Explore Hertha Lund's journey in the Coaching Industry

Hertha Lund: It’s so nice to be here, Greta, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be here in New York with you.

Hertha Lund: Absolutely. Rootless to me means not tethered to the past, free from the past, to be in the present, to create the future. For me, everything goes back to what I’ve learned from nature. Aspen trees don’t have roots, but they’re connected to each other under the ground. It’s called rise ominous. To me, to be able to create the future is still to be connected and to be like an aspen tree, to live in community with other like minded people. I’m still rootless. But I’m connected.

Hertha Lund: My story begins on a rural ranch and the Missouri River breaks in Montana. We were way like an hour from any town where you could get groceries or gas. It was really out in the country. In that particular part of Montana, they call it the Missouri River breaks and all of Montana is a big sky state. People have asked me, why is the Big Sky state? I said, apparently you haven’t been there yet because the sky is huge. But in this part of Montana, where the breaks are, it’s a country that has deep ravines caused by the water that’s been flowing to the Missouri River. That ultimately ends up out on the East Coast and all that water cuts big caverns. It’s a rough country and it’s dry and it’s got a big sagebrush and it’s just rugged country. to be there and to be alone there, you have to kind of develop a place of being comfortable with yourself, or else you’ll just feel like an ant on the surface of the Earth, because it’s so big with the big sky and the rough and endless area, miles of rough country.

Hertha Lund: Well, for me, growing up was heaven and hell. The heaven part had to do with my little Shetland called little Red. I have a twin brother, and if you grow up in Montana on a ranch, the person, the next kid, gets the gentle horse. Well, if you have two, it kind of wrecks the program because you don’t usually have two horses. So he wasn’t quite as adventurous as me, and he got the gentle horse and I got a little red. Shetlands are no targets for being kind of ornery. And he was green broke, which means not very well broken. And I rode bareback and I rode him. I wanted to get out of the house because I didn’t want to be near my mom. So for me, I would go out and I would ride, and I did, a big pasture around the house, like several acres. So I’d be way out there and little Red would be shy and I would fall off, and then I’d have to walk to the barn. I wore shorts and boots while I rode bareback and walked back to the barn. There was sagebrush, cactus, and potentially rattlesnakes, so you had to be pretty careful. But I’d get mad. I and then I’d get to him and I said, oh, I love you, little Red, I forgive you. I had many fun adventures with little Red, and I can remember that it was about, to me, a slice to heaven on earth.

Hertha Lund: Well, when we lived there, we moved to three different ranches. So when we lived there, we actually had a one room school with no indoor plumbing. but we moved from there and I went to high school and another town, and it was more normal, you know, there were 128 in my class or something, not nine. When I first went to grade school, there were four first graders because one family had twins. That changes the whole dynamic. Two fourth graders, one fifth grader and two seventh graders. That was our school.

Hertha Lund:  At that time I wanted to be a veterinarian or a doctor. I always wanted to deal with healing. I was very compassionate, and I doctored everything at our ranch. Anything that needed help, I was there. I realized early on that I probably wouldn’t be able to doctor people because I’m too empathic. If you, if I’m helping you and you say, ouch, I’m done. Well, with the horses I could do anything to help them. So it seemed like I could override that empathic feeling. Which also leads to part of why I’m good at being a coach today is because I feel so much. 

Hertha Lund: After high school I was going to go to school at Colorado State Veterinary School, and then I changed my mind and I went to Montana State and I walked on to the basketball team. So I was a pre-vet, pre-med major, and I played basketball, varsity basketball, and I was on the rodeo team. So I was a little overextended.

