Today we’d like to introduce you to Sierra Blake.
Hi Sierra , it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
When my mom was growing up her and her horse would ride out everyday no matter the weather to the same place. One day her god father came across her circular path and was unsure of what it was, so he called it a Magic Circle. From then on they named the path leading to it Magic Circle. Now, my mom is a life coach and one of my biggest supporters…
When I was five years old, my parents were getting divorced. My mom wanted to be sure I had a passion or something to focus on that I loved. She decided to enroll me in horseback riding lessons. The second I laid my eyes on the horses I was immediately drawn to them. I couldn’t get enough. I would ride every weekend, I was with my mom. When I wasn’t at the barn, I was reading about horses, pretending I was with my favorite horse, and most importantly dreaming of them.
Once I was in sixth grade, my passion for them grew into a constant desire. During recess my friend and I would draw pictures of what we wanted our futures to look like. I filled the pages with land of my very own, filled with horses and dogs. Soon after I become very sick and misdiagnosed for several months. While I was in the hospital for all that time, my dreams were the things keeping me alive, knowing when I got out I’d get to see my animals and lesson horse I had a strong connection with.
When I was finally able to get back to living life fully. I wanted nothing more than to be at the barn. I started going 4+ days a week. And after covid I had changed barns and started working with them. That is when my skills really took off and I started seeing horses as more then just a hobby but a way of living and thats when I meant Junior. My trainer at the time had asked me to ride him. As he was for sale and needed exercise. I walked into his stall and my life changed ever; I happened to have not been feeling my best that day, Junior smelled my body from head to toe as if scanning where the pain was. Something about the way he looked at me, he took my pain away with one breath. In that moment I was stunned. I knew he was meant to be mine, and I was meant to be his. He taught me that horses meet to us where we are right now and if we listen to them can they help us rise. I strive to do the same work for them. Just like Junior and I do for each other everyday. After a year of riding him everyday, we bought him and I was finally able to call him all mine. It was the happiest day of my life.
Two years later in early 2025, now being 19 years old, going through natural Horsemenship training. It was time for my mom and I to move. I wanted to move out of state so I could have land for Junior and she wanted a small house near the beach. These two vasily different wants had us looking in different directions. Thats when we met Mat, my mom’s soon to be boyfriend. He told us to write everything we both wanted in a house and to see what came up. For my mom that was a house near the beach with a big kitchen and open living space. But for me that was: Land for a pasture, arena and my horse to be right outside my door. At the time we didn’t know where Mat lived but he said he found a perfect rock on his property in Valley Center and would start manifesting the perfect house to show up for us.
A few days later my mom put in exactly what both of us were looking for on Zillow, sure enough a house showed up and we went to look at it. It was an hour away, in Valley Center. As soon as we walked through the doors it felt like home. The cozy house with a family like feel over looking the valley, you could even see a small slice of the ocean. I walked down to the barn I could see Junior here. We went home and put in an offer right away. I was a nervous wreak waiting to find out if I was going to be able to call this home. I felt so close to my dream and yet there was still a big leap to get there. A family friend, named Vivian told me to look for signs it meant to be. She told me to look at old drawings and pieces of past writing. I found my old drawing book and that’s when I found it. I drew this exact barn in 2017 sitting with my friend at recess all those years ago. We also found out that Mat would be our next door neighbor and that his rock that he had been manifesting on everyday overlooked this property. it was as if this ranch had been woven into our past. It had to be apart of our future…
Now almost 8 months later, it’s all ours! We are beyond lucky to call Magic Circle Ranch home. I am starting my business, teaching people the magic that horses have when we let them hold space for us. If we listen to them they will guide us to our hearts. I do this through workshops, retreats and events. And for equestrians we have a small boarding facility and program to help grow their partnership with their horse so you can build a strong connection together through communication. watching this place come to life warms my heart and seeing how the magic of this place shows up for every visitor and boarder just as it has for us blows me away each and every time. Everyday I walk out my door seeing my horse look up at me and the little girl who still lives within me is jumping with joy each and every time.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Growing up I had a far from storybook childhood, I was a kid who grew up living in constant fear, change, uncertainty and challenges. As going back and forth between houses was not an easy situation for me. I didn’t understand how much fear I was constantly living with. being a child who walked through life in full survival mode, I didn’t understand that the amount of pain and hardship I was in, was not normal and that there is an equal amount of beauty and magnificence.
Apart from having a not great relationship with my father, I was misdiagnosed with an eating disorder when I was in six grade, after months of being in the hospital and getting my family taken away from me in the MBU. They finally decided to test me for other things, after an MRI they found out I had a brain tumor. After having surgery and putting me on medication, my life changed from fear, pain and not knowing if I was going to survive another day to absolutely thriving, living my life to the fullest with an open heart.
After having Magic Circle Ranch I realized how much I was living in my head not connected to my feelings, living with the horses have moved me into living with my heart and reintroduced me to my hurting six year old self.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work has two parts
Focusing on the person, using Lorin Beller’s Intention Wheel we work on moving the client from their head to their heart. what ever comes up for them we allow them to feel, work through and heal with the horse. Horses have a heart field that is five times bigger than ours. So when we connect with them and they hold space for us, they allow us to feel whatever might be getting in the way of allowing us from living in our hearts. Then we work on our goals and more importantly how we want to feel and show up in all aspects of their life.
The other part is growing the relationship between horse and rider, teaching the rider to understand what the horse is commutating with them. A lot of horse people don’t listen to their horse, simply because they don’t know how. When really they know us better than we know ourselves. Starting on the ground the horse and rider build a language together so that they can communicate better when riding and on the ground.
We offer events, workshops, retreats, horse boarding, coaching with horses, partnership lessons, and so much more. Feel free to reach out if you want to work with us in anyway.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I don’t know if I would say luck has played a big role, as everything in my life has fit together like a puzzle. Each negative or hard thing that has happen to me in life has been met with an equally positive thing in my life. I believe that when you have clear dreams and you work hard to achieve those dreams, the universe will meet you and help you in ways you could have never came up with in your wildest dreams.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Magic_Circle_Ranch
- Other: @_sea.erra_
Image Credits
Pictures by: Laura Hempleman and Jenny Delillio
