--- title: "Putting Myself Out There: My First Conference Speaking Engagement" description: Join me as I navigate my first conference speaking engagement, sharing my No Wrong Answers methodology on ethical decision-making in equine rescue. image: https://tiffanyring.net/hubfs/NWASpeakerHHCConf.jpg --- [![TR Logo 2025](https://tiffanyring.net/hubfs/TR%20Logo%202025.svg "TR Logo 2025")](https://www.plumandprairie.com) [![TR Logo 2025](https://tiffanyring.net/hubfs/T%20(1).svg "TR Logo 2025")](https://tiffanyring.net) [Follow us on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/TiffanyRingStoriesStrategySoul) [Follow us on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/tiffanyringnet/) [Follow us on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com) search ## [![TR Logo 2025](https://tiffanyring.net/hubfs/TR%20Logo%202025.svg "TR Logo 2025")](https://www.plumandprairie.com) [Follow us on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/TiffanyRingStoriesStrategySoul) [Follow us on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/tiffanyringnet/) [Follow us on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com) [✕](https://tiffanyring.net/stories/putting-myself-out-there-my-first-conference-speaking-engagement#atbs-offcanvas-primary) - [Equine Rescue & Ethics](https://tiffanyring.net/stories/tag/equine-rescue-ethics) - [Legacy & Lineage](https://tiffanyring.net/stories/tag/legacy-lineage) - [Grief & Growth](https://tiffanyring.net/stories/tag/grief-growth) - [Home Page](https://tiffanyring.net) ![](https://tiffanyring.net/hubfs/NWASpeakerHHCConf.jpg) # Putting Myself Out There: My First Conference Speaking Engagement [![Tiffany Ring](https://tiffanyring.net/hubfs/mearden2%20(1).png)](https://tiffanyring.net/stories/author/tiffany-ring) Author [Tiffany Ring](https://tiffanyring.net/stories/author/tiffany-ring) - - - Share # Putting Myself Out There: My First Conference Speaking Engagement I'm speaking at the [Homes for Horses Coalition Conference](https://homesforhorses.org/conference/) this weekend, and I'm a little anxious about it. Which is strange, because I've never considered myself particularly afraid of public speaking. Throughout my career in marketing, web development, and the legal field, I've led teams, presented strategies, advocated for ideas, and explained complex issues to a variety of audiences. Through Gentle Spirit Horses Rescue, I've become quite comfortable standing in front of large crowds, talking about our horses, our work, and why it matters. Hand me a microphone and a topic I know well, and I'm generally pretty comfortable. But I've been thinking about something from my younger years that might explain why this particular speaking engagement feels different. I could stand in front of a packed gymnasium as a cheerleader without a second thought. Put me in my uniform, give me a job to do, and I was perfectly comfortable being watched by hundreds of people. But ask me to walk across that same gym in my street clothes to find a seat in the bleachers? Suddenly I was self-conscious. There's something about having a defined role that makes being in front of people easier. When I'm representing an organization, advocating for a cause, or explaining a strategy, I know exactly why I'm there. I'm focused on the message and what I'm trying to accomplish, rather than on myself. This weekend feels a little different. ## When the Ideas Are Your Own I'll be speaking at the 2026 Homes for Horses Coalition Conference in Denver, presenting *No Wrong Answers: Navigating Ethical Tension in Equine Rescue*. I'll be sharing the conference program with researchers, scientists (including an actual neuroscientist), and other leaders in equine welfare. These are people whose work I respect, and I'm genuinely excited to be part of the conversation. But this time, I'm not simply representing Gentle Spirit Horses Rescue or advocating for a particular horse. I'm introducing my developing **No Wrong Answers methodology**, using the ethical challenges of equine rescue as a way to explore how we make decisions and how we respond when other people make different ones. The methodology itself isn't limited to horse rescue. It's informed by decades of professional and personal experience with decision-making, leadership, and conflict. I've spent a lot of time thinking about why reasonable people can look at the same situation and arrive at completely different conclusions, and why those differences can sometimes lead to such intense disagreement. I've discussed these ideas in various forms over the years, but there's a difference between talking through your thoughts with colleagues or friends and standing in front of your peers to introduce a framework you've developed yourself. In the latter situation, the ideas are much more directly associated with you, and you're inviting other people to examine them, challenge them, and decide whether they have value. I think that's where some of the anxiety comes from. ## Why No Wrong Answers? Over the past several years, I've become increasingly concerned about the division within the horse rescue community. We're a group of people who generally share the same broad goal of improving the lives of horses, yet we can become fiercely divided over the decisions involved in accomplishing that goal. Should a horse with a serious medical condition undergo surgery or be euthanized? When does providing sanctuary become prolonging suffering? How many horses should a rescue accept? What responsibilities do we have to owners who can no longer care for their animals? These aren't hypothetical questions for those of us doing the work. They're decisions we make with real horses, real limitations, and real consequences. And