(Hannah Gunnell/South Indy Connect photo) Lynn Reed (right) feeds her horse Remi. Reed owns Balanced Equine Solutions, a business that focuses on holistic and healing activities for women by utilizing horses. Reed is joined by Facilitator Abby Neesen, who has a background in these types of Equine Assisted Learning and Equine Assisted Coaching practices.
By HANNAH GUNNELL
Lynn Reed has opened up her historic 55-acre family property on Wicker Road in Perry Township for women’s holistic wellness events with horses.
With the help of facilitator Abby Neesen, the two are expanding Reed’s Balanced Equine Solutions to include equine assisted learning (EAL).
“It’s helping people with stress and anxiety,” Neesen said.
The duo have extensive background with equine work, as Reed is an alternative equine bodyworker (think, horse chiropractor, for example) and Neesen runs Epona Healing With Horses, a Greensburg-based nonprofit that offers similar equine assisted life coaching.
They met through a mutual friend. The stars aligned, and the holistic aspect of Balanced Equine Solutions was born earlier this year.
“We have so much in common, but what we found the most [interesting] is her weaknesses are my strengths and vice versa,” Reed said. “We compliment each other so well. We both had goals and ideas for our businesses that we wanted to do and were a little afraid to step out and do it — but we’re pushing each other.”
Reed and Neesen host equine bodywork, immersive retreats, equine connection experiences and curated wellness events that are focused on helping women restore their inner balance.
“This is strictly about the busy woman who needs to find herself again, to step away from her kids, her life, her husband, whatever, and get herself right again,” Reed said. “We just had a Ground and Groom on Saturday, and it’s a two-hour event. Women come out and breathe, they hug a tree, and everyone gets their own horse for an hour to just spend their time with. They come out just walking on air. It’s been really well-received.”
“What we’ve noticed too, is that a lot of the women who come out to do these events are in some sort of life transition,” Neesen added. “Maybe they’ve just got divorced, or their kids moved out, or they’re just like, ‘I don’t know what’s next for me.’ They could be retired. They’re just kind of in a limbo stage, and they are like, ‘This sounds really cool, maybe I’ll check this out.’”
Balanced Equine Solutions just hosted its first healing retreat in July. Attendees got to partake in therapeutic activities such as grooming, guiding horses through an obstacle course by harness (they do not offer riding experiences), and meditation activities.
Reed has five horses that they utilize for these practices, including a mustang, draft cross, and quarter horses. The youngest is 13 years old, and the oldest is 35 (which is 96 in horse years).
They will host the next retreat Oct. 18. Anyone interested in attending can visit https://www.balancedequinesolutions.com/ to sign up.
“We’re going to do more of a fall theme,” Reed said. “We’re using the idea of the fall, transitioning into the fall, and shedding the things of the past. Horses shed in the summer and in the winter — they shed their summer coat, so they’re shedding right now as well. [Attendees] will be grooming the horses and [exploring] the metaphor of letting things go.”
The event is capped at 10, a number chosen specifically because of the horses. Not only is it dangerous to have a multitude of people around a horse, but also horses’ nervous systems sync with humans, so the more humans present, the more stress it causes the horse, Neesen said.
“The more energy that’s here brings the horses up, and we don’t want the horses to be up because the idea is to help bring everybody down,” Reed said. “We want it to be an intimate experience for the people as well as keep the balance with the horses.”
Reed is the seventh generation to own her Wicker Road farm. The farm is named for the Shannon family, of which Reed is a part of through her mother’s side. The land has been a gravel pit, a Great Depression Camp, and Native American lands in the past.
Reed is reclaiming the land from its sad history. Earlier this year, she had an individual conduct an energy clearing, and since then her Balanced Equine Solutions has been booming.
“There was probably a lot of death and a lot of sadness,” Reed said. “She did an energy clearing and since then the floodgates have opened. People are coming here, having these experiences, having Ground and Grooms, having healing retreats, and everybody comes here like, ‘This is the most magical place I’ve ever been in.’”
This reclamation includes revitalizing the land by clearing out weeds and planting native plants. Reed hopes to create trails to utilize as part of its holistic practices in the future. They also hope to see if they can integrate some of Neesen’s horses into the practice, though that poses its own challenges.
“I’m hoping to get a 60-foot roundpen,” Reed said. “That will allow free space for us to turn a horse loose and do some liberty work, but also for Abby to bring her horses and have somewhere to put them. I don’t really have anywhere for guest horses. Maybe someday we will look at building a bigger barn.”
Other future goals include a wellness retreat to Costa Rica in September 2026. All of these events just have one goal for its attendees.
“It’s about retreating from the chaos of life, getting grounded in nature, and to help implement all the things we teach about mindfulness and balance, and the teaching tools we give them to take home and use,” Neesen said.
