Constant throughout, horses have stayed at Cordula’s center stage, an essential part of her being. She became involved in conscience-riding workshops, natural horsemanship, and riding with a focus on finesse. Her go-to trainers are Sara Contois of West Newbury (British Horse Society Assistant Instructor, BHSAI) and Lisa Terrell of Berlin. As a final touch, she is a qualified PATH International Therapeutic Riding instructor based at Strongwater Therapeutic Equestrian Farm in Tewksbury, MA.
As such, riding for Cordula is not only riding, it is therapy. For her, it’s about establishing a partnership, to communicate mutual respect and understanding, to take the time to show a horse what it needs to know, and allow a horse to do what it does know. Peace and patience are paramount in this pursuit; two qualities typically innate to a horse.
It was in this journey that Cordula found her dream horse and that the horse of her dreams found her. Lakota Rain is a Qurab mare who is spritely, willing, sometimes naughty, yet unfailingly tries hard for her rider. Cordula met her when Lakota was 6.
At the time she was not a school mistress. She was pretty though, with an ability to win hearts. She was donated to Strongwater Farm in the hopes that it could be her forever home, given her tactile nature. But that did not work out. Until then Lakota had not experienced consistency, so she could not provide it. And so it came to be that Lakota, now 12, started to live in Cordula’s backyard with 2 Nubian goats, Hershey and Nibbles, and a Hackney pony named Violet who she is fostering from NEER-North (New England Equine Rescue-North). Lakota has since earned a few blues and reds and is the inspiration behind Cordula’s connection with ACTHA.
As their relationship developed, riding in the heart of Massachusetts conservation land, in the dressage ring or bareback in the backyard, the two appraised what might be fun projects.
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