Hertha Lund: Oh boy. I went to horseshoe in school while I was going to college at MSU. So I’m a blacksmith and I spent some time on the east coast at a veterinary college. And I realized, well, I went out with the top vets, that the vets weren’t very happy because they had to be like working with the animals. But you have to take care of somebody’s fancy horse. And sometimes the people can be hard to work with. so I looked at that and I’m like. Then we also lost our family ranch when I was a sophomore in college. That was a huge blow. That was a big trauma. I lost time. I don’t even remember for sure what happened. And so I had to work to put myself through school. So I would shoe horses all day. Then I would tend bar and I would take several months off to work, and then I’d go back to college for a while. While I was doing that, I got really sick, and that was the first time that I came close to dying and I was talking to God. And it’s like, God, I really like it here. And, you know, it’s like, I need to know what I’m supposed to do, and I need some help. And so I did feel like I got inspired and I became I studied, started studying the major traditions, the mystical traditions of all the major religions. I took a spiritual turn and I took some time off and managed a ranch. it was actually a spiritual community and I manage the ranch. And then while I was there one night, I was bothered by something, so I wrote a letter. Sometimes I’ll write letters to God, and nobody taught me this. I just do it. I wrote, I burned it and and I got an answer to my prayer, and it was like my heart had been moved to the East Coast. so I moved to Philadelphia and I went to journalism school. I left everything, and I had a suitcase, and I was broke, broke, broke. Remember, I’d been living on a ranch. So I have tennis shoes and boots. I don’t have any shoes for the city. My aunt loaned me some money to buy, to wear a suit and some clothes, because I had to work in the office to pay for things. I didn’t have a car, I had to walk everywhere. My mom gave me a pair of shoes. Those shoes didn’t fit. I promised myself that when I had money, I would never wear shoes that didn’t fit again because I had to walk all over Philadelphia. I was doing public transportation with shoes that didn’t fit. Sometimes I ate special kale for breakfast and lunch and dinner because I did not have enough money to pay for everything. My dad said, I can’t help you. I said, I’ll figure it out, I’ll wash floors. I did lots of different work but I was very, very broke for many years. Well, I was putting myself through school, so I go to journalism school, I go back to Montana and I start selling stories. It’s what’s called a freelancer. I sell the story three ways. At that time I got paid 40 bucks a story. So that’s 120 bucks. That’s a lot of money if you’re broke. But that’s not much money. And so they would publish him. But I have to write it three different ways. So that didn’t look like it was the same story. So that helped me earn my writing skills while I was being a journalist, a lot of times ranchers wouldn’t talk to you if you were a journalist because they didn’t trust you. So I called up, I was doing background for a story, and I called up to Washington DC, to the American Farm Bureau office, and I said I was in for 4A and was in FFA. I grew up on a ranch, I rodeo just to get my bona fides. So they talked to me and they said, are you looking for a job? And I’m like, well, maybe. And I said, where? And they said, Washington, D.C. that was during the first Gulf War. And I’m like, no, I don’t want to go there but and say that, you know, I’m interested. And so they flew me there for an interview and they interviewed me. In two weeks I had to borrow money to buy a suit because I was still at that time, I was living in a one bedroom apartment with three other women, and I slept on a futon in the living room. so they like what they got. In two weeks they offered me a job and they said, well, we’ll send a truck to get your stuff and we’ll move you here. I said, well, it all fits in my escort. Like, I don’t know if I should tell them that they’re expecting to get a professional. So I bought a few more suits and I showed up and they put me up in a hotel room, and they gave me $40 a day to eat on. I thought that I, you know, that life had changed because I used to. That was my budget for a week to eat on. So I started covering Congress as a journalist. I would have been 27 because I took some time off and managed the ranch before I went back.

Hertha Lund: Well, back to when I went to journalism school, it was so hard for me to leave my horses and the country that, you know, and living in downtown Philadelphia. I once wrote an op ed for the Temple Owl News that I used to be among Solitude and 30,000 acres. And now I was amongst 30,000 people in less than an acre. I mean, it was so hard for me, I would listen to cassette decks, that cassette that the. Yeah, the little ones cassette. And I had headphones and I would listen to Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music over and over again as a way to keep myself from just wanting to run across the country back home. So when I went to DC, I was better, I was more used to it, but I still had so many things to learn. This is a funny story. So my friend said, if you need to get some clothes, you get a few nice clothes and then you can. You don’t have to have a lot of clothes. And so I finally got some money so I could go get more than my three outfits. And I go to buy clothes. And it comes time to take them to the dry cleaner for the first time. I go and get them. I’m in the bathroom at work and a woman says, you’re supposed to take the tinfoil off your buttons. I was like, oh, thank you. So I’ve been wearing my suit with the tinfoil buttons that they put on at the dry cleaner all day. So, needless to say, it took a while. The girl was out of the country, but the country wasn’t out of the girl. 

