Volume 6- Issue 2, February 2007
Published by Llumina Press

Llumina Press

Contact Person: Robyn Benson

Address: 7915 W. McNab Rd.; Tamarac, FL 33321

Telephone:  (866) 229-9244          Fax:  (954) 726-0903
Email: robyn@llumina.com
URL: http://www.llumina.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Finding Pegasus – Finding Yourself

Fort Lauderdale, February 2007: Horses have been a significant part of human history since the Ice Age. First they were hunted, for food and other elements, until their domestication began around 8,000 BCE. While there have always been individuals and cultures throughout the ages, who have lived in attunement with the animal kingdom, it is only recently, relatively speaking, that western society as a whole has begun to appreciate the gentle, intelligent, and forgiving nature of the horse. In her book, Finding Pegasus, Terry Church allows the reader, horse lover and non-horse lover alike, to experience the close relationship that can be shared by equine and human, and the important life-lessons horses are able to provide anyone willing to listen.

 Pegasus, the magical winged horse, has inspired human imagination for centuries. Finding Pegasus is the rich and inspiring story of Tara Beacon, an equestrian athlete consumed by her ambition to compete at the Olympic Games, yet all the while struggling to escape the pain of an abusive childhood.

Mirroring her angst is her talented and sensitive thoroughbred who, after years of intensive training with internationally renowned professionals, refuses to submit to human coercion. Finally awakening to the fact that she is reenacting her oppressive upbringing by attempting to dominate her horse, Tara enters into an apprenticeship with an eighty-year-old cowboy with mysterious abilities. Similar to a Zen master, Tom Dorrance never calls himself a teacher or explains what he does, continually perplexing Tara and those who work with him. Yet his wisdom is reflected in his ability to use horses (and anything else available to him) as a means of helping humans learn about themselves and their relationship to the natural world. With him Tara begins the long and arduous journey to self-awareness, and a resolution to her secretive past.

About the Author:

Terry Church has been a professional horse trainer, dressage instructor and competitor for the past 34 years. Although "classically trained" through the FEI (international) levels in the United States and Germany, she came to understand that the current methods of training horses predominantly reflect the human quest for dominance and control, rather than a recognition of how animals can benefit from and enhance the human experience through respectful partnerships. Synchronicity lead her to a meeting with the great master horseman, Tom Dorrance, with whom she spent the next seven years relearning everything she thought she knew about horses — and about herself. Ms. Church currently travels extensively throughout the United States where she uses horses to facilitate a person’s process of self-discovery, thereby broadening their awareness and sensitivity to themselves and the natural world.

In addition to her lifelong passion for horses, Ms. Church has had an interest in writing since early childhood. As an adult she studied writing for five years in Santa Barbara with author Bill Richardson, who became a primary influence in helping her face the truth about her life — and how to express that in words. She has published a number of articles in magazines and trade journals, some of which can be found on her website at:

http://www.naturalsporthorse.com.