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10 (or so) questions with... Dawn Sanborn
RM: A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says “Hey buddy, why the [BLANK]?”
DS: Long face.
RM: Yes.
RM: You’re a certified therapeutic coach, a certified hypnotherapist, a certified neuro-linguistic practitioner, a Reiki practitioner. A professional fine art photographer. You make artisan breads and gourmet salsa and sauces. Are you really one of triplets posing as a single person?
DS: It appears to be that way, doesn’t it? I spread myself very thin, I guess. It’s a transitional thing. When we first moved here I started selling the eggs and stuff at market and that culminated with the breads and salsa. Then I read the book the Tao of Equus for one Christmas, and I realized what I needed to do with my life, and that was coaching with horses.
RM: You have to take care of eight cats, three dogs, seven horses, four ducks, seven goats, a rooster, and Joe the cockatiel. Are you really one of triplets posing as a single person?
DS: I have children that do half of the work. I homeschool my youngest, so she takes care of most of the animals.
RM: Family?
DS: I have a husband, Robert. And two daughters, Samantha, 17, and Madison, 14.
RM: I did a Google search of your name. Are you the Dawn Sanborn who managed the Victoria’s Secret store in Rapid City, South Dakota?
DS: I wish. I could have gotten a lot of free stuff.
RM: A cowboy rode into town on Thursday. Stayed three days and rode out on Thursday. How is this possible?
DS: I don’t do math. I’m an art major.
RM: Actually, the horse’s name was Thursday.
DS: That’s pretty good.
RM: Which super hero power would you choose? Flight, invisibility, X-ray vision, ability to read minds, super hearing.
DS: Well, I can already read minds, so I think I’m going to fly.
RM: You can read minds?
DS: I can understand a person’s energy, and feel that. That is also part of the intuition and coaching. I’m not telepathic. I’m intuitive.
RM: Is it something everyone has?
DS: Everyone has this ability. It’s whether or not you hone the skill.
RM: To what degree? I mean, can you see an aura around me?
DS: I believe it’s possible. I meet people like that all the time. In my coaching training, I would say about half of the people I meet are that way. Some saw ghosts, some did channeling, some are aura readers.
RM: And that doesn’t make you raise an eyebrow at all?
DS: I have actually had a ghost visit me. I’m getting my master’s degree in human development and we were at the Benedictine Center in St. Paul, and it was an overnight introduction to the master’s program. So they had us staying in the monastery there—in the nun’s portion. In the middle of the night I felt somebody sit down at the end of my bed. I got up and said “OK, that was strange.” It happened a second time, it was even stranger. The third time I got up and said “What do you want?” and then they left me alone.
RM: Worst job you’ve ever had?
DS: Working in retail.
RM: Was it that Victoria’s Secret store in South Dakota?
DS: I wish. It was some clothing store. Hated it. I can’t lie to people. So they would have you telling the people they look great in some outfit, and I’m too honest. I couldn’t do sales.
RM: But you have to sell for your company.
DS: You have to sell yourself. That’s different than selling products you don’t believe in.
RM: Do you do trail riding rentals?
DS: I get that a lot of the time, “My daughter would like to take riding lessons.” We don’t do those.
RM: Seriously, my daughter would like to take riding lessons.
DS: Eventually, I would like to do that. Watching my daughters being around horses for the last five years has been very empowering and changing for them. Some therapists use horses as a recovery for kids who are messed up—I’d like to use preventative medicine in that way and get them into horses before something goes wrong.
RM: Here are some horse-related song lyrics. Tell me the song by filling in the blank.
DS: OK.
RM [singing]: “By the dark of the moon I planted/But there came an early snow/There’s been a hoot owl howling by my window now/For six nights in a row/She’s coming for me I know. And on BLANK we’re both gonna go. We'll be riding
BLA-ANK! We'll be riding BLA-ANK! We'll be riding BLA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-ANK!
DS: No idea.
RM: Wildfire.
DS: Can you sing that again for me?
RM: No. The people around us [at Dunn Bros.] are staring. And not in a good way.