[Life] My Therapist is 1000lbs and Says, "Neigh!"

“In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals; for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell man that he showed himself trough the beasts, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and the moon, should man learn.” -- Pawnee Eagle Chief Letakots-Lesa

Ever thought a horse could be a therapist?

My first experience with something similar to equine therapy was with a paint mare named "Diva," because that's what she was, a diva, and her owner, Leslie. I want to learn horsemanship and I don't own my own horse, so I had leased Diva to work with her on the ground in-between lessons with Leslie.

One day, Leslie and I were talking in our lesson and she said something about me personally that I hadn't told her. She didn't talk to anyone I knew, but I never would have told anyone this to begin with. For me, it seemed to come out of thin air (to use a cliche).

When I asked her how she knew what she did, she said, "Your horse told me."

By reading Diva's body language around me, Leslie could tell things about me that I would have hidden from anyone else.

Horses Are From Mars, People Are From Venus

I stole the title of this section from a talk given by Pat Parelli, but I think it also fits perfectly here.

This section could also be summed up by simply stating:

Horses are prey animals.
People are predators.

Now if you know anything about animals at all, you know that predators tend to chase down and eat the prey animals, right? So, in nature, one would think that humans and horses wouldn't get along. Over thousands of years, however, horses have worked side by side with humans as beasts of burden, to carry us somewhere, to help farmers plant their fields, pull carriages,,, There are a lot of things that horses have done for us.

Because of technology, horses now have become expensive pets and-or hobbies. Horsemanship is taught at a few community colleges or even high schools, but it's not a necessity anymore for people to know how to work with horses.

And times have changed. With the times, so has how we work with the horse, instead of making them work for us. We are gentler and no longer "break" the horse by tying them up and letting the ropes break their spirit.

I think nearly every horseman out there trying to sell you his books or DVDs on horsemanship would now use the term "natural horsemanship" when it comes to how we now view and communicate with these beautiful animals. We've learned how horses view us -- as predators -- and, by learning to not act like a predator, we can become partners with the horse.

However horses remain eternally vigilant. For all the breeding we've done in the last few millenia, breeding the "prey animal" out of them hasn't quite been so successful.

This is one reason horses and therapy go so well together and why equine therapy has come into being.

Is That Horse Taking Notes?

Since the early days of psychology, people have used talk therapy to discuss their problems with a (hopefully) knowledgeable and well-trained psychologist or their non-medical counterpart, therapist. I personally know people who have spent years with their therapist, not necessarily on the pictured couch, so to say, but in their offices, discussing issues and problems that have come up in their lives.

In the last few years, a new discipline of therapy has come up. It's called equine therapy, or depending on what type of therapy is actually going on, it's hippotherapy. And essentially, boiling it all down to the basics, it's using the nature of the horse to read the body language of the human to get to the core of what's needed therapeutically.

And if you're looking at this article skeptically, you don't know anything about horses. That's fine. Let me tell you why a horse can help you.

As I said above, horses are eternally vigilant. When a horse becomes afraid, he's not afraid that you might hurt him -- he's afraid that you're going to eat him. Because of this, horses are very attuned to body language.

So, the little head movement you see when you walk toward him? If he's moving away, you're putting too much pressure on him. Maybe you put too much pressure on people, too much energy for them to handle sometimes.

Your facilitator and therapist (sometimes two different people) will ask you to do things and then read the horse -- what is the horse doing when you do something? What's he not doing? Using that information and the knowledge your facilitator has regarding horses, they'll ask you questions and show you why they ask them by showing you what the horse is saying to them and helping you understand what the horse is saying as well.

Equine therapy is being used more and more to help people from special needs children to veterans suffering from PTSD to people who traditional talk therapy has failed.

Just "BE"

The one big takeaway from all this is that horses live in the moment. They're not worried about what's happened in the past or what's going to happen in the future. They're concerned with right now.

For humans, that can be a very difficult thing to do. We're constantly worried about what's going to happen -- or, if you're anything like me, what's happened in my past.

For me, this equine therapy will--hopefully--teach me that. Teach me how to be still and not have my mind going a thousand miles per second.

How could equine therapy help you?

The Equine Approach Philosophy

"We believe the horse is the true teacher and only by honoring its voice will optimum learning occur. That belief is our platform for empowering our clients in healthy relationship skills. Working from the ground up emphasizes communication over control and allows skills to develop in a non-threatening way." -- Written by Nancy Beers, PATH certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor, Equine Specialist in Mental Health and Learning, CHA Certified Riding Instructor.

* Disclaimer: I've known Nancy Beers for a long time and I do my therapy through her organization, The Equine Approach, linked above. I'm not getting paid for this link, but if you're interested in equine therapy, you can either check out her link or Google for an equine therapist near you.

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