Student Spotlight
Denise Ashcraft, HCCA candidate
“Massage is a touch that lives forever.”
Denise Ashcraft was already a lifelong student of natural health when CCNH developed its innovative Holistic Care for Companion Animals certificate program. Raised on a farm, her childhood fascination with herbs first led Denise to unofficially teach her high school horticulture classmates their first lessons in herbal healing. "In our ag-classes I was amazed to realize how often farm kids had somehow missed learning anything about the vast nutritional healing qualities of herbs."
After sowing these first seeds of holistic teaching, her passion for raising organic crops grew alongside an everlasting adoration of “all creatures, great and small." The teenage farm-hand was soon a professional planter whose beloved animals were noticeably healthier than the average livestock – from brighter eyes, thicker coats and hooves to longer lives, with fewer infections and higher fertility.
"We use tinctures rather than chemicals for worming, we avoid vaccinations and boost immunities with tonics, vitamins, minerals and ongoing detoxification. We provide as natural a diet as possible, and we believe in the healing magic of massage. For our human family," she adds, "and for our animals."
Four years ago Denise and her husband, Ken, galloped into the rugged foothills of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains and discovered their own heaven on earth. According to their company’s website, Bridge Creek Ranch offers weekly equine and canine massage classes in a secluded getaway that encourages learning as well as reflection. Students live on the farm, in private cabins, and meals are provided.
Trained in various schools of equine massage and iridology, herbal nutrition and aromatherapy, Denise is sometimes "amazed at having a job whose main tasks and responsibilities include nurturing animals all day long."
At Bridge Creek Ranch the family’s five resident horses double as teaching assistants, as do their two dogs. Mac, Roy, Sally Jo, Joseph and George know when to horse-play and when to demonstrate that organic is tastier by stopping to nibble a homegrown tomato out of Denise’s hand. A frisky St. Bernard named Nyda and a 15-year-old Golden Retriever named Hank always answer their master’s call, to help Denise demonstrate the mutual benefits of canine massage.
"Of course we know that the intention of caring for an animal can calm down peoples’ adrenal and nervous systems, lowering their blood pressure and even lowering the perception of pain," she says.
"For competitive / sporting animals, ongoing massage results in better performance and fewer injuries. For all pets, you enhance their quality of life by helping them to stretch, breathe easier, and digest their food better."
Denise is a grandmother who raised her children holistically. She loves it when they call to get natural health ideas that now help two young grandchildren grow stronger and healthier. On the road or at the ranch, this happy camper teaches hundreds of students each year – from 4-H groups to animal trainers, at kennel club meetings and at professional conferences. She enjoys interacting with veterinarians, animal chiropractors and pet dentists. Her pet peeve is when people incorrectly consider holistic care as an “either/or alternative approach.”
"We call this 'concurrent care' because homeostatic balance is what we all want," she concludes. "What we learn about animal health can transfer, intuitively, into holistic human development, and vice versa."
"That’s why I like to say that massage therapists live forever. Everything you touch, when you touch with a healing intention, continues to touch another and another and another."
For more information: www.bridgecreekranch.com
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