increasingly, I've watched disagreements over those decisions become something much more personal. We see someone make a choice we wouldn't have made, disagree with it, and sometimes move quickly from questioning the decision to questioning the person's judgment, competence, ethics, or compassion. I've certainly had strong reactions to other people's decisions myself. I'm not pretending to be above any of this. But I've spent a lot of time trying to understand why we can look at the same situation, care deeply about the same animal, and arrive at completely different conclusions. The framework I've developed starts with three things: **information, resources, and values**. Information is what we know about the situation. Resources are what we have available to respond to it. Values are what we believe matters most when we're weighing our options. Two people can have access to exactly the same information and still make different decisions because they don't have the same resources. And even when their resources are similar, they may prioritize different values. It's the values that I find especially interesting, because they're often the hardest part to recognize in ourselves and others. When we hold a value deeply, it can be difficult to understand that someone else might hold a different value just as deeply. We don't necessarily see their decision as the result of a different priority. We see it as a failure to recognize something that seems obvious to us. That's often where a disagreement about a decision becomes a judgment about a person. *No Wrong Answers* isn't an argument that every possible decision is acceptable or that we should abandon accountability. There are decisions that cause unnecessary harm, and there are circumstances where intervention is warranted. But there are also situations where multiple reasonable, compassionate people can make different choices, and I think we need to get better at recognizing the difference. I want us to be able to discuss those choices, challenge each other's reasoning, and learn from one another without automatically assuming that disagreement means someone has failed ethically. The methodology is intended to help people make thoughtful decisions, but it's also about how we treat people whose decisions differ from our own. ## Nobody Was Going to Ask Me There's another part of this experience I've been thinking about, and it has less to do with horse rescue than with where I am in my own life. I've spent decades developing skills, building organizations, solving problems, and accumulating experience. Much of that work has happened behind the scenes or in service of something larger than myself. And I've started realizing that if I want to do more with what I've learned, particularly through writing, speaking, and education, I'm going to have to take some initiative. Nobody was going to knock on my door and ask whether I'd developed a methodology for navigating ethical disagreements. Nobody was going to magically recognize that I might have something useful to contribute to a larger conversation. I had to decide that my ideas were worth sharing, submit a presentation proposal, and see what happened. So I did. And it was accepted. Now I'm preparing to stand in front of a room full of people who understand the complexities of equine rescue and introduce something I've spent a great deal of time thinking about. I'm comfortable with the subject matter, and I know the experiences behind the framework. What I don't know is how it will be received. Will it resonate with people? Will it help someone approach a difficult decision differently? Will someone challenge an assumption I haven't fully examined? Will it lead to conversations I wouldn't otherwise have had? I hope so, particularly that last part, because I'm not interested in presenting No Wrong Answers as the final word on ethical decision-making. That would rather defeat the point. I want to introduce an approach, explain why I think it matters, and see what happens when other people bring their own experiences and perspectives to it. I'm looking forward to learning from those conversations, and I'm curious to see where this might lead. And I suspect that once I'm standing in front of the room with a microphone in my hand, I'll be perfectly comfortable. It's getting myself across the gym to the bleachers that's the hard part. ![Tiffany Ring](https://tiffanyring.net/hubfs/mearden2%20(1).png) [Tiffany Ring](https://tiffanyring.net/stories/author/tiffany-ring) 0 [![TR Logo 2025](https://tiffanyring.net/hubfs/TR%20Logo%202025.svg "TR Logo 2025")](https://tiffanyring.net/) - [Equine Rescue & Ethics](https://tiffanyring.net/stories/tag/equine-rescue-ethics) - [Legacy & Lineage](https://tiffanyring.net/stories/tag/legacy-lineage) - [Grief & Growth](https://tiffanyring.net/stories/tag/grief-growth) - [Home Page](https://tiffanyring.net) [Follow us on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com) [Follow us on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com) [Follow us on Twitter](https://www.twitter.com) [Follow us on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Tiffany Ring", "url" : "https://tiffanyring.net/stories/author/tiffany-ring" }, "dateModified" : "2026-10-14T15:20:39.560Z", "datePublished" : "2026-10-14T15:20:39.000Z", "headline" : "Putting Myself Out There: My First Conference Speaking Engagement", "image" : [ "https://tiffanyring.net/hubfs/NWASpeakerHHCConf.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://tiffanyring.net/stories/putting-myself-out-there-my-first-conference-speaking-engagement", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://tiffanyring.net/hubfs/TR%20Logo%202025.svg" }, "name" : "Tiffany Ring" } } ```