about me

About Me

My Story

My Philosophy

When it's killing me,

When will I really see,

All that I need to look inside.

~ Red Hot Chili Peppers (Snow)

My Core Beliefs:

We possess the best answers for ourselves within ourselves.
If we want to make the world better, we have to start with making ourselves better.
Nature is always giving us clues and pointing us in the right direction. It's our job to pay attention.

With the horses acting as our partner, I help facilitate listening and learning. Contact me to learn more.

I'm a farmer's daughter. I was raised on a multi-generational family ranch in Northern California with black Angus cattle, wine grapes, and pears. Dinnertime was spent discussing the weather and politics.

Growing up, I learned to read the sky and the wind. Our family lived by the seasons. There was a time for work, for rest, for play.

In grade, middle and high school, I ran livestock enterprise projects and rode and showed quarter horses. In college, I studied nutrition and wellness, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Post-college years were spent doing sales, marketing and public relations for adventure travel companies. More weather, more politics, more stress, more life.

Ready for a change and wanting to spend more time with my horses, I completed the rigorous 1000-hour prerequisites to sit for the national exam to be a Certified Equine Interactive Professional-Educator (CEIP-ED), including a year-long equine-facilitated internship working with teens and adults in recovery.

Since I've been credentialed, I've founded a girls' equine life skills program, started a networking with horses evening for professionals, and developed leadership and team building programs for the business/corporate world through my licensing with Horse Dream in Europe. I'm continuing to work with clients in recovery as well.

I am so fortunate to do work I love, blending skills and knowledge I've gleaned and gained from my very earliest life through present time. I get to collaborate with many talented horses and colleagues offering a variety of programs meeting life's different stages.

Stephanie Holdenried

Tel: 1-415-779-4007