Hope for “George” through Equine Assisted Therapy

As George’s sessions progressed with Midnight, he learned to use the horse’s behavioral cues to check in within himself both emotionally and physically. He began to make connections between feelings of anxiety and increases in his heartrate. As George became more self-aware, he began to connect specific thoughts and feelings.

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Meet Board Member Robin Ryan

I have been a horse lover from the first moment I knew what horses were!  I grew up in suburbia, not understanding why my parents couldn’t fit a horse in our backyard.  When I got my first job at age 16, before even buying a car, I bought a horse.  I was so certain that I would know what to do with my horse (an unbroken range mare) because I had spent my childhood reading horse stories.  All I needed to do was show it love, right?

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What Does “Natural Horsemanship” Mean?

Words get in the way. At a demo at a horse rescue, I struggled to find words to express myself to the crowd to be truly understood. I didn’t want any misunderstandings of what I was doing and why. Horses help me focus, so I relaxed into the rhythm of the horse in front of me, and spoke freely to the spectators. The terrified horse ran frantically back and forth in the round pen, crashing into the panels, trying to escape the predator who was in there with him, me. I spoke of how I listened to what the horse was saying: about me, about his past, about the horse he was born to be. I read him, breathed with him, looked into his soul. He calmed down and finally stood with his head down, licking his lips beside me. There were no words between us. I worked with him for an hour while he freely told me his story. And I listened.

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What Does it Mean to Listen?

If someone were to ask my horses the question, “What does it mean to listen?”, I’m pretty sure they would say: “Everything. It means everything.” Although horses have the ability to vocalize, their primary modes of communication are behavior, body language, touch and energy. We humans, on the other hand, tend to rely almost exclusively on spoken and written language to communicate. Because horses cannot speak or interpret our complex spoken languages, those of us who want to train and/or ride horses must learn to use body language, touch and energy to communicate with them.

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