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The saying goes “a dog is a man’s best friend.” Dogs are loyal, loving, and trustworthy companions. But, they aren’t man’s only four legged friend. Thousands of people worldwide are finding succor for emotional, mental, physical, and behavioral handicaps on the back of a horse, according to Fox News. Equine therapy is proving helpful at alleviating a number of conditions and symptoms.
Post-pandemic horse therapy
Sabine Niederberghaus became inspired by seeing the ill-effects of Covid-19 on mental health, to start the Equine Leadership Program. Through the Equine Leadership Program, Niederberghaus uses horses to treat depression, anxiety and trauma on her Topanga Canyon, California ranch.
“I had time during the pandemic to think about what I was doing and to feel where my mission was going to be,” she told Fox News. “When this all opened back up and I was foreseeing that people were going to get stressed and they're going to get you know, existence problems, communication problems in the family.... I thought, you know what? I'm going to be helping some people and I hope I will help a lot of people to find to themselves their true inside, their emotions, their awareness, their energy levels.”
Niederberghaus is getting positive feedback from clients, who report that interacting with the horses boosts their confidence and helps them overcome challenges. "It's beautiful to see the reactions of people," Niederhaus remarks. "I think that the touch to nature is another symbol that this horse reflects that brings them to me."
Horses help people with disabilities
Horse therapy can also help people, like Roberto, with disabilities. Roberto was born with microcephaly or a smaller than usual head, ABC4 reports. At age 7, he suffered from cognitive and physical handicaps. His mother described that these were worsening, and Roberto also had up to 30 seizures per day. Desperate, Roberto’s mother turned to an unusual therapy; equine therapy.
The Courage Reins organization offered a special saddle that would keep Roberto from falling if he let go of the straps or had a seizure. Then, they put him on a horse. To Roberto’s mother’s surprise the equine therapy was a complete success. Roberto’s number of seizures decreased and he was able to hang on, stay alert, and control the horse on his own.Horse therapy has also helped children and adults on the autism spectrum.
Horses help with PTSD
What happens to racehorses after they retire? And what happens to soldiers after they return to civilian life? In some cases, both groups adjust together to a new lifestyle. ABC.net reports on the Thoroughbred and Veteran Welfare Alliance, a program that empowers veterans with PTSD to retrain retired racehorses.
Scott Brodie, retired mounted police officer told ABC: “The main problems for ex-racehorses when they come off the track are not that different to the PTSD suffered by some of the soldiers…When they come out of the service they can no longer walk out onto the street and just be normal people because they've been highly trained, they're over-alert, angry, aggressive and struggle with real life, so they just fall in a screaming heap.”
The program is so successful that a documentary, called The Healing, was made about veterans who return suffering from PTSD.
Max Streeter, an Australian veteran who participated in the program, and received a new lease on life told The Sunday Morning Herald . “These horses come off the track and no one wants to know them, and veterans come back to Australia and no one wants to know them.”
Streeter credits the retraining program in helping him regain a sense of identity, according to Sunday Morning Herald.. He says he lost his identity after the war and, after participating in the program, regained a new identity as a horseman and that equine therapy helped him defeat recurrent nightmares.
“So when you are working the horse, you are learning to control another animal, and at the same time you are getting control over yourself, something you lose through PTSD,” Streeter explains. “You forget about you, and your problems in this world, and you are immediately focused on what you are doing. You can call it gestalt, you are in the moment.”
There are many different types of therapy that can be beneficial for treating a variety of conditions, but horse therapy is definitely one of the most unique and effective. Horse therapy has been shown to have amazing results in treating physical, mental, and cognitive conditions. Streeter, Roberto, and many others, can attest to the power of getting back in the saddle.
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