Author Profile

Horse Path to Heart's Quest
Shelly Neto
Shelly is a retired registered nurse with 38 years of experience. The last 18 years of her career, she worked in an acute psychiatric hospital where clients were treated for emotional crisis. In her experience there, she came to see how broken our mental health system is, how the accepted treatments are complicated with side effects while being less as effective as would be hoped.

Shelly did not feel fulfilled by the work she was doing. Fortunately, she found and graduated from Melisa Pearce’s Touched by a Horse program. While in the program, she was able to do her own work to resolve unfinished business from her past. This freed her up to embrace her whole self with compassion, discover and live by her values, imagine and create her life’s vision, and find peace and joy.

Shelly was able to realize her vision with the help of her husband of 42 years, Mitch. They were led to a property on the coast that matched her vision. After a great deal of hard work, they converted the neglected, overgrown property into a place they could comfortably live and that could accommodate horses. After she become an Equine Gestaltist and retired from nursing, they moved there from the bay area to their property, Heart's Quest Ranch and she started her gestalt practice, Horse Path to Heart's Quest.
Gestalt and Horses
Gestalt is a process of transformation into wholeness. A Touched by a Horse practitioner holds their client as an equal who is capable of finding their own answers from within themselves with the guidance and support of a coach. They see them as a whole person who is made up of many varied and equally important parts that, with awareness, can be brought to the fore in order to strengthen the individual in whatever situation they find themselves in.

The gestaltist aids the client by increasing awareness of themselves, their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They assist the client in working through unresolved issues from their past so that they can leave the pain behind and move forward to create the life they desire. This is done using experiences created by the gestaltist for the client to do in the moment during a session. This is Not talk therapy.

Equine Gestaltists often partner with a horse in order to gain further insight about the client. Clients work with the horse from the ground in a round-pen. Horse experience is not required and riding is not part of this work.

Horses are prey animals who have evolved to be highly sensitive and intuitive about their environment, other animals, people, and situations they find themselves in. Because they have an awareness of the energy patterns that surround individuals, depending upon how they are feeling and thinking at any particular moment, they are able to read the energy of the client. They then share this information with the gestaltist, who uses that information to enhance their own insight and provide the client with what they need.

Horses are also able to atune the client’s energy in order to change the way the client is feeling emotionally. They do this with other horses as well as people. That is why people often feel better after simply spending time with a horse.

Shelly and Horse Path to Heart’s Quest
Shelly works with her clients at her property, Hearts Quest Ranch, near Davenport, California. The property is quiet, private, surrounded by nature, and has a view of the ocean. Just being on this special property brings a sense of peace and well-being.

Ameike is Shelly’s horse partner. He is a sweet, kind horse who partners well with Shelly to provide a unique and supportive experience that clients enjoy and benefit from.

Shelly works with people who have pain from past experiences that keeps them from moving forward toward the life they desire. Her clients wish to leave their pain behind them, develop more awareness about themselves, create the life they dream of, and find peace, joy, and self-compassion.