2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer Healing with Horses & Yoga
Are you or someone you know a breast cancer survivor?
We will accept nominations for our 2014 program during October 2013, breast cancer awareness month, and will post details and rules in late Setpember 2013.
We'll look forward to receiving your nominations this fall!
Yoga and horses can fix anything. They're kind of like duct tape and string.
-Tanya, 2011 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
Through Cowgirls vs. Cancer, Big Sky Yoga Retreats provides scholarships to yoginis who have experienced the physical, emotional and financial hardships of breast cancer. 2012 was our third year, and thanks to the generosity of everyone we work with at Cowgirl Yoga, we dedicated an entire retreat to Cowgirls vs. Cancer (visit this page for a few retreat recaps).
For our 2013 retreat, we awarded 10 scholarships - scroll down to meet the cancer kickin' cowgirls. This healing and rejuvenating retreat provides something positive to look forward to, and helps our scholarship recipients regain an internal sense of peace and balance following cancer. Our hope is that through fundraising efforts, we can keep making more breast cancer survivors Cowgirl Yoginis every year. Please help us make a difference in the fight against cancer by purchasing a Cowgirl tee or making a donation (scroll down). Or in cowgirl lingo - help us kick cancer's ass.
Yeehaw & Namaste!
We will be holding our 2013 Spring Fundraiser at the Loft Spa in Bozeman,
Thursday May 30, from 7-9 pm!
View invite
Join us for an evening of yoga, surrounded by spa. All levels vinyasa class to be followed by light bites from Kate's Catering and wine from PLONK.
Minimum suggested donation $20; all donations benefit the Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship fund.
How to Help
Giddy Up & Get your Cowgirl Tee
Big Sky Yoga Retreats has teamed up with ChewyLou Designs and retreat alumna Alyssa Dinowitz to create the "COWGIRL" tee.
Tees are $34 each. Long-sleeved tee in chocolate and pink, with pink writing. The front simply says "COWGIRL". The sleeve has the CY "brand", with a hand-embellished Swarovski crystal.
And the back spells it all out: Courage, Optimism, Warrior, Giddy-Up, Inspiration, Respect, Loyalty.
All proceeds from the sale of this tee will go to our Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship fund, dedicated to paying tuition for Cowgirl Yoga scholarship recipients. So start shopping - buy one for yourself, your mom, your sister, your friends, anyone you know who wants to be a Cowgirl!
Full scoop on the Cowgirl tee here (sizing, shipping, returns, etc.)
A Big Sky-sized THANK YOU to everyone helping to make the 2013 retreat special:
Ashtanga Yoga School of Montana
Athleta
BakerHostetler
Balo Vineyards
Double T River Ranch
Georgetown Yoga
Hill Botanical
International Coffee Traders
Kate's Catering
Keep A Breast Foundation
Larry Stanley Photography
The Loft Spa
Montana Horse Sense
Peg Mulqueen
PLONK
Touch of Sense Massage
Wizbang Hats
Make a Donation
Any amount makes a difference and adds to our scholarship fund!
Meet our 2013 Scholarship Recipients
About Aimee
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
On May 30th, 2009 I completed my first sprint triathlon. No clue what I was doing, but I trained for it and completed it. My mother, aunt, husband and two little boys were there at the finish line. I was so happy and healthy, or so I thought. Four days after completing my first triathlon I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Bilateral Mastectomy with reconstruction, chemotherapy and radiation, dragging myself out of bed to be the best mother I could be while feeling so crappy was my life for the next year. When I finally got the courage to attend yoga for cancer patients at my local hospital, I felt the beginning of my journey back to health. Since then I have completed a ½ Ironman Race, gone vegan and have made yoga a weekly practice. I have inspired 3 of my friends to get healthy, do yoga, and have a goal for their health.
Since I was a little girl I have always loved horses. I volunteered at several stables, shoveling poop just to get close and be able to ride. When I was in college I worked with a therapeutic riding center as part of an internship and thesis. I loved how happy these children where and how the movement of the horse gave a child who couldn’t walk the feeling of what it would be like to do so.
