PARENTING HEARTS & HORSES: LEAD THE RELATIONSHIP, NOT JUST THE BEHAVIOR
May 20–23, 2027
SWELL Retreat | Castle Dale, Utah
Lodging: 1 individual (shared lodging....private bed)
For parents who want to understand what their child’s behavior is communicating—and become more intentional about the way they respond.
Parenting can bring enormous love and equally enormous pressure.
You may find yourself repeating instructions, raising your voice, overexplaining, giving in, shutting down, trying to control every outcome, or carrying responsibility for emotions and choices that do not belong entirely to you.
Maybe your child is anxious, defiant, withdrawn, highly sensitive, impulsive, overwhelmed, or struggling with change. Perhaps your relationship has become centered around correction, consequences, conflict, or trying to prevent the next difficult moment.
You may know the kind of parent you want to be—and still find that a different version of you shows up under pressure.
Parenting Hearts & Horses is a Christian-centered experience combining faith, the SWELL Method, horse-guided empowerment, nature, reflection, and practical parenting tools.
This retreat is designed to help parents understand their own nervous-system responses, recognize the need or message beneath behavior, establish healthy boundaries, and lead the parent-child relationship with greater clarity, connection, and confidence.
Your child’s behavior is communication.
Your response is communication too.
THE EXPERIENCE
Through the SWELL Method, horse-guided empowerment, practical instruction, reflection, and connection with other parents, you will explore:
• Who shows up in you when parenting pressure shows up
• Fight, flight, freeze, and please patterns in parents and children
• Behavior as communication rather than simply defiance or disobedience
• The difference between regulation, compliance, and control
• What may exist beneath anger, avoidance, anxiety, dishonesty, or resistance
• How your childhood experiences influence your parenting responses
• Criticism, overcorrecting, rescuing, overexplaining, withdrawing, and giving in
• Boundaries and consequences that preserve dignity and connection
• Remaining calm and clear without becoming passive or permissive
• Helping children build responsibility without taking over their responsibility
• Repairing the relationship after a difficult parenting moment
• Building trust, resilience, emotional awareness, and honest communication
• Leading your family from faith and intention rather than fear, guilt, or pressure
Horses communicate through behavior, respond to pressure and release, and require both connection and clear boundaries. They help us see how our energy, expectations, timing, communication, and regulation influence another living being.
Working with them gives parents an immediate opportunity to recognize their patterns and practice a response that is both connected and clear.
No previous horse experience is necessary. All activities are guided and adapted to individual comfort and ability.
THE THREE-DAY JOURNEY
DAY ONE: SEE THE BEHAVIOR DIFFERENTLY
What has the behavior been trying to communicate?
Step outside daily parenting demands and examine the recurring situations that create the most pressure. Begin distinguishing the visible behavior from the need, fear, emotion, skill deficit, or nervous-system response beneath it.
DAY TWO: KNOW YOUR RESPONSE
Who shows up in you when parenting becomes difficult?
Explore your own fight, flight, freeze, and please patterns. Work with the horses to practice regulation, boundaries, consistency, pressure and release, communication, trust, and responsibility.
DAY THREE: LEAD WITH CONNECTION AND CLARITY
How do you want to respond when the pressure returns?
Translate awareness into practical action. Identify the boundaries, routines, repair practices, and communication tools you want to bring home. Create a plan that supports both connection and accountability.
YOUR RETREAT INCLUDES
• Three full days of facilitated SWELL experiences
• Three nights of lodging based on your selected registration option
• Horse-guided empowerment activities
• Horsemanship and guided horse interaction
• Parenting instruction and practical application
• Meals, snacks, and beverages
• Parenting Hearts & Horses workbook
• Retreat T-shirt
• Evening connection and integration experiences
• Personalized 30-day Parenting Action Plan
• Post-retreat virtual follow-up gathering
PROGRAM INVESTMENT
Program Value: $2,500 Individual; $5000 Couple
Registration Price: $697 Individual; $1097 Couple
Payment plans are available. Contact Lacy at 801-230-6363.
Registration is intentionally limited to preserve personal connection, safety, honest conversation, and the small-herd experience.
After registering, you will receive a confidential participant questionnaire addressing your parenting concerns, family circumstances, goals, lodging and dietary needs, physical considerations, and comfort around horses.
IS THIS EXPERIENCE FOR YOU?
Parenting Hearts & Horses may be for you if:
• You love your child but feel exhausted, overwhelmed, or unsure what to do next.
• The same behaviors and conflicts continue despite your efforts to address them.
• You want to respond rather than react when parenting becomes difficult.
• You recognize that your own upbringing may be affecting how you parent.
• You struggle with overcontrol, inconsistency, rescuing, anger, guilt, or giving in.
• You want to establish boundaries without damaging connection.
• You want to understand what behavior may be communicating.
• You are ready to examine your responses—not only what your child needs to change.
• You want practical tools rooted in faith, emotional awareness, responsibility, and connection.
You do not need to be a perfect parent.
You need the willingness to become curious, repair when necessary, and continue learning how to lead the relationship entrusted to you.
Your child does not need a parent who never gets it wrong. Your child needs a parent who is willing to become aware, take responsibility, and return to connection.
RETREAT SCHEDULE
Check In: 10:00 AM on May 20, 2027
Program Finish: 10:00 PM on May 22, 2027
Check Out: 11:00 AM on May 23, 2027
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Parenting Hearts & Horses is an educational and experiential parent-development program. It is not family therapy, psychotherapy, medical treatment, or a substitute for professional mental-health care.

***Off-grid glamping for lodging at Swell Retreat: no power, no HVAC, porta potties, and outdoor private shower OR shower at Swimming Pool 1.5 miles away.