Experiential Learning with Horses
and Nature
• LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE
• TEAM PERFORMANCE
• ORGANIZATIONAL SPIRIT
• PERSONAL DISCOVERY
See our Video Page
- How Horses Can Teach Human Communication
- TEDxAkron: Live Like a Horse: Innovation Inspired by Nature
Inspirational Speaking
Ask Jackie to speak at your event.
Workshops & Retreats
for Personal Discovery & Professional Development
"There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility, and our hearts to love life" --John O'Donohue
Nestled in the natural beauty of Novelty, Ohio, Pebble Ledge Ranch offers a sanctuary where you can explore life's most precious questions and embrace your most authentic, lovable self. Surrounded by the majesty of nature and our gentle, wise herd of horses, our retreats and coaching sessions provide a unique opportunity for personal growth, reflection, and rejuvenation.
Experience Transformation at Pebble Ledge Ranch
Whether you are seeking clarity, healing, or a deeper connection with yourself and others, our retreats are designed to support your journey. Through guided coaching sessions, interactive activities with our horses, and time spent peaceful outdoors, you will find space to breathe, reflect, release stress and realign with your true path.
For Teams and Leaders: We invite you to bring your team to Pebble Ledge Ranch for an immersive experience designed to enhance relationships, boost leadership skills, and improve team performance. Our tailored sessions draw upon the present strengths of your team, guiding you all toward a shared vision of success and a desired future. Through equine-assisted learning and thoughtful coaching, your team will cultivate trust, communication, and collaboration in a way that is both impactful and memorable.
Discover the profound wisdom that nature and our horses have to offer. Join us for a retreat or a customized coaching session, and step into a space of growth, connection, and renewal. We can’t wait to welcome you to Pebble Ledge Ranch.
Call of the Wild
A Women's Winter retreat
with Nature
The Wild is alive in all of us...
Let her out to play
Awaken your adventurous spirit as you journey with horses and nature through a winter wonderland—held by the beauty of snow-covered forests and warmed by cozy, safe gathering spaces that nourish both heart and body.
Saturday February 28, 2026, 9am - 4pm
Location: Spirit of Leadership LLC,
Pebble Ledge Ranch,
9796 Cedar Road, Novelty, OH, 44072
Guided by Jackie Stevenson, and the Spirit of Leadership Herd
Fee: $135
The Invitation
Gather your deep feminine instinct, free horse spirit, wildish and wolfish nature, and love of the natural world. Together we will follow forest trails step by step, uncovering our natural, instinctual selves. In a tribal circle around a warming fire, we will share stories, wisdom, and quiet knowing.
The river calls to be heard.
The earth longs for our footsteps to hold the souls of our feet.
The trees and rocks have secrets to tell.
The fire offers healing warmth for our bones.
The wind inspires our spirit.
Through nature, we reconnect with our wilderness spirit—our inner nature, our natural way of being.
You are invited to step out of ordinary time and into a ceremonial field shaped by winter, horses, fire, forest, river, and stone. This is a day of listening—to the land, to the herd, to the deep voice within you that knows how to wander, rest, howl, and return to the wild.
We will walk forest trails slowly, allowing the land to set the pace.
We will sit with horses who carry ancient wisdom in their breath and bodies.
We will gather around fire—warming our bones, sharing stories, speaking what longs to be heard.
We will listen to water moving beneath ice, to wind threading through trees, to the quiet guidance rising from within.
The river calls us to remember our voice.
The earth longs to feel our footsteps.
The trees and rocks offer their long-held stories.
The fire brings warmth, healing, and transformation.
The wind carries our prayers.
In sacred circle, we call in the ancestors—those of blood, spirit, and belonging. We listen to the wisdom they offer and the healing they invite. We honor the wild feminine as a source of intuition, protection, courage, and deep belonging.
Registration and payment: Open to a circle of 16 women. To register for your place in the circle or for more information contact Jackie at jacalynstevenson@gmail.com.