Yeehaw! Yoga and horseback riding! Feeling the wind while riding, there is nothing better. I can still remember how it feels, even though it was so long ago. After my yoga classes when we say Namaste to each other, it makes me appreciate others, the teachers that have taken the time to be in a space with no judgement and common respect. When I was going through my treatments I kept a blog; I aways tried to keep it light and without even knowing it, tried to take care of everyone else and make sure they were ok with me and my cancer. The Cowgirl Yoga retreat would give me time to work on me and taking care of myself,not just physically but mentally. Kind of like a reset to move forward, strong and healthy.
Since my recovery I am dedicated to staying healthy and finding ways to give back. Here is a piece on me from Summer 2012: Biker, Swimmer, Runner, Survivor.
About Amy P.
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
We were saddened to learn that Amy lost her battle with cancer in January 2013. We will honor her on our 2013 retreat.
Nominated by friends Taryn & Lisa
In 2010, at the age of 31, Amy discovered a tumor in her breast while nursing her 6 month old daughter. In the whirlwind year that followed, Amy underwent chemotherapy, a bilateral mastectomy, and radiation treatments. She is still battling breast cancer today and remains the most beautiful, outspoken, and courageous woman I know. In testament to her character, “Team Amy” raised over $10,000 for BC research/services through Komen’s Race for the Cure, and Amy was recently featured on the NFL network’s BC awareness PSA. At the onset of her treatment, Amy found time for yoga amidst a demanding schedule. I saw the peace that her practice brought to her during those trying and uncertain times. Now she navigates frustratingly familiar terrain, with a body that feels very different from the one she came to love yoga in. The Cowgirl Yoga Retreat will give Amy the space to revive her practice in a safe, nurturing, and inspirational environment.
Amy truly embodies the sentiment behind “Yeehaw & Namaste.” She greets each day with astonishingly positive energy and a terrific sense of humor. She also strives to embrace that “still, small voice within.” Amy blossoms in new situations, loves the great outdoors, and is optimistic about her future. It makes my heart swell to think of her riding the range and saluting the sun.
About Amy S.
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
Nominated by Girls Gone Cycle
Amy is a multiple occurrence breast cancer survivor who is an inspiration to others. As a fitness and yoga instructor, there are multitudes who have been encouraged and inspired by Amy’s positive attitude. In January 2007, Amy was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. Midway through the year of chemotherapy, she had a double mastectomy and full rebuild. Through the entire ordeal Amy fought back by staying fit. A lifelong fitness enthusiast, she had participated in triathlons, cycling and running races. In 2008, she discovered yoga and began incorporating it into her fitness routine. Also in 2008, she co-founded a women’s cycling group to encourage women of all ages and fitness levels to get active and stay healthy. Girls Gone Cycle has grown into an incredible group of women who encourage and support each other in life and in their fitness goals. The group has been shaped by Amy’s nurturing and encouraging nature that brings out the best in everyone. It is the 169 members of Girls Gone Cycle who are proud to nominate Amy for this retreat.
In June 2010, Amy found a lump under her arm. It was removed, but the staph infection after the surgery nearly killed her. She has been cancer free since that time. Yeehaw to Amy means doing a duathlon (run, bike, run) 10 days after her first surgery. She has unbounded persistence and perseverance and even cancer couldn’t stop her. The concept of Namaste can be witnessed in Amy’s dealings with everyone she meets. She respectfully meets them at their level so that they may rise together.
Amy was selected as one of the 2012 scholarship team, but because of several reoccurrences of cancer in the chest wall she was in the middle of a battle last June.
About Claire
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2010, my focus was on teaching yoga, preparing to film workouts for Exercise TV, and continuing to publish yoga and wellness articles. Instead, over the course of the year, I had two surgeries, lost my hair to chemotherapy, and earned my certification to teach yoga to cancer survivors.
