MARCH 2014 MEMBER HIGHLIGHT

For each newsletter, for The Lightness Foundation, we will spotlight a member.

Your Name: Julia Faye Anderson
age: 50

I love horses… In grade school, my favorite dress to wear to school was the one that had ties in the back for a bow. My favorite girl friends were the ones that would play “horses” with me. We would take turns using the dress ties as reins and practice our walk, trot, and serpentines with flying lead changes galloping around the playground at recess. I would spend art class and any blank margin in my notebook to draw horses.
I have been honored by having the opportunity to have so many wonderful horses thru the years.
The most recent one, that has come to be with me, is Alegrar. He is a Lusitano gelding. He is 8 years old and I have had him for three years. Manuel Trigo has trained him, so now Alegrar can help train me. Between the two of them, I have been learning what I have been seeking to understand about riding horses my whole life.
I love to tell the story of how Alegrar came to be with me! I decided, to be fair to Pippi, my Icelandic mare, to not force her to do classical dressage, (although she has benefited from the lightness training for me, and she is happy about that.) I decided that next summer I would look to buy a horse that was more interested and bred to do classical dressage. My next lesson, I talked to Manuel, who just that day, found out that Chris Stanko was going to sell her 5 yr old Lusitano gelding that I had seen her ride just 4 weeks earlier. It was too expensive for me, so I decided not to get him, but when I told my friend Diane Fritzler, she said she would help me and we would buy him together. It happened so fast… in less than 6 weeks I had the perfect horse for me. I trailered him straight from Steamboat, down to Manuel’s to start his training. It was miraculous, and we truly had angels helping to manifest our dreams.

My first memory of riding a horse, is when I was in first grade, and living in Ethiopia. We had two little horses, and every school morning, the gardener would put me and my sisters on the horses and walk us up the road to school. We also had a monkey, two cats, a dog and a chameleon for our pets.
My mother was my inspiration with horses. When we lived in Ethiopia, she would go to the Emperor of Ethiopia, Heile Selassie’s stables and ride the beautiful jumping horses and compete in local shows. She grew up riding horses in Yakima Washington. I still remember a picture of her on her palomino horse that would rear up on cue like Roy Rogers Hollywood style. Over the years, of growing up with horses, my mother always had crazy courage. When a horse was acting up, and I was afraid to get on, she would get on and work it out with them and laugh at their antics.
My horses are my inspiration now. I want more than ever to feel the connection, and to become “centaur” as Manuel Trigo says. Manuel is also my inspiration. He has opened doors to understanding and it has been kind of like a Magical Mystery Tour. I have been longing for years to learn how to ride at the higher levels, but didn’t like the “german” way that I had been trained. It felt too heavy and contradictory. He helps me feel hopeful, like I can learn how to do the beautiful connected riding that I have always dreamed of.

My vision is to dance beautifully with my horse, as if we are in love and expressing the fullest experience of Joy.