The Land
Pebble Ledge Ranch is a living sanctuary—ancient ledges, glacial stones, wandering river, bog waters, forest paths, and wide pasture shared with horses and wild ones alike. Sacred sites throughout the land welcome us into relationship, ceremony, and remembering.
Held in winter's stillness, we create a sacred ceremonial container—one that supports healing, wisdom, grief, joy, and the reawakening of our instinctual nature. Together we tend a living field of remembrance, belonging, and soul-level listening. This day is not about becoming something new.
It is about remembering and coming home to who you have always been.
Wisdom Gathering: Let Your Life Speak and Be There To Listen
Co-sponsored by the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and Spirit of Leadership
In-Person workshop
Saturday, May 2, 2026 - 9:00am-5:00pm EST
Location: Pebble Ledge Ranch, 9796 Cedar Road, Novelty, OH 44072
Fee: $225
Continuing Education:6 Core/1 Resource Dev: CCEs - GPCC™ and ICF Core Competencies6.5 hours: CEs (counseling, social work psychologists)
Faculty: Jackie Stevenson, MSSA, LISW, BCC, GPCC™
Enter into the sacred silent realm of nature, where we can hear ourselves think and listen within for what most wants to be heard. We will create a field of dreams surrounded by a herd of gentle horses where you can gather the wisdom of your inner nature and dream your world into being.
Integrating a Gestalt and a Transformational Presence approach, ICF coaching guidelines and ancient Indigenous practices, nature’s teachings and our inner knowing, we will gather collective wisdom and listen for our life to speak.
This highly experiential workshop is for all who want to enhance their professional skills and to expand their approach in guiding clients through challenges and into opportunities.
In this workshop, participants will increase their understanding and practice:
- Expanding your capacity and the capacity of your clients to invite your life to speak and be there to listen to what life wants rather than what you think your life wants.
- Deepening your understanding of a Gestalt approach to change cycle of experience: sensation and awareness; mobilization and relational contact; and integration and assimilation through the lens of embodied presence and body intelligence.
- Enhancing self-awareness of professional presence and relational alliance, to support the awareness of the client of their presence and how it impacts their life and to positively shift the experience of your life and the people in it.
- Applying ICF and clinical competencies within in a Gestalt and transformational presence approach and embodied presence to expand professional coaching practice and competency.
- Strengthening your awareness and ability to be present, resilient, and ability to be a compassionate presence during chaos, stress, and uncertainty guided by horses and nature; and
- Drawing from the work of Alan Seale, Parker Palmer, and Gestalt and ICF principles.
No horse riding - this is about respectful trustworthy relationships.We will be outside in nature; and in protected outdoor and indoor spaces.
Dreaming our Life -
Tending to Our Dreams
A Retreat Guided by Horses, Nature, and Your Dreams
Dream your world into being
From ancient times, dreams have been gateways
between worlds - bridges between soul, story, and destiny
With horses and nature guiding us,
we enter dreamtime as a sacred realm of remembering,
where forgotten truths are restored
and future paths are revealed.
Here, we tend our dreams like holy fires,
learning to listen to their symbols, rhythms, and calls,
so that we may live more fully
the life that is longing to be born through us.
Join us Sunday May 3, 2026
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
For information and registration contact Jackie jacalynstevenson@gmail.com
This is an invitation to remember, to listen.
To live more fully into the dream that is your life.
Awaken the Power of Your Living Dreams
Dreams whisper to us in childhood, speak through the seasons of our present lives, and beckon from the horizon of the future. They arrive in images, feelings, symbols, longings, and sudden moments of knowing.
Some come softly, like mist at dawn others shake us awake like a storm.
Experiencing the dream world expands our awareness of the soul's journey through life. The challenge is not that we have too few dreams but that we forget to listen to them— to bring them into awareness, to recognize which ones are asking to be cherished, followed, and lovingly brought into form.
In this retreat, we will:
- Explore personal and collective dreams
- Work with dream images, stories, and body wisdom
- Listen to the guidance of the horses and the land
- Reflect in small circles of trust and presence
- Sense what is ready to be honored, released, or brought into action
Together, we will tend our dreams as living guides —honoring what has shaped us, welcoming what is unfolding, and courageously stepping toward what is calling us forward.
