Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaitlin Phelps.
Hi Kaitlin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up on a large family ranch in Northern Utah. I was the oldest of four kids, and because any neighbors with kids our age lived more than a four wheeler ride away, my siblings and I became each other’s best friends.
We spent our weekends and summers living the best childhood. Having space to run, explore, get dirty, and be wild. My parents supported my dream of barrel racing, and my siblings and I competed in various 4H programs. I was lucky enough to grow up with horses right outside my back door.
At the time, I thought horses were simply part of my childhood, but didn’t yet understand the role they would eventually play in my life.
In 2007, my 19 year-old brother passed away in a car accident. I had just become a new mom, and I found myself trying to navigate motherhood while carrying a kind of grief I had never known before.
There was one place where I didn’t have to hold myself together. With the horses in my parents’ backyard. I could go out there and ugly cry. I didn’t have to explain what I was feeling or try to make it smaller for someone else. I could simply be. Somehow, standing beside those horses, I felt as though they were holding some of the grief with me.
And every time I left, I longed for that feeling to stay.
Years later, horses would show me another side of that same gift.
In 2021, one of my sons was diagnosed with PDA, or pathological demand avoidance. His brain doesn’t differentiate between a demand and a threat, which means seemingly simple things, finding clothes to wear, brushing his teeth, or needing to leave the house at a certain time, can cause his nervous system to respond as though he is in danger.
One particularly difficult morning, I was out of energy and out of options. Instead of fighting to get him through the doors of the school, I asked if he wanted to come help me with morning chores and the horses on our ranch.
I watched something shift almost immediately.
The same boy who couldn’t walk into school that morning became quiet and grounded while holding the lead rope of an 800 pound horse.
I was watching his nervous system regulate right in front of me.
I didn’t have the language for what I was seeing yet, but it was the launching pad for my journey with equine therapy’s.
I knew what horses had done for me. I knew how different I felt in their presence. But now I was watching something similar happen in my son, and I needed to understand so others could experience the same healing.
Shortly afterward, a neighbor reached out to me. A local woman who was working in equine therapy was looking for a horse behaviorist (someone who understood horse behavior, communication, and body language) to work alongside her.
It felt like one of those moments in life that seems small when it happens but changes the direction of everything that comes after it.
I stepped into that opportunity thinking I was bringing my knowledge of horses.
What I didn’t realize was how much the horses were about to teach me about people.
While working with her, I had the opportunity to fly with her and work in Italy. I watched in real time as people continued to release emotion, stress, and trauma, just by being in the presence of horses. I watched people change and shift something with inside themselves.
After returning home, I searched and found a woman by the name of Christina Marz who offered a program that went even deeper into the world of Horse guided empowerment.
I began seeing the things I had experienced with horses my entire life through an entirely different lens. Their sensitivity to body language. Their ability to recognize incongruence between what someone was saying and what their body was communicating.
Looking back, I could see that horses had been woven through nearly every version of my life.
They were there in my childhood when I was learning to be brave. They were there when grief brought me to my knees. They were there when I was searching for a way to help my son.
And they were there when I began discovering who I was becoming.
I thought I was simply lucky enough to grow up with horses outside my back door. And now, through my work with horses, I have the privilege of helping others discover the healing, connection, and sense of safety they have been offering me all along.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The roads that led me to where I am today have definitely been bumpy. From the loss of my brother to the challenge of helping a child with a nervous system that does not work congruently with the rest of the world. As well as all of the struggles that just come with life. Marriage is hard. Parenting is hard. But the most beautiful thing is what I have learned from the horses. All of these things are just a part of the experience of being here. And beauty is always on the other side of the hard.
We’ve been impressed with Circle 5 Ranch, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
At Circle 5 Ranch we specialize in nervous system Healing and Horse guided empowerment through hands-on time with horses. We are different because our horses join us at liberty. No halters, no lead ropes no forced connections. When a horse has the opportunity to choose to be in your space it changes everything.
We offer sessions for children and youth, couples, adults, as well as shared sessions for corporate or family groups.
Our brand represents the closeness of our family. I am surrounded by five boys, (my husband and four sons).
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I have so many childhood memories, I don’t know that I could pick one. But all of my memories have an overall memory of Sunday’s spent country swing dancing in the kitchen, a soundtrack of John Denver and movies like the man from snowy River constantly on repeat. My mom was always standing in the kitchen, creating something from scratch. My siblings and I could always be found driving the old farm truck, the tractors and often the three wheelers long before our feet could even touch the pedals. We spent weekends in Summer’s working alongside my dad learning the ins and outs of ranch life.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.circle-5-ranch.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaitlinphelps
- Facebook: Kaitlin phelps
