Learn from leaders in healthy living.
Margaret Burns Vap
Margaret is the founder of Big Sky Yoga Retreats. Her relationship with yoga began over a decade ago, in a bid to combat a hectic New York City lifestyle and a corporate career with cosmetics giant L’Oreal. A few years and several hundred down dogs later, Margaret knew that the corporate world no longer held her future, so switching her designer duds for comfy pants - and NYC for Washington DC - she combined her business know-how with her passion for yoga and created Georgetown Yoga, one of DC's most popular yoga studios.
Now Margaret brings that same recipe for yoga success to Montana. Margaret combines her fresh approach to teaching with a unique ability to create a nurturing, safe space in which to learn yoga. Her teaching will leave you calm and refreshed after a vigorous flowing practice, putting you in touch with your true potential and transforming your health and well being in the process.
Margaret has studied with many top instructors at the Jivamukti Yoga Center in NYC and Richard Freeman's studio in Boulder, CO; has attended David Swenson's intensive training in the foundation and teaching techniques of the Ashtanga yoga Primary series, and has done intensive practice and study of the Ashtanga Primary and Intermediate series with Dave Oliver from At One Yoga in Phoenix, Arizona. Margaret completed a 200-hour teacher training intensive with Yoga Works; this training was the 
result of a partnership between her studio Georgetown Yoga in Washington, DC and the renowned CA-NY based Yoga Works. Margaret has also traveled to Hawaii for Baron Baptiste’s Level 1 teacher training bootcamp. Margaret is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with Yoga Alliance. Margaret represents companies she believes in: she was an Athleta sponsored athlete in 2008 and currently writes for their Chi blog; she is a Mountain Ambassador for Cloudveil Inspired Mountain Apparel and a product ambassador for LUNA bars. Margaret has been asked to speak on career transition and, of course, yoga. She authors a blog called Cowgirl Yoga.
Margaret holds a BS in Business and Languages from Georgetown University and an MBA from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management. She speaks fluent French, Spanish, and a little Italian and has lived abroad on numerous occasions. During the winter/spring of 2011, she is living in London, UK with her family and deepening her yoga practice at Jivamukti London.
Margaret is mom to Morgane Sienna, who is six and loves yoga poses named after animals. In early 2007, Margaret, her husband David, Morgane and their two Boston Terriers Lola and Rocco all packed up and moved to Bozeman, Montana. They enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle in their mountain home. Margaret continues her life’s work of sharing yoga, while watching Morgane grow up learning to ski and horseback ride. Margaret and Morgane were featured as Cowgirl Yoginis in a 2009 JADE yoga ad.
Janice Cartwright
Janice Cartwright is our head wrangler for Cowgirl Yoga and founder of Montana Horse Sense. Originally from Pittsburgh, Janice attended the University of Pittsburgh as a Health, Physical Education and Recreation major.
Her family spent every free minute at their private boy’s camp in Ohio; there she was able to discover and nourish her love for horses. She started teaching horsemanship when she was 12 years old; she's always been a teacher by nature. She chooses to teach through her horses - lucky her. After moving to Atlanta in 1981, Janice managed to continue her with her love of horses and teaching while raising 3 daughters and starting a new business, Roswell Bicycles. Her introduction to Montana was on a vacation in 2001, and she immediately related to this special place. After all, she had always felt she was born in boots and jeans! After her last daughter graduated from high school, the move was made. Having lived here for the past 4 years, Janice has thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this beautiful place and the friendly people she's met, usually from the back of a horse.
Upon arriving in Montana, Janice joined the Back Country Horsemen. This organization works with the US Forest Service to maintain the trails that she was so eager to discover. She was 
immediately immersed and became Vice President and a board director. Given her teaching background, the yearly Defensive Horsemanship Clinics dealing with safety on and around horses in all situations became her responsibility. Janice also met a wonderful man with some cows so...thus her cowgirl instruction began. Just because you ride a quarter horse does not mean they automatically know what to do with a cow.
Throughout all her time with horses, Janice has come to understand that to be as safe as possible around these wonderful creatures we must understand how they think. Their instincts are what drive them and the more we learn about them, the safer we can keep ourselves and our mounts. She has enjoyed the journey of helping others down this path. Check out the Interview with a Horsewoman on the Cowgirl Yoga blog.
Autumn Benedetti
Autumn began a personal practice in grade school, and pursued a deeper understanding of yoga after moving to Bozeman, Montana in 2006. Upon completing a 200 hour teacher training and numerous workshops in and out of the country she began to teach yoga in the Bozeman area. Autumn's passion for the art and practice of yoga stems from the continued inspiration, challenge and understanding involved.