Facilitators: Jackie Stevenson, Lourdes Kepner, and the Spirit of Leadership Herd and Team.
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| Jackie Stevenson | Lourdes Kepner | The Herd and Team |
Speaking What Is True
A Mythic Retreat Guided by the Folktale of Rumpelstiltskin, Horses, Nature,
and Inner Wisdom
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Long ago—and still today—there is a story
that lives beneath our lives.
Join us, to gather for a day outside of ordinary time— a day to honor what has been, to bless what is, to step forward into what is becoming and to embrace the beauty of your life.
Inspired by the story of Rumpelstiltskin, and guided by horses and nature, we enter a spacious field of freedom that invites you to remember and speak what is true for you.
A day of simply being, playing with horses in the pasture, chatting around the campfire, strolling through the forest, resting, and reflecting in the ancient rock ledges, and sharing sacred knowledge.
A day to remember, reclaim and return to the original story that lives in your bones. Come speak what is true and let the spell be broken.
Together we will explore
- The name we once forgot—and are ready to remember
- The truths we learned to hide in order to survive
- The deeper vow that is now asking to be reclaimed
- The life force waiting to be released when truth is spoken
Join us on a Joyful Journey
- Awaken Truths Forgotten
- Release Fears Unfounded
- Deepen Instinct and Intuition
- Speak What is True
- Explore How to Simply Be Your Self
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During this retreat, you will be held by the embrace of Mother Nature as you explore your life questions and your stories through this timeless folktale.
Date: Sunday May 17, 2026
Time: 9:00 am - 3:30 pm
Location: Pebble Ledge Ranch, 9796 Cedar Rd., Novelty Ohio
Guided by Jackie Stevenson, Jody Wainer & the Spirit of Leadership Team & Herd
Fee: $135.00
We invite you to a day of joy, wisdom, and renewal.
Step into the natural rhythm of life with grace and gratitude.
- Jackie Stevenson is CEO of Spirit of Leadership Services LLC, offering coaching, and retreats guided by horses & nature.
- Jody Wainer is a Licensed Independent Social Worker and Jungian analyst.
For registration or information contact Jackie at jacalynstevenson@gmail.com.
The Courage to Live Beyond Human Trafficking
A gentle day of courage and healing
With Horses and Nature as Your Guides
A retreat for women taking back their lives and daring to live free. Sponsored by the Renee Jones Empowerment Center & The Spirit of Leadership
Join our herd of brave-hearted horses at Pebble Ledge Ranch where "everyone belongs, everyone is essential, everyone matters, and everyone is treasured."
May 23, 2026, 9:00-3:30
Pebble Ledge Ranch, Novelty in Northeast Cleveland, Ohio
A simple breakfast and lunch provided
A Sacred Day of Renewal
You are invited to gather at Pebble Ledge Ranch:
a place where the land, the horses, and the human heart meet in quiet kindness.
A place of welcome, of rest, a place to remember who you are.
We Will Gently Explore
In the presence of horses and nature, we will open space for:
- Returning to a sense of safety and calm
- Nurturing self-love, self-compassion, and care
- Learning to trust your voice and your boundaries
- Strengthening resilience and inner wisdom
- Reawakening hope and possibility
- Dreaming into a life of meaning and peace
Guided by Jackie Stevenson and the spirit of leadership team, horse herd. and nature,
Each step is taken at your own pace. Each voice matters.
Each story is honored.
Guided by Jackie Stevenson and the spirit of leadership team, horse herd, and nature
For registration contact Renee Jones at the Renee Jones Empowerment Center rjones@rjecempower.org.
Our promise is that you will have a safe, meaningful and fun experience.
There is no horse riding and all the horseplay takes place on the ground.
The Quiet Wisdom of Horses
For centuries, horses have walked beside humanity,
carrying us through storms and across open lands.
Today, they walk with us inward.
They invite us to move beyond old limits,
to release what no longer serves,
and to step forward into our truest, most authentic selves.