Currently, I teach weekly donation-based classes to survivors and created and produced a Yoga for Cancer Recovery DVD featuring other survivors, including Amanda Nixon, one of the 2012 attendees. Practicing and teaching yoga throughout my treatment kept me more centered and helped me handle the stress on my mind, body and spirit. I used to ride horses as a child, but have not done so in years. I would relish the opportunity to combine the freedom of horseback riding with yoga.
Since my diagnosis, I’ve been primarily teaching yoga for other survivors and chairing events like Yoga for Hope San Diego, and love it. Nonetheless, I realized that I have not attended a retreat or simply received. I would love the opportunity to remove my teacher hat and simply enjoy yoga amid nature.
Namaste means the divine light in me bows to the divine light in you. Yeehaw rouses my inner wild child and encourages letting loose, and throwing caution to the wind. Yeehaw plus Namaste equals: galloping across a beautiful meadow yelling at the top of my lungs and finishing with a balancing yoga practice.
Visit Claire's website Ocean Soul Yoga.
About Kristina
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
Nominated by her sister Marah
When I heard about Cowgirl Yoga, I thought it couldn’t be real. I mean, how could someone design a retreat marrying the two things that mean the most to my sister-in-law: yoga and horses? Then run this contest the same month she bid goodbye to her oncologist as a breast cancer survivor, complete with new boobies ready to be bounced around on a horse?
Kristina is my sister-in-law, but I look to this strong woman as a sister and couldn’t imagine life without her. This was tested last year, though, when she called to say she had cancer. But cancer was about to get it’s ass kicked. Kristina turned breast cancer on it’s bald head in her blog, The Breast Blog Ever. She poured herself into her yoga teacher training, and believes it saved her life. On the mat she was not a cancer patient; she was a yogi. Even when she was too sick to practice, she would meditate. A peaceful mind heals.
It worked. Spring came and her hair grew back. Wild, curly hair, reflecting the electric nature with which she embraces life. Last week Kristina took her daughter Sophia to her first horseback-riding lesson. She reminisced when she was a girl, during her parent’s divorce, and riding brought her peace. Like yoga did during cancer. I wonder if she is hoping Sophia will find that same peace, and that the difficult year she and her daughter have endured will somehow melt away in that first lesson.
About Jacci
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
John Wayne, Big Sky, and BREATHING
I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 35 years old during my first ever mammogram. Yeah, did not see it coming. My children were 3, 5 and 6 and I was scared to death. I discovered much on each leg of this journey. Now 6 years later, I still am striving to find my footing in my new body and new mind.
Yeehaw and Namaste
My diagnosis was swift and within 1 day, the fight had started. I did not realize that I stopped breathing that day. I dug deep and clung onto the mantra by John Wayne: Courage is being scared to death...and saddling up anyways. I used it every day and I was your perfect warrior. I was THAT patient. Smiling, joking, taking everything they could throw at me. I HAD to live. I realized quickly that my body could TAKE anything. What I was not in touch with was my mind. Or my breath. I had another cancer surgery 18 months after the first and I battled the same way. Warrior. I came out of the treatment phase with the best possible prognosis - cancer free.
Hmmmm...now what? My doctors broke up with me and sent me on to my new life. Funny, that did not jump start my breathing. Didn't even realize I jumped back into life without breathing. Until I found myself at a weekend yoga retreat with friends. A yoga newbie.
At about the 4 and 1/2 yr mark, yoga helped me to begin to live again. How? Two biggies: I started to breathe and I found a teacher who taught me how to let "fear" go. Yoga literally became my life raft. My mind would beg for it...although my body would say, "really? another class this week?". BUT, eventually, my mind and body found each other again...connected by what I believe was my simple breath.
During my treatment, I sweetly dubbed my big blue radiation machine "Big Sky". I would talk to her as I laid in that "breast cancer pose". I would ask her to kill the cancer, but please watch out for my heart and ribs and lungs. She is the reason your retreat caught my eye...and for a second, took my breath away. (Don't worry...I know how to start breathing again!)