Hertha Lund: I did have hard things happen as a child, and I developed the ability to be tenacious and resilient. my dad said I probably couldn’t do it, I will show you, you know, that I will do it. And, you know, I just kept on whenever a door opened, I kept on going through it. I had to be humble and learn from the people around me because I didn’t have the skills in the background. What I found out early on is that if you feel alone and you need help, ask somebody for help because people like to help people. I learned how to create a community by asking for help.

Hertha Lund: Oh, yeah., I’d done multiple things by them that they didn’t approve of or they didn’t think that I could do so. Really, I would be prompted in my heart and that when that’s happened, it’s like, well, then I have to do it. There was no, you know, I could have overshot it and backed off. And I really think that all of us have inner direction, but very few of us listen to it. And because of my growing up and my dad had been my champion growing up, but I think he thought I was overreaching. The fact that I had to rely on myself was my saving grace. That is what gave me the strength to follow my inner direction. 

Hertha Lund: I think because we do. We’re still shopping for validation from those that we think should, and their choices will never get from the outside what we need from the inside. That’s been my experience. 

Hertha Lund: Okay, so I have a job in an office and I was tired. I never drank coffee before that. So I decided that this is ingenuity, that I had to work and write all the time. Now note that I used to be a physical. I worked physically, so now sitting at a desk and writing is. I took a nap, I put my feet against the door so that if somebody came in, they would wake me up now, they never caught me. That didn’t happen very often, but I’m like, I can’t sit here and try to think if I need a 20 minute nap. So I actually did that. I covered Congress, Supreme Court once. When I went to the Supreme Court, there was a case on property rights, and I sat there and I watched that, and it’s like, I don’t want to be a journalist anymore. I want to do that.  I am about 28 or 9. So I did this job for about three years. In my evenings I did stay at a community, kind of a spiritual house, an ashram or a live-in place where we would put on services together.  They made me the leader. And I went to go take the exam that you have to take to get into law school. I can’t remember what it’s called. the people who stayed at the house with me, it went like off they went ape the night before. I mean, I was like, what in the world? I felt like I was at the, like Robin Williams at the, you know. I did really bad on the first test because I didn’t get any sleep the night before. I was like, I’m not a mom. And all these people are acting like they’re my kids and they’re, you know, so the next time I didn’t tell anybody, I took it again.  I did well on the test, and I was accepted. I wanted to go back to Montana because that’s where I wanted to end up. I went for three years and during law school since they took me as an out of state student even though I lived in Montana before. So I had to pay more money. So now I’m working again. I’m working full time as a writer, writing op eds and journalism pieces for the Montana Farm Bureau. And I wrote legislation that they had me lobby for. So I was going back and forth to our state capitol, and I’m a law student. The first semester I got pneumonia during finals and the doctor said, you better better slow down. And I said, well, get to the finals. He says, I’m not worried about your finals. I’m worried about you living. I tried to slow down and learn how to do things a little bit more balanced, but I still had to work all those hours because I didn’t have the money and my parents didn’t have money.