The Embrace of the Natural World
The land holds us. The trees breathe with us. The trees breathe with us.
The trees breathe with us. The earth remembers our footsteps.
In nature's embrace, hearts soften Tired spirits rest.
New strength quietly returns. Here, healing unfolds naturally.
May you remember:
You are what you are becoming. not what was done to you.
May courage walk beside you.
May compassion hold you.
May hope guide you home.
You are welcome. You are a treasure. You are loved. You are rising.
Space Is Not Empty
A Journey into the Hidden Fields That Shape Your Life
Guided by Horses, the Natural World,
and Your Own Inner Nature
with Jackie Stevenson and Alan Briskin,
co-author of Space Is Not Empty
An Invitation
This retreat is an invitation to slow down, listen more deeply, and remember something essential: space is not empty—it is alive.
Inspired by the worldview explored in Space Is Not Empty, this immersive experience takes place among horses, land, and open sky—where subtle, often unseen forces are easier to sense. Together, we enter the living fields that quietly shape our emotions, relationships, leadership, and choices, often before words or decisions arise.
Guided by horses—masters of presence and relational awareness—and supported by reflective practices, shared dialogue, and time on sacred land, participants are invited into a way of knowing that is embodied, relational, and deeply human.
Date: May 29-31 Join us in the afternoon of May 29th to late morning of May 31
Location: Pebble Ledge Ranch Novelty, Ohio
Fee: $475.00
Includes dinner Friday and lunch Saturday. Lodging is not included. We recommend Punderson State Park Manor.
What Do We Mean by "Fields" and Why Fields Matter—Now
When you hear the word field, you might imagine an open meadow, a sports field, or a particular discipline of study. In this retreat,we use field to describe something both subtle and tangible:
A field is a space of interaction in which visible and invisible forces—emotional, relational, bodily, social, and environmental—are continuously shaping experience. We are always participating in fields of energy and information. These fields influence how we feel, think, and act—often outside conscious awareness. Field awareness is the capacity to notice and work with these influences rather than being shaped by them unconsciously.
What You Will Explore
Field Awareness & Compassionate Choice
Learn to notice the subtle signals arising within yourself, between people, and in the surrounding environment—so you can respond with greater clarity, care, and intention. Walking the land together, nature becomes a living teacher.
Whole-Being Attunement
Deepen awareness of how fields influence us physically, emotionally, mentally, intuitively, and spiritually. Reflections are guided by the Medicine Wheel, honoring balance, rhythm, and the wisdom of the Four Directions.
Embodied Presence in an Interconnected World
Cultivate grounded presence within living systems of relationship. Horses help us sense coherence, incongruence, boundaries, and belonging—inviting authenticity, regulation, and deep listening.
Revealed Spaces of Relationship
Explore the visible and invisible spaces where relationships take shape. Through shared reflection, silence, and courageous conversation—often around the campfire—we make meaning together beneath open sky.
Much of what shapes our lives does not come from deliberate choice alone. It arises in the space between us—through mood, tone, posture, intention, history, and context. By becoming aware of these fields, we gain access to wiser responses, greater coherence, and more compassionate action in times of complexity and change.
The Three Interweaving Fields
The Personal Field
Your intimate inner landscape—sensations, emotions, thoughts, and subtle knowing.
What this offers you: Greater self-trust, emotional regulation, clarity under pressure, and the ability to sense alignment—or misalignment—with what truly matters. Horses help make this field visible by responding to who you are being, not who you think you are.
The Social Field
The relational world you inhabit—families, teams, communities, and cultures.
What this offers you: Deeper relational intelligence, clearer boundaries, authentic leadership, and the capacity to influence group dynamics without force or control. Within the herd, we witness a living social system where leadership, cooperation, care, and limits are embodied and honest. This field also carries collective memory and ancestral patterns, inviting awareness of how the past lives through us now.
The Nature and Cosmos (Noetic) Field
The wider field of meaning, purpose, and life’s self-organizing intelligence.