The cowgirl sense of grit and toughness represents my fight. Yoga represents the reason I got cancer...to live differently than I did before it. I know the Cowgirl Yoga retreat will change my life as I move forward with my new and exciting normal.
The cowgirl fight got me through it...the yoga breathing saved me from the fight.
About Jane
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
Nominated by Girls Gone Cycle
Resilience of mind, body and spirit is the essence of Jane.
Jane was born with a heart defect and at the age of two underwent the first of her open-heart surgeries. She has endured countless other surgeries and procedures that would have tested the strongest among us. But Jane’s physical, mental and spiritual resiliency seems to ensure she comes back stronger after each health set-back.
Growing up in a family that pursued many types of outdoor recreation, Jane learned to maintain an active lifestyle that embraced physical activity. Knowing the limitations of her heart condition, it would be understandable to shy away from physical activity, but Jane’s inner strength and determination has led her to keep pushing her limits. To this day Jane engages in nearly daily workouts. She rotates through road biking, mountain biking, running and cross-country skiing to take advantage of the changing seasons in northwestern PA and the variety of outdoor activities it affords.
In 2009 Jane added a new challenge to her repertoire of activity by integrating yoga into her life. The balance, calmness and peace of yoga helped her through her next health challenge when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2010. After an initial lumpectomy, it was determined that a double mastectomy would be the best course of action to prevent reoccurrence. Jane’s heart arrhythmia made it necessary to wait until an ablation procedure stabilized her heart rhythm before the mastectomy could be done. She was able to have the double mastectomy in December 2010 and then in June 2011 had reconstructive surgery in conjunction with another heart ablation procedure.
Jane is certainly worthy of recognition for her resilience and strength in overcoming all these health challenges. But what is truly special about Jane is the way she inspires others to push past their perceived limitations to achieve their own healthy self. One of the ways she does this is through the women’s cycling group that she co-founded five years ago that now has 273 members. Girls Gone Cycle uses bicycling as a platform to support, encourage and inspire women to get healthy, challenge themselves, and then pay it forward by helping others achieve the same things. Jane’s personal encouragement has touched the lives of hundreds of women and inspired them to pedal their way to a new sense of strength and accomplishment, and to go beyond what they think they are capable of.
For Jane, a yeehaw moment is one of shared celebration when a friend achieves a new goal or accomplishes something they didn’t think was possible.
About Jennell
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
Nominated by her husband Brian
Jennell is seriously passionate about her vocation: to feed anyone who comes within spitting distance of her kitchen. If your stomach grumbles within earshot, watch out; she'll slap some zucchini pancakes on your plate faster than you can say, "Yeehaw" and "Namaste."
I have never been hungry since we were married in 2003, and she hasn't let me in the kitchen much. She does, however, let me do some heavy lifting at our own retail business Blossom Grocery, which is (IOHO) the best natural foods grocery on the West coast. (We're biased.)
Jennell fuels her passion for nutrition and community with, among other things, a lifelong yoga practice and love of horses. Jennell recently began riding horses weekly with our seven-year-old daughter. Riding lets Jennell practice guiding a power greater than herself with subtlety and grace. Yoga helps her experience the subtle graces of her own power.
Jennell found very aggressive breast cancer in January 2012. While I have taken over the business, Jennell has coordinated her own medical care and our busy household of two home-schooled kids - Yeehaw! And somehow, she has maintained a deep sense of dignity throughout, staying balanced in this shaky new normal - Namaste! Jennell combines these two like vinegar and oil.
Her main treatment ended in December. A Cowgirl Yoga retreat will be a right of passage, to mark not only the end of a terribly challenging year, but also the beginning of a new phase of her life of fierce dedication to health and community.
