About
Maria can not remember a time in her life when she was not “horse crazy”. She began riding as a child on the weekends, attending summer riding camps, leasing horses and dreamed of the day when she would have a horse of her own.
Maria has always been deeply connected to animals and in her early teens she was the youngest person in the history of the U.S.A. to be licensed at the state and federal level for wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. She worked full time after school with the Virginia Beach Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and neighboring veterinarians. After university she began her formal education in holistic and spiritual studies at the Edgar Cayce School / The Association for Research and Enlightenment studying yoga, reiki, meditation, various massage and energy healing modalities and food as medicine. After graduating Maria continued to study and practice becoming certified as an Integral Yoga teacher, Cranial Sacral therapist, Reiki Master and studying herbology at Sacred Plant Traditions.
When María followed her heart to live in the jungle of the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica her heart horse found her. First by coming to her in dreams and then through a series of synchronistic events. In 2014 Maria read “Tao of Equus” by Linda Kohanov and her entire life’s purpose shifted to her heart’s truest desire offering the compilation of her life’s work, education and experience to work professionally with horses co-creating safe and sacred space for growth and healing for both people and horses alike. In 2015 Maria graduated from Eponaquest’s Riding Focused Apprenticeship and continues to study with other like minded professionals to grow her practice, but most importantly Maria listens to her herd on how to best support her clients.
Maria combines the ancient arts of ritual, meditation, breathing practices and visualization with the wisdom and sentience of her experienced horse herd. She and the Horses are available for day sessions, workshops and retreats on the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica; Virginia, Colorado and may be open to traveling to you and your horses as well.