Hertha Lund: I remember that, when I rodeo. as a young person, we had several events and there was barrel racing, pole bending, which are speed events. And then there was roping and it’s embarrassing because it seems like it’s me, but we would jump off our horses and tie the goats. So now I’m like, now I owe all these goats to apologize for how I slapped them on the ground. Anyhow I started barrel racing when I was nine. But I got I grew pretty big and strong and playing basketball, I got heavier. Well, if you’re in speed events 20 pounds is like tens of seconds. So it’s like, well, that’s not good, Not going to be in my future. So I decided that I would be good at everything. I wanted to be all around. So I wanted to have all around skills. And so what I thought about when I was going to law school is I may not be the best. I’m not going to be number one in my class because I have to work. I’m going to have to work and I’m going to do the best I can. So I just did the best at the whole, like, this is my meal and I’m going to do the best at the whole thing. The most interesting thing is that after doing that for three years, my dream job was to clerked for the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington, DC. I’d heard this man speak, and it was my dream. so I wrote a letter, and even though I was 30, if I read it now again, it sounded like I was about nine. Anyhow, he called me up for an interview and we talked on the phone and you know, after I hung up, I said, oh, that went really well out really bad because he asked me about growing up in Montana and he’s laughing. anyhow, I was his number one hire. usually they hire for that position, you know, Harvard or Yale or some of the top tier schools. so I was from Montana and when he introduced me at the clerks dinner, he said he I was the last one to be introduced because I was the number one hire of the court. he said, and this is her salon from Montana. She’s a state champion horse shoer. And I was like, well, no, I wasn’t a champion. Sure. he loved to tell people that because it was his way of trying to bring everything down to earth. But if I had been number one at any of those other things, rather than just being me, he probably would not have hired me. But at the time when I was going to law school, I didn’t know that. But I made a decision that I was just going to do the best at everything that was in front of me, which included taking care of my health.

Hertha Lund: So when you’re a clerk, you go with the judge out to court and stuff. So the first thing they want to look at you for is once you get if they’re going to interview you, they already think you’re smart enough. They want to have somebody that they’re okay to be with and, you know, comfortable. It was funny because my judge was always late to court and I’d be sitting there and the people would be waiting and they’re charging like 600 bucks an hour. Finally he’d come out and then he’d tell some joke. And most of his jokes were good, but sometimes they weren’t. And he said, first they said, would you think about my joke today? I said it was okay. I said, but I have an idea for you. Next time, go out and tell really bad jokes, because they’re all still going to laugh because they’re such suck ups. He thought that was hilarious. 

Hertha Lund: I loved learning about property. We did not lose our ranch to the government, but we lost our ranch. So it was true north for me,to home, to represent other people so that they didn’t lose their land. And I loved learning about that. And the judge, he’s still alive. He’s a senior judge. I loved working for him. It was a dream job and he was a very, very nice man. I actually went to Easter dinner with him and his family. I mean, it was a great connection. It was, you know, a dream come true and working with him was like having a Ferrari for an hour. as a brand new attorney. And he had met with Supreme Court justices. He actually took us to dinner with him one time and, the other law clerk and her own words, she calls herself a Jewish princess. And I looked at Monica and I came from Montana. I was like, oh my God, I can’t compete with her. So I asked her to help me, and she took me to Georgetown and I had a makeover. The guy cut my hair about that long and all red. Then we went to the makeup artist. And the makeup artist looked at Monica and said, you’re the advanced class. And he looked at me and he said, I’ll go slow.

Hertha Lund: Monica and I became best friends. She did help me learn how to be more polished. We had a great year together, but the judge took us out to this dinner and she has a really good pedigree, and she comes from a lower Ivy League school and she wanted the judge. The judge liked walking us around because Monica is on one side, a little bit shorter than him, blond and really, really pretty. And I’m on the other side looking better because she took me to the hairdresser and was taller than him. So it’s like he has this, you know, you got walks around with us and she says, introduce us to Justice Kennedy. So we’re walking to see Justice Kennedy. And the judge says, and this is Monica, and she went to Emory and grew up in New Jersey and this is Hertha Lund, the state champion horseshoe or from Montana. I’m just dying because I want to fit in. Justice Kennedy says, do you know where the oil rigs in Sydney are in Montana? I said, yeah, and he says, I used to work the oil rigs there. So he and I had this in-depth conversation about our manual labor jobs from Montana, and I decided it was okay. The judge could introduce me that way.