About Lynn
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
Nominated by her sister Ann
On June 2, 2011, my sister, Lynn, was diagnosed with breast cancer — Stage 2, Grade 3, Invasive DCIS with two tumors. We later found that Lynn was HER2 positive and had cancer in her lymph nodes, as well. Over the next 14 months, Lynn’s treatment included two lumpectomies, six rounds of chemo (round No. 5 put Lynn in the hospital with a life-threatening case of Nutrapenia), 31 shots of radiation and 16 Herceptin infusions. During treatment, Lynn was also diagnosed with Supraventricular Tachycardia—a heart arrhythmia that was only made worse by the chemo. Family and friends rallied to support Lynn, but being single and 1,100 miles away, she had to do most of her cancer fighting alone. I watched my sister lose her hair, part of her breast, peace of mind, health, sense of self and quality of life. But I never saw her lose her spirit. Lynn is now working to find her “new normal” as a cancer survivor.
The Cowgirls vs. Cancer retreat fits Lynn like a well-worn cowgirl hat. Lynn has practiced yoga for more than a decade and has loved nature and horses her whole life. During treatment, Lynn found strength and comfort both on the mat and in the mountains.
Yeehaw represents the renewed passion for life that I now see in Lynn; Namaste is the peaceful inner spirit she uses to stay positive and grounded in the new post-cancer chapter of her life.
About Mahala
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2011 at the age of 32. My new husband and I just moved to Savannah, GA from California after he graduated from Army boot camp. We were in Georgia for 2 weeks at our first duty station when I was diagnosed. I found the lump myself when I was standing in the kitchen. I had a bilateral masectomy with expanders and port placement, chemotherapy and reconstruction.
I have always loved horses, because they are strong, confident, beautiful, graceful and free. I'm also a horse in the Chinese horoscope. I have always wanted to own my own horse and love riding; I rode as a little girl in Girl Scouts. I also used to take some women from a recovery home to a horse ranch to ride and be with horses.
I love yoga and have practiced ever since I learned from my mom, who would do poses in the living room. I started practicing as a child and continued as a young adult. I became a yoga teacher during the end of my breast cancer treatment in New York City. Yoga means balance, relaxation, strength, peace and freedom to me. Yoga has been my saving grace throughout my life, including the difficult times such as boot camp, breast cancer, deployment and now divorce.
I truly believe that both animals and yoga are healing, especially horses. I'm a cowgirl at heart that grew up in California. My mission in life is to heal others, but first I believe it's very important to heal myself.
Yeehaw & Namaste are one and the same to me. It's about living life to the fullest, being in the moment, honoring one another and living our life purpose. I am so honored for this opportunity.
About Marjori
2013 Cowgirls vs. Cancer scholarship recipient
Nominated by her sister, Wendi
I was in the doctor’s office with my youngest sister, Marji, three years ago, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 37. I was also with her just a few weeks ago during her clinical trial treatment. Throughout her journey, I have been witness to Marji’s superhuman strength, limitless courage, and inspirational grace in confronting cancer head-on, while also raising three little girls, maintaining the farm, marriage, a veterinary career, and caring for a menagerie of family pets that make up her life.
Marji was on a horse from the time she could walk. She absolutely loves them. She did her veterinarian specialty in equine medicine, and when friends and neighbors call for medical help with their horses, she is always there for them. It made sense that horses would be there for her during her BC treatment. When things got tough, she talked about going to her "happy place" which was, in her mind, always on a horse. Thinking about riding was what she said helped her through the grueling chemo, surgery, and radiation treatments. Now yoga, on the other hand – she has always been open to - but has not had the gift of time and teaching that Cowgirl Yoga will provide. Horses combined with yoga? For Marji, it is a perfect match!
Namaste? She lives it - never judgmental - Marji honors the essence of all living creatures, two legged and four.
Yee-haw? This is how she tackles each day; full on, with a driving force that is exhaustive to others, but standard operating procedure for her.
The CY Retreat will be an ideal next-step on her path to health, and an amazing weekend she will always cherish.
Yeehaw and Namaste. Congratulations to the 2013 cancer kickin' cowgirls!