What this offers you: A lived sense of belonging, renewed purpose, and trust in a larger intelligence beyond individual effort. Among horses, land, sky, and seasons, we remember that we are participants in a vast, relational web of life—held within an order that is wise, alive, and responsive.
With Anticipation and appreciation Jackie and Alan
Jackie Stevenson is the founder and CEO of Spirit of Leadership LLC, offering coaching, leadership development, and team building retreats grounded in experiential learning with horses and nature-based wisdom. Her guidance supports individuals, teams and organizations in cultivating authenticity, relational intelligence, embodied presence, personal transformation, and purposeful action especially in these times of complexity and change. Jackie's strength based coaching invites clients to engage their embodied wisdom, mind, heart and spirit for authentic connection and meaningful sustainable change. She is the founder of Experiential Learning with Horses and Nature: Developing Human Potential for Positive Change. Jackie is the author of Someday We'll Live Like Horses: Authentic Presence in Leadership and Life reflecting her invitation to live with integrity, courage, and compassion in all fields of Life. https://www.spirit-of-leadership.com/
Alan Briskin is an author and consultant exploring the intersection of collective wisdom, spirituality, history, and organizational life. His award-winning books include The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace, Daily Miracles, The Power of Collective Wisdom, and Centered on the Edge. Founder of Alan Briskin & Associates, he has over 40 years of experience as a consultant and leadership coach, specializing in health care and mission-driven organizations. He supports leaders in applying practical wisdom and learning mindsets to complex change. A co-founder of the Collective Wisdom Initiative (sponsored by the Fetzer Institute), he was named a Noted Humanist Scholar by Saybrook University. He has served as Executive Advisor at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and Senior Advisor to the One Humanity Institute in Poland. https://www.spaceisnotempty.net/
For registration or information contact Jackie at jacalynstevenson@gmail.com or at 440-241-8605.
Enter the hidden fields shaping our lives and our world—to sense the unseen, to listen for the hum beneath the surface of things —the subtle, living forces that influence how we sense, relate, and choose. Guided by horses, the land, and moments of stillness, we learn to notice what is usually unseen, to listen beneath words and beyond habit, and to respond with greater compassion, courage, and embodied presence, inviting a new way of growing, leading, and creating social change.
Call of the Wild
Spring retreat with Nature
June 6, 2026, 9am - 4pm
Pebble Ledge Ranch, Novelty, Ohio
The Wild is alive in all of us Let her out to play
“All good things are wild and free” Henry David Thoreau
An inner journey, vision quest and woman's retreat in winter wonderland
Listen for the call of the springtime wild and awakening your Dreams
Gather your deep feminine instinct, free horse spirit, wildish and wolfish nature and love of the natural world. We will follow the snowy trails through the forest uncovering our natural primitive self step by step. Gathering in a tribal circle around a warm fire we will share stories and wisdom
The river calls us to be heard, the earth longs for our footsteps to hold the souls of our feet, the trees & rocks have secrets to tell us, the fire holds healing warmth for our bones & the wind inspiration for our spirit. Exploring our dreams within nature's wisdom.
Connecting through nature to your wilderness spirit, inner nature and natural being
- Discover quiet moments in nature and spend peaceful time
- Join a herd of six wise horses and ponies
- Sit by a campfire or listen to the creek to reflect, dream and vision
- Stretch your body and self perception walking or climbing
- Dwell beneath 350 million year old ledges & 1.1 billion year old crystals
- In the rebirth of spring enjoy the simple luxury of slowing down.
- Awaken through body intelligence and energetic awareness
Moving with the rhythm of spring beauty, timelessness and ceremonial space, and listening deeply within we will create the energetic field to support each other’s wisdom, healing and instinctual natures.
Location: Pebble Ledge Ranch, Novelty, Ohio
Bring your lunch
Registration: Open to a circle of 20 women. To register for your place in the circle or for more information contact Jackie at jacalynstevenson@gmail.com.