Hertha Lund: Well, with all the law and the hard work, I drove myself too hard. Eight years ago I actually used working hard and succeeding as a way to avoid feeling my own pain from my childhood. Eight years ago I. I was in a hospital and I had really severe inflammation around my heart and lungs. My CRP, which is a measurement of inflammation systemic, was 187. Doctors get concerned if it’s seven. I was there for ten days. I wasn’t in ICU, but there’s a floor in between ICU on the regular floor, and some doctors came and looked at me because I’d never heard of anybody alive with that high of systemic inflammation. I was laying in bed one night and I was talking to God, and I’m like, well, I could die. And it’s like, you could. And I’m like, well, I don’t really like it here to shit show. And then I said, why I shouldn’t talk to God that way. And, you know, I left. I left my body and I went up, up, up, high into the upper atmosphere. I was like, in this white and gold shimmery light and it was amazing and I loved it. I was home. Everything was warm, safe. I felt 100% worthy and loved. You know, I was everything that you know, I always thought that it would be like being home. Then I realized that I wasn’t done. And in my heart of hearts, I did not want to disappoint God. So I only had a nanosecond. I went deep within and I decided I wanted to come back and I made two promises. So the table turns to note that I’m really happy to be there. And I finally left the place that I wanted to leave, and the tables turned. And now I’m kind of humble and I’m hoping to come back. So I promised God I would do whatever it took to heal, to get back into my body. As soon as I made that promise down that shoe to light, I came and I just fell right back into my body. It was awful. I felt like I was crawling into a dead elk carcass. My body was not healed. It was still very, very sick. so I started keeping my promise. I told God I would do whatever it took. The first thing I had to do was learn how to sleep. I had not slept for years because I had chronic pain. I had four conditions that caused chronic pain for the last 25 or 30 years. I actually took a lot of prescription pain pills for a while to even keep my schedule. All of that ended and I started doing it. I would be prompted inside to do something for healing. I did acupuncture, I did regular medicine, I did bodywork, I did naturopath, I did somatic experiencing, which is when you have deep trauma stuck in your body, it helps it out to lead, you know, be able to get it out. So all of that’s going on. And then the summer before I died, I had gone to the neighbors and she had brought a person in who was trained in equine Castile coaching. And I decided to go to that. My sister and I were going to start doing something each summer together, and this is how we decided. We did not know this was about deep healing. We thought we were going to be riding horses and having fun, and we decided on the woman who had the right hat, who looked like a real cowgirl. so we went to this, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s the first time I dealt with childhood sexual abuse, and there were two sisters from Iowa who my sister and I still see every summer, and they that’s the first time I shared in the group some of that trauma. That was what allowed me to make the decision to stay and come back. So that was the summer before I died. the first year after dying. I have no idea how I didn’t lose my law firm because I was so sick for so long, and I just kept on working at it, working at it, getting a little bit more of health, a little bit more. The next summer I went back to the ranch next door, and Melissa Pierce, who started Touched by a Horse and Equine, stall therapy. She was there, and I decided that I would check out her retreat, and I took a friend with me. The reason we went is one of my friend’s sons had been shot by the police, and she saw him die, and my heart was breaking for her and I’d done my best to help her, but I really didn’t have the skills, so I took her. I paid for her to go to this retreat with me, and she worked with the horses and with Melissa, and that’s the first night she had slept since he had been killed, like 2 or 3 years before. So having that experience with her and how she helped my friend, then I entered her program to learn how to be an equine gestalt coach.

Hertha Lund: Oh, I had warning signs. I mean, it got worse and worse, but I was so stubborn, I was tough. That’s how I survived on the ranch. as a ranch girl and as a horse shoes. I mean, I would muscle myself through anything, even with the chronic pain. As long as I was focused and working, I could get by without, you know, taking pain pills. It’s when I stopped focusing. So I was totally a force of nature. I’d put my eye on a goal and I’d get there no matter what to my, you know, I obviously broke down my own body. I do not suggest doing that.

