looked up at the trees and saw tall, strong trees and sad trees  and dead, decaying trees. I got the message that this is the change of life, there is vibrancy and love and there is death and decay. A shielded life of love and protection is not a perfect or realistic life, it is a fantasy. Death, decay and rot comes with life, growth and strength. 
So today I connected with the trees to ask more focused, specific questions, like I do in my animal communication sessions. 
I looked up at the tall canopy and heard them say: “We are one.”
I picked a tree. I felt her name began with an A as I approached her. I leaned my hand on her trunk and closed my eyes. I saw a vibrant and strong life force, red and gold colours running up her trunk from the roots of the Earth. I saw her curl her tip towards me to embrace me and nurture me. My first impressions: she is female, she is nurturing, she is old, she is strong and she is generous. 
So I asked her some questions:
How do I get through my divorce that his been going on for five years? 
~Be strong. 
How do I manage Jasper? He is in Cochrane and I am in Nelson, it’s hard to be apart from him. 
~Be patient. 
How do I navigate being in Nelson when I want to be in Cochrane?
~You are in both places, you are not limited to being in one place or the other. 
I felt so calm and resolved after. I felt I got the advice I needed. I felt supported and guided by a generous, wise old soul. I was happy. 

We had a great time at the Lynda Ramsay Clinic last weekend at our barn. We are very lucky to have this offering as she is FEI level 2 Eventing judge, EC level 3 eventing judge, and EC dressage b judge. We worked on my body position, sitting back and not tipping forward as that puts weight on the horse's forehand. We want the horse to be back on his hind quarters, using his engine from behind. We worked on suppling exercises so Jasper is relaxed in his back and not holding tension. We learned many new exercises which inspires me for when I ride on my own. ​Thank you to my daughter for documenting, Debra Easton for helping with the warm up, Brandy and Liz Saunders for organizing and hosting. 

I am super excited to be offering Talking With Horses Animal Communication Class. The class is running at 4:30 pm Pacific time on April 23 and 30. Sign up on the STORE page to join us!

I had a great lesson on Jasper today. Sometimes I get frustrated with myself because he is such different ride from Teddy. Teddy was very heavy and it took a lot to get him going. Jasper is much more responsive and reacts to leg aids so I have to re-learn how to ride, undoing muscle memory of 8.5 years of riding Teddy. 

Today we worked on leg yielding. I have sit up tall, don't lean forward because that puts him on the forehand. We focused on leg yielding to the left, moving him off my right leg. Our right side is the dominant side for both of us, so have to soften the side up. I need to be more clear with my leg aid so he doesn’t lean on my right leg. Half halt and bump with the leg. Keeping his left shoulder parallel to the fence otherwise we are not leg yielding we are doing a diagonal line. 

​I rode Jasper for the first half of the lesson and Debbie rode him for the last half the lesson. 
I have to work on keeping my core tight so I am in centered in my position. He is pulling me forward by dropping his nose. 
What are the pre-signs or warnings that he will nose dive?
-he changes the pace
-he leans against my right leg
-he bulges with his left shoulder on the circle
-he twist his neck and points his nose to the right
By nose diving he is using his neck to balance. As I rider I need to keep him balanced by using my core so he can use his core.
We talked about working on both ends of the spectrum of trot, going slow and fast within the trot. If we go too fast, ask for too much impulsion, it can lead to injuries. He is not very strong yet. We are building up his strength by going slow and getting him balanced so he can build a foundation of strength. It’s like physio or yoga for horses to go slow and keep him balanced and using his core. 
It was interesting for me to watch Debbie ride him. I could see, from a new perspective, his tendencies such as twisting his neck to the right. I could see how correcting his balance with inside leg supported him to be in a round frame. 
Having us both ride Jasper in the same lesson helped me see the areas I need to improve on (tight core and staying centred), how Jasper can be corrected with inside leg and outside rein so he is in a nice round frame, and how effective the aids can be.

Brandy Saunders Lesson Feb 6
We worked on transitions within the transitions, slowing the trot to almost walk.
Getting stable in my position, not titling forward, strong in the core.
When Jasper tilts his head I put my legs on with a strong outside rein, to get him balanced. Don’t let him bulge with outside shoulder, means his neck is bending and therefore not bending from the middle, his sides.
This will prepare us for the canter, to keep him balanced, using half halts with a strong core and holding my position.
Exciting News! Brandy Saunders is offering equestrian lessons via PIVO. Get in touch if you are interested. https://www.facebook.com/crescentvalleystables/

I had a fantastic time in Cuba with my family celebrating my 50th birthday. The highlight was swimming with dolphins. I was very impressed with the high level of training the dolphins displayed. We played with Nina who was rescued many years ago after she was bitten in the abdomen by a shark. She was very joyful and enthusiastic to interact with us. She let us touch her belly, pick her up, give hugs and kisses, she jumped up 10 feet in the air, and she pulled us around the pool when we held on to her pectoral fins. 

Another highlight of the trip was snorkelling in Matanzas. The reef was very grey but there was a little bit of color. We saw brain coral and many varieties of fish such as needle fish. I think the next adventure will be scuba diving in Mexico or Florida so I can explore the underwater animal kingdom in more depth and detail. ​