Our facilitator, Kim Kupferer, is an accomplished trial lawyer who worked for over 34 years in the legal field handling the most difficult cases. Inspired by her herd of animals at her North Carolina Farm, Kim dove into the field of facilitation and Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning in 2016. What makes our retreats one-of- a-kind is that our facilitator knows and understands the immense pressure and stress that comes with being an attorney and so is able to create retreats designed specifically to address attorney well-being and paths of empowerment.

Kim was a star basketball player in high school and then later at Stanford University.  After Stanford, Kim became an assistant basketball coach at Santa Clara University, where she also pursued her law degree.  Kim was named the Outstanding Woman Law Student at Santa Clara along with other awards at graduation.  She first worked for 15 years as a Public Defender in Alameda County.  There she developed a reputation as an excellent trial lawyer and was named to the elite homicide and death penalty team.  During that same time, she was promoted to a supervisor position where she ran one of the juvenile divisions.   In 2003, she opened her private practice, where she handled everything from drunk driving cases to death penalty work.  She was known to handle the most difficult cases including Capital case defense work.  She was known across the state as a teacher, writer and lecturer in criminal law.  She  served on the California Criminal Law Executive Committee for the state bar and then was voted in as the chair.  She also was the chair of Women Defender’s for several years.  After buying a farm in Western North Carolina in 2010, she continued practicing law, focusing on Death Penalty cases and traveled across the country to do so.

Kim has always been a lover of horses.  In 2007 she bought her first horse, Brownie.  She started training at an eventing barn. Kim attended clinics, lectures and seminars all around the country looking for a horse trainer or person , who was about connection over ego and force.  After moving to North Carolina and starting her own horse farm, Kim began appreciating her horses at an even deeper level.  Instead of it always being about what her equines could do for her as far as riding them, she began to learn connection with them, out of the saddle. 

In 2016, Kim started an intensive mentorship program with Barbara Alexander, an Epona style teacher training people to facilitate retreats in Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning. Kim completed her certification as a Facilitator for Equine Experiential Learning in 2018.  Through Barbara, Kim also met Cavalia stars Frederic Pignon and Magali Delgado, whom Barbara touted as the best horsemen she had ever met. In 2017 Kim participated in a retreat with Barbara, Frederic and Magali where she focused on liberty work with Frederic. In the Spring of 2019, Kim assisted with their Mind, Body and Spirit of Horsemanship retreat in South Carolina.  Since starting her EFEL work, Kim has led dozens of retreats at Imagine Equus Farm, several at Epona Ridge and assisted at some of Barbara Alexander’s retreats.  Kim has also gone around the country and even world, to symposiums to train with other other EFEL facilitators. In 2022, Kim was a presenter at the International Equine Summit in Tuscon, AZ.   A natural teacher, speaker and coach, Kim has easily transitioned into the position of Equine Facilitator and Equine Assisted Life Coach.