Madelyne’s Story: How This Entrepreneur Changed Her Life In One Afternoon With the Help Of Horses

Madelyne, an Untethered client, used to be a CEO for many years. She had reached incredible heights in her career; yet felt less satisfied in her personal growth. Recently, she has been on an incredible journey of self discovery and self love. 

In the last few weeks, she worked on some of her blockages around clearing a path to her grief and diving deep into her shadow work. Shadow work is a concept popularized by Dr. Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, that defines shadow work as the “parts of ourselves that have been exiled.” These are parts of ourselves that are usually stuck in the unconscious mind that we see as “bad” or “unfavorable” qualities. By working on these parts and accepting them, we can heal generational trauma, feel whole, and learn healthier ways to meet our own needs. 

This is Madelyne’s story after choosing to do an accelerated growth experience with horses that has shifted her completely. In her words, this experience has “created a new paradigm in how I live my life, allowing me to take care of myself first, before I take care of others.”

Madelyne’s Transformational Journey

For a while I had been experiencing a shift in my personal journey towards loving myself more. I was a CEO for many years for other companies and my own, but I recently stepped down in January. I am still the founder of the company but I have taken a more passive role as the director of the board. I am currently in the process of shifting my career to do something more closer to my heart and traveling around the world with my fiancé. 

For years, I felt disconnected from myself and what made me happy. I lost my drive and I was burnt out. I was doing things to further disassociate from my grief simply to keep functioning and being of service for others, without considering myself in the process. As a woman, so many of us are taught that to think of yourself first, is to be self centered. So, I lived this belief. 

I met Heather a couple of years ago living in this circumstance. Something called me specifically to work with horses to uncover what my true purpose is and to have a deeper connection with myself. 

The Experience

A few weeks ago, I joined Heather and their herd at the Red Horse Ranch to dive into the work with the horses. She is an amazing channeler and is really in tune to which horse works best based on what a person is working on. With her support, I picked Max, a male horse, to come sit with me and I felt an instant connection to him. He stood over me, nuzzled my forehead, and I immediately had an emotional reaction. I started crying and something in me just released. I had become numb over the years and pushed down my feelings. I didn’t want to be too emotional to the outside world because I had been taught showing emotions was a sign of “weakness.” 

This connection with Max made me feel very safe; and because he was a male horse, the connection between us was healing my relationship to masculinity, the father figure, and the masculine within myself. I felt protected, so I could be emotional in this moment. I went to a deep place with him. 

Another horse, Attalia, led me out to the pasture. Heather suggested I sit on her back. In the process, I was given the clear message that I should stop avoiding. The funny thing was, I had been avoiding all my life. In my case, I had been avoiding this journey of self-love and self-acceptance for a while; all in the belief that I thought my purpose was to be of service to everyone else except for myself. 

When I heeded this advice, I got up on Attalia’s bare back. We didn’t move for a while and I was able to tap into a calm and peaceful state. I was able to really ground into myself and bring awareness to only me; which I hadn’t really experienced before. I heard a voice in that moment telling me to scream all my anger, grief, and sadness out. I had experienced a lot of trauma as a child and I was connecting to feelings that had been buried for a long time. 

I left the field to scream. I had visions of past experiences that I had only processed intellectually. The horses came over to me to hold space for all that I was uncovering. I felt very safe and protected in that moment; so I felt comfortable to just let it all out. 

The Shift

The experience gave me what I absolutely needed, which was: to create a clearer path to love, create a deeper connection with myself, and release my grief. I released massive blockages around feeling safe within myself to process past trauma. 

I am currently on a deeply transformational journey. I am shifting focus in my career, in my home life, and in myself. I am learning to be more open with myself and “put my own oxygen mask on” before I do that for others. 

Ever since that experience, everything has made me cry or express my emotions because I am actually in tune with them now. I am not hiding them for fear of looking “weak.” I can access the “harder” things, like the shadow work, the anger, and the grief; which makes me feel an immense sense of love. I am reprogramming and rewiring some of those belief systems that have held me back from truly loving and honoring myself, and feeling empowered on the next steps in my journey. 

This experience has led me to feel comfortable to take this leap to the next chapter;  and breakdown the walls that kept me sheltered from my own personal growth. A heaviness has been lifted from me and I didn’t need years of therapy; I was able to uncover this stuff in an afternoon. 

I feel like I have taken a huge step in doing the most selfless act of all: taking care of myself first. 

Equine Experiences: Transformational Healing

In a January 2020 NIH study, working with horses was found to have provided a positive impact to a human’s wellbeing, quality of life, self-esteem, and self efficacy. In that same study, they mentioned that it has been long believed in the Native American culture, horses can be truth tellers, leading individuals in the right direction. 

According to Madelyne, she was able to cut through her blockages swiftly with the help of these majestic and regal beings. She said that here at Untethered, we have a gift for working with the horses and knowing exactly which ones to work with to help you do the work and process difficult sentiments.  Madelyne knows this is not the end of her journey of self-love; but she is releasing more heavy emotions each day and finding the tunnel to her heart, where it wasn’t there before. 

Are you a high-achieving entrepreneur who needs to quickly remove your most stubborn and persistent blockages, which stand in the way of your most important goals and highest potential? Learn more about our equine growth intensive and commit to creating a life that best reflects who you truly are and what you want your life to be.