Autumn was born and raised in Montana, resulting in her enthusiasm for the outdoors. She enjoys everything from snowboarding, mountain biking, wakeboarding, rafting, and hiking with her reliable pup. Additionally Autumn enjoys cooking savory dishes, photography, dance, the turning of the seasons and traveling the world! She graduated from Montana State University with a Bachelor's degree in Health and Human Development. She spends time working with various non-profits in the community, doing outreach with domestic violence, crisis, and at risk-youth. She thrives on the spontaneity, adventure, and energy that life in Montana offers.
Jessica Cartwright
Jessica began her life with horses before she could even walk. With head CY wrangler Janice for a mom, horses have been one of the driving forces throughout her life. To this day being around a horse is still one of the most fulfilling sensations for her to experience. Another would be yoga, which came a bit later. Starting classes at age 16, she has continually worked to become more knowledgeable in her understanding of yoga, evolving her lifestyle around the practices it entails and learning in as many was as possible. Horses and yoga have now both combined to be one of her biggest passions in life.
Jessica is a student of the world, traveling abroad since age 17. While getting her degree in International Management from GA Tech, she lived and studied abroad in France, Australia, and New Zealand. Upon graduating, she moved up to Montana to join the ranks of her family and friends, glad to be in the last best place in the world. She worked making gourmet caramel, milking goats and harvesting produce on an organic farm, the most enlightening job experience of her life - knowing, understanding, and appreciating where good food comes from. Next was getting certified to teach English in Buenos Aires, followed by a year of teaching multinationals as well as teaching and volunteering for Greenpeace, Argentina. Dreams of horses and a simpler life brought her to the mountainous wine region of Cafayate, Salta, Argentina. There she worked running a local tourism agency, serving as a bi-lingual guide for horse excursions and trekking old Incan Trails.
Her combined love and passion for horses, yoga, and overall healthy well-being were calling to her in the form of Cowgirl Yoga, moving her back to Montana in June 2010. She now helps out with Cowgirl Yoga in any way she can: horses, hula hoops, cooking her favorite vegetarian meals, and yoga of course! She wants to make the place she now calls home as diverse and welcoming as possible. Which is why she also dedicates her time outside of Cowgirl Yoga to running a local non-profit, Tias y Tios, which works with Montana State University students in providing underprivileged Latino children mentoring services as well as immersion and integration into the local community. Helping others get the most out of life is her passion, in any way, shape or form. Her personal belief is that yoga is one of the most enlightening and strengthening ways to go about doing so; for this reason she is training to become a yoga instructor in 2011, hoping to increase and spread her knowledge of a more peaceful and contented lifestyle.
Turi Hetherington
Originally from Minnesota, Turi attended college at UW-Madison, with a semester spent at Fana Folkehøgskule in Norway, and graduated with a BA in Journalism and Scandinavian Studies. Although she wasn’t practicing yoga asanas daily while in Norway, Turi’s roots in the yogic lifestyle did grow deeper as she immersed herself in the language and culture of Norway making the most of the “friluftsliv” lifestyle, which characterizes the Norwegian culture. Friluftsliv translates to “open air life” and can be seen in the way Norwegians embrace nature and enjoy the outdoors as a way of life, offering the possibility of recreation, rejuvenation and restoring balance among living things.
After graduating from college Turi moved to Montana to take a little time off before entering a rat-race career in journalism, a break that turned into a permanent detour. Nearly twenty years later Turi is still enjoying the big blue sky, snow capped mountains and wildflower meadows of Montana, and the only races she enters involve running on mountain trails.
Over the years Turi’s various jobs include ski instructing and waitressing, running a local newspaper with her husband, working with a team of individuals to transform a small roadside B&B into a world-class guest ranch, and executive director of a non-profit snowsports education association. Although varied, all have given her the opportunity to share her appreciation for the abundance and beauty of nature and the Montana great outdoors.
For Turi, the informal practice of yoga is a way of life. She currently is working on the formal practice and is enrolled in training to become a certified yoga instructor.
Turi lives in Bozeman with her charming British husband and gregarious 7-year old son. She is Executive Director of PSIA-AASI Northern Rocky Mountain and is an avid runner and tele skier. You can reach her at turihetherington@gmail.com.
Kris Hill
Kris Hill is a mom, herbalist and owner of Hill Botanical, a retail herb shop in Bozeman, Montana. Hill Botanical manufactures nine organic caffeine free herbal tea blends, carries over 200 organic and ethically wild harvested bulk herbs, the highest quality essential oils, herb craft supplies, herbal and wellness reference books plus so much more.