Fee: $135
The land is about 80 acres and is surrounded by 500 acres of Geauga Park land and the Geauga Rookery. The Chagrin River wanders along and through the forest of the east boundary offering beautiful places to dwell by the water and to splash about on warm days. The west boundary is guarded by a Hemlock forest and old Canadian Glacial Rock and ledge formations and millions of 1.1 billion year old quartz pebbles...hence the name Pebble Ledge. On the north boundary is a three acre natural bog with amazing lily pads, water birds, turtles and many other primordial critters of the bog. The south boundary is living space for people and horses. The 20 acre rolling pasture is home to the herd of 7 remarkable horses and one courageous zebra, which live freely, joyfully and at peace.
We will wander through the forest above the beautiful ancient grandfather and grandmother ledges. Many sacred and ceremonial sites have revealed themselves and welcome us to learn from them.
Journeying Around the
Medicine Wheel Spring Retreat
Renew, revitalize, and recreate the Sacred Within Nature's Realm of Spring Magnificence, Magic, & Mystery
Sunday June 7, 2026 9:00-4:30
Pebble Ledge Ranch, Novelty Ohio
Join us at Pebble Ledge Ranch in Novelty Ohio, surrounded by the majesty of nature, our majestic herd of horses, and the wisdom of three Medicine Wheels to explore your life's most precious questions, to discover your part in service of a better world and to simply be your most loveable self.
- Journey around the medicine wheel, interact with horses in their herd and engage with nature providing a lived experience to build on strengths, face challenge with courage and compassion and experience the connection and interconnection of living systems of which we are an integral part.
- Create your own "traveling" medicine wheel with stones from the land.
- Learn about The Medicine Wheel or deepen your relationship with the Medicine Wheel.
The Medicine Wheel represents the circle of life and carries wisdom from many perspectives to inform and bless our daily journey through life The Medicine Wheel is both a sacred representation of life’s journey and a practical system for maintaining balance and direction for the individual, the family and community.
The Medicine Wheel is a map of discovery and healing. The wheel offers an integral map of the physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual realms.
The term medicine refers to one's wisdom, personal power, essence, and unique spark of the divine... To learn about, walk or pray the Wheel is to approach life from divergent perspectives and to integrate the wisdom and truth from each in our pursuit of wholeness.
The interrelated four directions in the circle of the Medicine wheel and the four forces of nature each offer us spiritual teachings and practical life lessons inviting intuition and inner wisdom and an awareness of our place of belonging in the family of life.
There is no horse riding...the horseplay is an opportunity to learn more about you.
Fee: $135
Contact Jackie for information or to register for this retreat.
We are prepared for the changing moods of Mother Nature with indoor and outdoor spaces to engage safely with the horses and for moments of team reflection and dialogue.
Journey around the medicine wheel, listen to the wisdom of horses and nature, tune into your true self, and envision a peaceful life. Renew, revitalize, and recreate the Sacred Within Natures Realm of Spring Magnificence, Magic, & Mystery.
Guided by Jackie and Herb Stevenson and the herd.
Experiential Learning with Horses Professional Practitioner Certificate Program
Developing Human Potential for Positive Change for the Future of Humanity and All Life
October 7-11, 2026
Pebble Ledge Ranch Novelty, Ohio 44072
Guided by Jackie Stevenson and the Pebble Ledge herd
- People interested in integrating and facilitating relational work with horses in their careers and personal lives
- People interested in strengthening personal mastery in their professional practice and personal lives by engaging with horses
- People interested in expanding their coaching capacities; client centered active listening, quality connection, embodied language, collaboration, flexibility, grounded mindful presence, inclusion, and awareness of the field by engaging with horses and their herd. You will learn and practiceBoard Certified Coaching (BCC )and International Coaching Federation (ICF) competencies.
Join the adventure with your fellow horse and human herd members for the Experiential Learning with Horses 2024 program. It is an honor, privilege, and responsibility to engage with horses and to support and guide people in their personal and professional learning, skill building and growth through experiential learning with horses and nature and coaching competence.
Personal and Professional Retreats at Pebble Ledge Ranch
Visit Personal or Professional Retreats at Pebble Ledge Ranch to learn more.