Bella Terra’s Miniature Horse Programs near Kalamazoo, southwest Michigan

Experiential Growth and Learning with Horses

The Bella Terra program with miniature horses

Team Building | Mindful Meditation in Coherence | Personal Growth | Counseling

Experience this innovative approach to personal growth based on the horse-human connection, where horses reflect your thoughts, feelings, and actions to provide feedback, without bias or judgment.

The Bella Terra Story

Southwest of Kalamazoo, MI, Bella Terra was founded in 2000 by Todd and Kim Shook after their own personal, life changing encounter participating in the Equine Experience created by Wyatt Webb at Miraval Resort and Spa in Tucson, Arizona. The impact of this experience fueled their passion to start an equine assisted learning program; the first equine experiential program exclusively with miniature horses.

The Shooks uniquely integrated their professional experiences in executive management, human services, and personal growth, to develop their learning program with horses. Although the program previously included corporate training, leadership development, and youth programs, today the miniature horse experience targets counselling and mindfulness programs.

The Shooks were founding members, Master Trainers, and original curriculum authors for the Equine Experiential Education Association (E3A).

Now the Shooks have collaborated with the original E3A Founders to develop a new and improved curriculum. Through EAL Academy, they offer an accelerated Equine Assisted Learning facilitation certification where they teach individuals around the world how to facilitate great learning experiences with horses.

The Bella Terra Facilitators

Todd Shook

LMSW, BSN, B.S. Information Technology
Founder of Bella Terra & EAL Academy
E3A Founding Member, Curriculum Author, prior Board Member & Master Trainer
Licensed Therapist, Case Manager, Psychiatric Nurse & Wellness Coach
HeartMath Coherence Technique Certified
EMDR Certified

Todd began his professional career in Information Technology. After 10 years, his desire to help people led to a career change and he earned his BSN from Southern Illinois University.

For over 10 years, Todd was a Registered Nurse with experience in Home Health, Emergency Room nursing, and Case Management. In order to move into Equine Assisted Psychotherapy, Todd went back to school and, in 2010, he earned his master’s degree in Social Work from Western Michigan University. In 2012, he received his license in Social Work (LMSW).

In the field of equine experiential growth and learning, Todd received his EAGALA Level I certification in April 2003 and has been providing equine assisted learning and psychotherapy services ever since. In 2010, Todd was certified by the Equine Experiential Education Association (E3A) and in 2012 he became a Master Trainer to teach others on how to facilitate experiential programs with horses. He has also authored curriculum.

In 2018, he co-founded EAL Academy, with Linda Pucci and Kim Shook, to continue teaching others how to facilitate learning programs with horses. This work with horses has been extremely rewarding to Todd because of the immediate growth and insight participants' have when they are working with horses.

Kim Shook

B.S. Computer Engineering
Founder of Bella Terra & EAL Academy
E3A Founder, Founding Member, Curriculum Author, prior Board Member & Master Trainer
Technology & Operations Executive

Kim developed her facilitation and training skills through her corporate leadership, training, and management experiences. In the field of Equine Assisted Learning (EAL), Kim received her certification from EAGALA Level I in 2003. In 2007, she completed the Innovative Horizons EAL training program along with the other Founders of Equine Experiential Education Association (E3A). While with E3A, Kim was a Founder, Board Member, Curriculum Author and Master Trainer.

In 2018, along with Linda Pucci and Todd Shook, she co-founded EAL Academy to expand into new areas of coaching and facilitating experiential learning through the horse-human connection. EAL Academy offers training programs that teach methods for facilitating learning and development programs with horses for teams, youth, coaching, and personal growth. Kim is passionate about all types of learning with horses.

Kim is currently the Board Chair of Consumers Credit Union, nationally ranked as one of the top performing financial institutions and best places to work. Prior to working at EAL Academy full-time, Kim was Chief Operations Officer at BASIC, a technology based Human Resource solutions provider, responsible for $30 million annual revenue and 140 staff. Kim began her career in Information Technology. She managed, developed, and implemented large-scale technology solutions ($10 - $30 million) at Pfizer, McDonald’s Corporation, and The Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Kim also has extensive experience facilitating top executives and leading strategic planning initiatives. Kim has been the recipient of many top awards in leadership, project management, team excellence, coaching, and process improvement. She received McDonald's Corporation Presidents' Award, recognizing their "best of the best" top 1% employees.

Client Testimonials

"This program provides a unique and powerful experience that breaks down barriers and illuminates clarity."
"It is the best experience to better understand their group and how they work together to achieve goals."
"Bonding with horses through building trust-based relationships is the key difference to equine experiential learning."
"I enjoyed being around the horses and working to build trust."
"Insightful – thought provoking activities."
"It really illustrates how you are perceived by others."
“Taught me to be more confident.”

A therapist said: "I learned more about this client in the first 5 minutes of watching him work with the horses than in the prior 10 office sessions combined."
A participant of an annual group said, "Most of the ladies expressed some pretty deep feelings about how the horses responded to them. We always come away from this experience with a sense that there really is more to our lives worth learning about, and we seem to find something in ourselves that was lost long ago."
We had great fun with the horses!

EAL Academy

We provide Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) certification training so you can expertly facilitate learning programs with horses. We are internationally known EAL trainers and facilitators.

About Bella ​Terra