About
Carmel Joy Baird
Faith – Family – Horses – Life Lessons
Sharing what I’ve learned so you can walk in your own clarity.
Meet Carmel
A life that has taken a few unexpected turns…
If you had told the younger version of me where my life would eventually take me, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.
I’ve been a wife, a mother of six amazing children, a grandmother (aka Nanna), an entrepreneur, an author, a once television personality, a spiritual teacher, and also part of a family building an extraordinary life around horses at River Lane Ranch.
But none of those titles, on their own, tell my story.
My life has been a journey of walking through difficult things, searching for answers, discovering parts of myself I didn’t understand, building a very public career around those discoveries, and eventually having the courage to allow my beliefs, priorities, and life to evolve again.
This is the story of where I started, where life took me, and where I am today.
Where it started
My story didn’t begin with television, books, intuition, horses, or anything remotely glamorous.
I grew up in a home affected by abuse, addiction, and circumstances that shaped much of my early life.
By adulthood, anxiety and panic had become familiar companions. I often felt overwhelmed by the world around me and couldn’t understand why I experienced things as intensely as I did.
I searched for answers in the places most of us would….doctors, counselling, medication and trying desperately to simply get on with life.
But I still felt as though there was a piece of the puzzle I hadn’t found.
Eventually, that search led me somewhere I never expected.
A Completely Unexpected Chapter
In my late 30s, I began exploring experiences and sensitivities I had spent much of my life trying to explain away. I had suffered many years of my life with extreme panic and anxiety disorder.
That exploration eventually led me into discovering spiritual mediumship.
What started quietly became a path I never could have planned.
For more than a decade, I worked with people from around the world, particularly those navigating grief and loss. I witnessed incredibly emotional moments and heard thousands of stories from people walking through some of the hardest days of their lives.
That chapter eventually took me onto stages, into a publishing relationship with Hay House, and onto television through two seasons of show called Mom’s a Medium.
It became a huge part of my life.
And for a long time, I believed it was where I would stay.
It wasn’t.
When Life Evolves
One of the greatest lessons my life has taught me is that we don’t have to remain who we were simply because other people became familiar with that version of us.
My beliefs evolved.
My faith deepened.
My priorities changed.
And slowly, I began questioning what I wanted the next chapter of my life to look like. That didn’t require me to erase everything that came before it.
Those years were part of my story. They introduced me to extraordinary people, taught me about grief, humanity, compassion and connection, and ultimately helped shape the woman I became today.
But eventually I knew it was time to allow my life to become something different.
Coming Home
More and more, my world began returning to the things that had always mattered most to me:
God. Family. Home. Horses. Nature.
Today, much of that life unfolds at River Lane Ranch, just outside Edmonton, Alberta.
My husband Dave and I have built a life here surrounded by our six children, eight grandchildren, horses, dogs and a family that, like every family…has experienced its share of beautiful moments, difficult seasons, change, laughter, disagreements, celebrations and growth.
The ranch has become far more than the place where we live.
Horses, in many ways, have always been part of my story.
My father was a horseman, and his father before him was a horseman and so on. My mother had a deep love for horses, and I grew up with that same connection woven into me. No matter where life took me or what chapter I found myself in, I was always drawn back to horses.
There is something about them that is difficult to put into words. They have a way of quieting the noise, grounding us in the present, and reaching places in us that sometimes people simply can’t. Long before I understood it, I felt the incredible healing that can happen just by being in their presence.
Looking back now, it feels almost inevitable that after all the unexpected places my life took me, horses would eventually become such a meaningful part of where I am now.
And that brings me to my ranch ….River Lane Ranch.
Our Gypsy Cob horses have brought people from around the world through our gates, and I’ve watched people arrive thinking they’re coming to see horses and leave having experienced something much harder to describe.
Maybe that’s one thing that hasn’t changed about me.
I’ve always been fascinated by connection…between people, within families, with God, with animals and with ourselves.
I’ve simply learned that connection can take many different forms.
But eventually I knew it was time to allow my life to become something different.
Where I Am Today
I don’t feel a need to put a title beside my name anymore.
I’m Carmel.
A wife. A mom. A grandmother. A woman of faith.
Someone who has lived several very different chapters in one lifetime and knows there will probably be more.
I still believe deeply in intuition, discernment and paying attention to what is placed on our hearts.
But today, I’m less interested in having all the answers and much more interested in living a life aligned in the moment with what matters to me the most.
My family. My faith. The ranch. The horses.
And being willing to follow where God leads next.
I don’t regret the chapters that came before this one.
They are part of me.
That’s why I’ve chosen to leave this story here…
Because if you’ve known me from another chapter of my life, or you’ve simply stumbled across my name and wondered, Where is she now?—this is where you’ll find me.
Still growing. Still learning. Still becoming.
And very grateful for the road that brought me here.
Carmel, Xo ❤️