Hertha Lund: I would say, stop now. The way I live now, and I do things from flow, I can do way more, way more successfully and to push myself and not take care of myself, that I will never go back there again because I know the difference. And I’m also aware that I was fortunate that I got to come back. But we don’t all get to come back. Having a body, being alive is a gift, and the reason that we’re here is to live fully and wholeheartedly and to learn how to love and to serve other people. And that, I would not have been able to come back and do that. So doing everything at all cost to make something happen is not success, especially if it wrecks our health and our ability to have harmony and flow. in my worst, I wasn’t living. I was I was just forcing myself to do things. as a litigator, you know, that that type of behavior is rewarded. I didn’t know if after I got healthy, whether or not I’d still be able to practice law because I knew I could not live that way any longer.

Hertha Lund: I was not in trouble. I could have stayed, I was loved, I was accepted, but I disappointed myself because what I didn’t do, what I came to do. I believe that we’re all come with a reason for being alive. And I had not fulfilled that. And that is why I asked to come back. And I’m grateful. And my message is don’t go too far, because, I got to come back, I don’t think I’d get to come back again. That’s good, good fortune and grace. It’s not guaranteed. 

Hertha Lund: I love partnering with my horses. So it’s equine gestalt therapy and horses. They have the capacity. Their hearts are five times larger than ours and or maybe ten something. And it emanates out much further. Well, physically they’re way bigger, but emanates ten times greater than our hearts when they’re at peace. Now, I would hope that if we meditate and, keep ourselves calm, that we might be able to compete with a horse. But they naturally exude kind of like what we look for in trauma to help people downgrade to get really harmony. That’s how horses exist in their natural life. They’re also extremely smart. so for me, my saving grace growing up was horses. so to partner with them to serve other people. my first retreat, I had five women come, all who had lost someone to suicide. Three of them, their children, and to have the ability to sit with them and to love them and to work with my horses and to contain, you know, to hold the space and to watch them transform in that process. note that when I went to the school, I was still running my practice, so I didn’t have time to engage mentally like I did at law school, which is probably a saving grace, because I did all the work and I passed and I got good grades, but I didn’t do as as an intellectual exercise. so when I go to do my first retreat, I’m like, what is my superpower? My superpower is vertical connection and horizontal connection. So I’m like, I’m just going to be super connected. when I did that, these women went so deep and they went to their changes and to observe that. when they leave, they look different than when they come. So I was I, I told my teacher and she said, oh, you’re higher in a kite because I love I just so love the experience. Then I went to another two year course. So I also got trained in masters coaching for Gestalt. is a German word for wholeness. And so it, you know, it’s a take off. Fritz Perls started it and he was a take off from Jung. in coaching we see the person is whole and that you have all the answers inside of you. so my job is to sit with you and my horses and we will observe and sometimes, you know, you will find the answer, but you may get it from me coaching you, or you may get it from the horse coaching you. They are full on partners. I have one horse that will actually pantomime the energy that is stuck in your energy field that you’re not, letting see. And then he’ll act it out. You’ll be going, why is he doing that? And I’m like, I don’t know. What do you think? Then you’re like, well, that’s like this in me. And I’m like, oh, that’s interesting. 

Hertha Lund: Sure. So Mystic is my anchor horse. She was the first one that I got for this work. Mystic is 16 hands, which is 16 times Four inches. So that’s how tall she is at the withers. she’s about 1,800 pounds, so she’s a big girl. She’s a paint, which means she’s white. She has black and red. She’s the tricolor, she’s got a long mane. my husband, on the ranch, they call her the diva because, she doesn’t necessarily if she’s when you’re out feeding the cows or something and she’s in the way, she’ll just stand there. You just have to drive around her. she as a coach is phenomenal. when people first come to a retreat, I’ll have Mystic and if you’re congruent, she’ll be in harmony with you. You can step and she’ll step with you if you’re not congruent, say you’re all in your head, You’re not congruent with what’s going on inside you, you’re not anchored. She will ignore you, but otherwise she’ll be in harmony. So then I have Monk, and he is a beautiful, beautiful gypsy. He’s kind of like a Billy Crystal type horse. He’s kind of jaunty. then Merlin is. He’s gorgeous. A tall. He’s a gypsy, Standardbred. And then I have Sage, who’s a palomino, so he’s blond and he is extremely beautiful. he said he’s not just another pretty face. then I have Ruby. Ruby is not fancy like the other horses. I had somebody help me talk into my horses, and it was like Ruby said, just ignore me and talk to the beautiful ones. But I’m special around here. And she’s she’s very, very good. And then I have one other one named Nighthawk.