Kris completed her herbal studies at the South West School of Botanical Medicine in 2004, as well as learning from Montana Herbalist, Robyn Klein, through her University class at Montana State University. Kris has continued her herbal education by studying Ethnobotany with Kathleen Harrison and Ethnopharmacology with Dennis McKenna through the University of Minnesota. She continues to build her herbal knowledge base by attending many conferences and lecture events as well as teaching and sharing the herbal information.
As an educator Kris has lectured at The Alberta Herb Gathering, Montana Herb Gathering, the South West School of Botanical Medicine, The Community Food Co-op, Bozeman, Museum of the Rockies, BORN Bioneers Conference, for many private and public school classes in the Bozeman area, for the Girl Scouts, at Eagle Mount Center, for the Yellowstone Institute, for the local Boy Scouts, for the Montana Native Plant Society, for Montana Conservation Corps and at the Northwest Herbal Fair.
Kris was the president of the Board of Directors (2008-11) and on the Board since 2006 for Montana Herb Gathering,a non profit and herbal educational conference held each summer in a different ecosystem of Montana.
As a writer Kris has published articles in Zone 4 Magazine, Edible Bozeman and on line for Epic Parenting.
When Kris is not busy teaching or running the shop you may find her practicing yoga, taking pleasure in gardening, or playing in and photographing the wild nature of Montana. Check out the Interview with an Herbal Girl on the Cowgirl Yoga blog.
Kate Huston
Kate Huston is the founder of Waywardraven Farms and Personal Chef Services in Bozeman, combining the growing of produce at her farm with her cooking talents. Waywardraven Farms produces gourmet lettuce mixes for the Community Food Co-Op and local restaurants, along with providing produce for several families in Gallatin County. Her personal chef business was derived from a need for locally grown, nutritious meals for people with special dietary needs. Meals are generally cooked with what's in season, using produce straight from her garden; she also outsources to other local growers and ranchers. Kate joins our Eat Pray Love Yoga & Hiking, LUXE Cowgirl Yoga, and Winter Wonderland & Wellness retreats as our private chef. We savor healthy, local gourmet meals with Kate, who also gives a talk on being a farmer, along with tips for eating sustainably. Check out the Interview with a Grower & Cook on the Cowgirl Yoga blog.
photo by Larry Stanley
Mike
In possession of perhaps the most soulful eyes ever, Mike came from Dillon, Montana. Aka FPP (Former Pound Puppy). He is one lucky dog. He spends his days guarding horsecamp and the CY ranch, alerting us to any new arrivals, checking everyone out and then enjoying all of the attention that comes his way. He's also pretty good at "gopher gettin' " and trail "clearing". And, of course he does a mean Downward Dog. He considers Ron his guru.
Photo by Lauren Brown
Ron Laden
Ron was born in Dillon, Montana to a ranching family. His first school had 10 students in attendance. Although they always had horses around, his attitude was, ride only if there is a reason to ride, never for pleasure. At Montana State University in Bozeman, he received his degree in Ag Business.
When Janice met Ron he was horseless. imagine that! He made the statement, "No women with horses." Well...that sure changed. Now, as the lone Cowboy at Cowgirl Yoga (besides Mike), he's an integral part of our CY retreats, adding a balancing Y chromosome to all of those Xs running/riding around. (Not to mention his yummy homemade biscuits and that great smile.) Ron has also entered the world of horse ownership by partnering up with RC. Now...he gets it...this horse thing. Lucky for us! And we're working on the yoga thing.
Photo by Lauren Brown
Larry Stanley
Larry has taken photos for Big Sky Yoga Retreats since Margaret first called him and asked him if he might be game to try shooting yoga and horses. He also runs a wedding photography business called Montana Wedding Photographer, although we have taken to calling him "Montana Yoga Photographer". Larry takes outdoor "glam shots" on our Cowgirl Yoga retreats, to capture the experience for our retreaters. He completed Engineering studies at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and Photography studies at The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
In Larry's words:“Through a circuitous route of living, studies and travel in Missouri, Colorado, California, Hawaii, Australia, the Philippines, China and Tibet, I have made my home in Livingston, Montana; constantly in search of 'beauty... as it occurs naturally'. This phrase defines my view as a professional photographer and as a human being. Seeing and capturing the naturally arising moments of life with my camera has become more than just a profession, it’s my way of life.”
“There are special moments in life that we see daily, often during the most pressed issues of our practical lives, as well as during a lifetime event such as a wedding (or yoga retreat!). They are fleeting yet poignant. They are meaningful yet illusive. They are my life breath. I take refuge in them.”
Photo credit: MARGARET BURNS VAP!