Family and Childhood
Corrine was born the 11
th
child to Dutch immigrant farmers John and Minnie Sloot in 1974 in Winthrop, Minnesota and was raised primarily by horses, dogs, and 10 older siblings. Her earliest memories are of two scheming Shetland ponies and an athletic Welsh Arab mare filling her childhood with side-splitting stories. They built a strong foundation of experiences that now lend her more wisdom than any time she ever spent in a formal education setting.
Despite the demands of farming and raising a large family, with his wife Minnie’s support, John Sloot found time to ride, show, and to mentor some of his daughters in horsemanship, and sons in farming (the family farm is still in the hands of her oldest brother). Her father remains an avid Combined Trainer, now into his 80’s. Please view his tribute page.
Ever a wise man, John knew that Shetlands would weed out the fair weather riders from the true horse(wo)men at heart. The only way to graduate from a bareback Shetland to the saddled Palomino was to survive the poundings and draggings the ponies dished out; so she kept up. She learned the hard work ethics and morals that "stubborn" Dutch are famous for. She also learned that the hardest thing about riding is the ground.
Though she had more drive invested in her wee-hours figure skating lessons than in showing horses when she was a teen, she rode often. Usually bareback if she was not taking a lesson from Papa. In hindsight; she knows that this was therapeutic for her; physically, and especially mentally since she could confess and confide with the kind of complete confidence she found with no human.
In the 80’s, her father attended a seminar in Michigan with Linda Tellington Jones. He came back with her text on T-Touch. Corrine read these manuals, and began experimenting on the ponies, as well as her father’s off the track TB’s. This planted early a seed of belief that hands have power. She began a daily study of the family’s hands at mealtime. She greatly admired her father’s large strong fingers, which did not taper, but rather ended in blunt square nails that cracked at the corners in winter. And her mother’s beautiful blue veins that bulged beneath her fair skin when she kneaded dough. Working hands, she thought. She wanted working hands when she grew up.
College Years
Corrine struggled to be inspired toward a career involving the only fields of study that interested her. At that time; she still considered working with horses something that was "just" hobby material for her. Limited in her thinking because she hadn’t started a successful show career young like "real" professional horsemen do.
She spent about 3 years studying English, (a high school teacher discovered her talent for writing, encouraged it, and thereby saved her academically), Art, (if she wasn’t skating or riding she was avoiding chores "artistically") and American Indian Studies (an inexplicable fascination with this culture existed since childhood- a symptom of being first generation American).
She taught some figure skating lessons and discovered that she had both a love and a knack for teaching.
She also worked at a hunter jumper barn as a stable hand in Carlton, MN while attending the University of Minnesota, Duluth. This was excruciating work in the winter months which paid only $25 a day- but it meant that she could at least smell like horse. Her chores took extra time because she touched and befriended some of the mistrusting horses whose stalls she mucked. At this same time, she was studying the Ojibwa Language at UMD and was gifted a name " Mishtadimoog Daanginanikwe ", which means: Woman who Touches Horses with her Hands.
Also at this time, she began a study and practice of Middle Eastern Dance – known as American Belly Dance or "Tribal Fusion" with a woman whom became a fast friend. She had seen Leigh Anne dancing in a Greek restaurant in Duluth while on a date, and approached the dancer before she left, asking for lessons. Corrine would become her first student. She was instantly struck by the similarity of muscle control needed for Belly Dance and Riding. (Years later, Leigh Anne also moved to Colorado, and now is an internationally known dancer instructor known as Isadora.)
Pivotal Moments… Life Changing Pursuits
In 1996, cold to her bones and clear that college study was not going to produce a career she wanted, she moved to Colorado with her boyfriend. The transition was wrought with hardship, and a few years were spent narrowly avoiding homelessness; primarily working at various health food stores. It would be some time before she made new connections with horse people. It was during those years- horses for the most part absent- that she evaluated the impact horses had made on her life; surprised at what a hole she felt without them. She began to formulate an idea about someday helping people use horses for physical and mental therapy the way she used them as a youngster.
When her son, Pherwyn, was born in1999, Corrine made the decision to embrace self-employment so that she could avoid putting her child in daycare. Having picked up Belly Dance quickly, she sewed herself some costumes and danced a few gigs at a local Moroccan Restaurant, and was teaching beginner classes in the evenings. She also did temporary henna tattoo art; known as Mehndi- harmless, symbolic body art associated with the dance. Corrine and her midwife, Sarah Fredrickson, "figured out" how to do Mehndi while she was pregnant. Sarah began her own business called Embodiohmehndi (Em- body- oh- Mehndi), for which Corrine worked as a freelance artist.