Hertha Lund: Let’s say you come to a retreat and before you even meet me, you might go stand with the horses and say hi. if you have something that is deep inside coming out, 1 or 1 or more of the horses will come and just stand and be with you, and you will experience them holding space for you and even that in itself is healing. It’s transformational healing. 

Hertha Lund: Yes. The retreat center is out on a flat area and there’s mountains all around at night. You can see the full night sky. You can hear cranes talking. My husband and I have a meadow. And I said our neighbors are noisy and the cranes are the birds. You can hear the deer snorting. It is like, you know, literally you’re in the park. It is so beautiful in the summertime. We don’t do retreats in the winter.

Hertha Lund: One of the women, she had been abused sexually when she was a teenager and the first time she dealt with it, and so she had tried. But then people go into the round corral with the horses after they’ve kind of done the work and Sage literally wrapped his head around her and held her with this, with his head around her, and she just melted. That was a very special, very, very special time to see that. And he actually did another one where the person in front of him was laughing. so he’s got his head over her and he’s got his mouth like he’s laughing too. So it looks like they’re both laughing. they, they show up. Even though I’ve known horses all my life and I have an idea about them, they’re full partners and I never know for sure what they’re going to do. I mean, but they show up and it is life changing. So that’s, I think, what they add to it. I’m good as a coach, but the horses and I make it out of this world what we can do together. Because to have a horse help you heal, there’s just something about how big they are and they’re in your presence. If you stand next to mystic, it will change you will change inside because of what you feel as you’re talking with her energetically.

Hertha Lund: Yes. So in my experience, there is nothing too painful from our past that if we go into it and through it with the assistance of horses or in somebody’s training, it is worth it. And it’s actually not as bad as it might seem. I mean, every time I go through another layer, I thought that was going to be much worse. And that’s like a paper tiger. And it’s worth it because whenever we have energy stuck inside of us that we’re keeping down, it’s energy that we can’t live with today. It’s something that keeps us from being able to love and to receive love. I am a horse nut, I get it. But they are phenomenal. What they do, I sometimes think that horses are like waiting around. It’s like, you know, we’ve carried your packs, you’ve Ridden us to war. We’ve pulled your wagons, we’ve delivered your mail. And you thought that that’s all we could do. You know? And now they’re like, yeah, you know, we have a lot more to offer you. to me, it’s transformational that it is something. Until you experience that people it’s so hard to put into words because it’s so experiential. But they change things. I actually carry with me all my horses manes, a little piece of put together, and just having this with me helps me to feel them, but I feel they’re with me all the time, and it adds just a whole nother sense of being comfortable on the earth and being a spiritual being, having a physical experience. There’s something that they add to our ability to embody wholeness and to live from our hearts and embody light. 

Hertha Lund: It’s why we’re here and everything can change in the blink of an eye. So when it seems like it’s too much, then that’s the time to ask for help. You know, from above or from a friend or from a horse. And when we do that, we open our hearts. Me now, at this stage in my past, when I see something that scares me or that I’m, you know, afraid of or something that has hurt me, that to me is like true north because it’s a portal. If I go there and I figure out a way through it, that’s how I will get to the next level of being able to embody wholeness and to live on the earth with our hearts open. That’s the only way we’re going to change the world, to make it the place that we all dream of. And I think that that’s the purpose and that’s why going back to rootless, why when we’re all connected, you know, heart to heart, that’s how we, you know, create the slice of heaven on earth. And to me, that’s with people, but it’s also with animal life. My Hertha actually means mother Earth.