About Amana
Born from a longing to create a place where people and animals can heal, grow, and be truly seen.
Amana began with Donna's love for horses, animals, people, and the quiet way transformation happens when trust replaces fear. It is not simply a horsemanship brand. It is a way of relating. To horses. To animals. To nature. To people. To God. To ourselves.
Donna Souvaris
A lifetime with horses. A heart for people and animals.
Donna has spent more than 30 years developing her relationship with horses, animals, and the way trust is built.
When she began Amana, it was not simply to teach horsemanship. It came from a deep longing to create a place where both people and animals could heal, grow, and be truly seen.
Over the years, horses have been some of her greatest teachers. Through them, she came to understand leadership in a new way: not as dominance, pressure, or control, but as calm presence, consistency, clarity, and love.
The kind of leadership that regulates before it corrects. That builds relationship before asking for performance. That holds boundaries without withdrawing love.
This is the heart of Amana.
"Real leadership is not force. It is calm presence, consistency, clarity, and love."
Background
Lived experience, supported by ongoing study.
Donna's work is rooted in lived experience and supported by ongoing learning.
More than 30 years of experience with horses
Formal life coaching training
Equine-facilitated learning training
Professional show jumping and dressage experience
Ongoing study in equine biomechanics
Nerve-release informed work
Practical rehabilitation experience
Daily hands-on work with horses and rescued animals
Her work continues to evolve through study, observation, collaboration, and the living feedback of the animals themselves.
Amana is not a fixed formula or a closed system. It is a living method that grows through careful practice, humility, collaboration, and relationship with each horse, each animal, and each person.
Faith and Inclusivity
Rooted in faith. Open to all.
Donna's personal faith is foundational to her life and work.
But Amana is not a place where belief is imposed.
You do not need to share Donna's faith to belong here, learn here, stay here, or be welcomed here.
Come as you are. Meet the animals with respect. Enter the farm with openness. And experience peace in whatever language makes sense to you.
The home of Amana
Waterhoek is where the method is lived.
Waterhoek is the current home of the Amana Method. It is a working farm, a guest farm, an animal sanctuary, a place of learning, and a living expression of the method.
The animals are not props. They are participants in the life of the farm. Many have been rescued, rehabilitated, or gently restored into trust.
The farm includes riverside cabins, a thatched cottage, private campsites, animals, trails, dams, forest, river, communal spaces, and open Midlands sky.
Guests may arrive for a weekend away. But many leave with a deeper understanding of why the farm feels the way it does.
Honouring the land
Honouring the story before us.
Waterhoek did not begin with us.
The farm carries a history, and we honour those who cared for it before, including Andy, Stu, and the Coriand chapter of its story.
Amana does not erase what came before. It continues the story with gratitude, care, and a renewed vision for people, animals, and the land.
The vision
To make peace practical.
The long-term vision for Amana is to help change the way people relate to horses, animals, nature, and themselves.
Documenting animal transformation stories
Training young adults through Amana Sanctuary
Hosting retreats and clinics
Developing future practitioner pathways
Travelling nationally and internationally to teach
Building a global community around gentle, skillful, dignity-based horsemanship
The dream is simple and enormous:
To make peace practical.
Visit, learn, stay, or begin