Meet Val, the founder of Under the Mane.
Val holds certifications in: Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) Equine Assisted Personal Development Coach (EAPD), WrapAround Care, & Peacemaking Circle Training.
Val takes pride in helping people in a caring way, facilitated through animals and nature.
Val studied 3 years of University in Physical Education, Arts & Science, and has decades of courses and certifications with the City of Edmonton over the past 33 years.
Val is a retired police officer and is a Certified Restorative Justice Facilitator (Circles) and Wrap-around Care Provider (partners gathering together to help individuals and families).
Her career with the EPS has been a diverse one, allowing her experience working in communities all over Edmonton and specializing in areas such as human resources, a special needs school, an inner city junior high school, recruiting, working with children and youth at risk, and helping the homeless.
In all of these areas she has helped people with addictions, mental illness, violence, criminal behaviour, anxiety, depression and varying types of family dynamics.
Over the years, Val has been a strong advocate for women in the part-time work force; encouraging working mothers to have balance in their lives.
Val is also an author.
She has published a children's book to help them understand the role of a police officer better.
She has also published two short stories in Durvile Publishing's True Crimes Series, After the Force and Indigenous Justice. Both short stories involve helping young females, through horses.
She published an article on job-sharing in a Canadian national magazine and has been a guest speaker at a women's conference in Mane and Colorado USA.
Val is also a public speaker & presenter, and is passionate about teaching people about restorative justice.
Val's favourite summer job was working in Kananaskis Country for Environmental Protection. Riding horses while getting paid to patrol campgrounds, hiking trails, and rivers, doesn't get any better!
But now, of course, her favourite role is helping you, and your loved one, through horses.
Meet Volunteer EAL Assistant Facilitator, Jaimie. Jaimie is 19 years old and has loved horses since she was five. She has seven years of experience helping facilitate EAL. Jaimie has taken lessons in Pony Club, private lessons, and programming through 4H. She loves to trail ride at home and in the mountains.
The muscle and skill behind the business! Roger is responsible for the upkeep of our horses and the farm. He has a huge heart and safety is his number one concern. He trims the horses feet, grows our hay, repairs fences......basically a jack-of-all-trades guy. He even built the barn!
Roger and Val are huge nature lovers and passionate about sharing our love for the outdoors. We are working hard to bring more workshops and opportunities on our horse ranch, so that every child, youth and adult, can spend time with our horses and nature.
We are proud to host volunteers from Workaway who come from all over the world to help us with our programming. Win-win!
We are also very grateful to our local volunteers, we love each and every one of them like family.
Equine-assisted Learning (EAL) Certification through Cartier Farms, near Prince Albert Saskatchewan.
Equine-assisted Personal Development Coaching certification through EAL Canada, near Okotoks, Alberta.
We love our art from our students!! Keep it coming!!