Connect with your Self through Nature, with the wisdom of the horse
How Do Horses Help?
"Working with horses in this way is gentle, inspirational, deeply profound and a life-changing approach to personal and professional development. The horse is perhaps the wisest teacher I have ever known...." so said one of the participants in our workshops.
As prey animals horses have finely tuned instincts and have the ability to pick up on, and reflect, our innermost feelings and emotions. They give this feedback to us generously, immediately, directly and without judgement. In equine assisted therapy and learning they respond to the person we really are, not the one which we present to the world, and help us to be authentic and honest, firstly with ourselves and then with others. They don’t care what we look, sound like, how we dress or what our status is.
For horses it is very important for them to feel safe around us, and the more congruent we are (ie we understand, own and act upon our real feelings) the safer they feel. Thus they can guide us towards an understanding of our true self.
Horses help us to connect with our self in the present moment, to increase our sense of our “whole being” – ie mind, body and spirit as one. So working with them in equine assisted therapy can help us relax and reduce anxiety, relate to others, and also to let go of what is past.
Often the horses reflect the behavioural patterns which we have established in our interactions with others and this enables us to build metaphors to understand our situation and how we need to be in order to change it. By working experientially with the horses and mostly non-verbally we are able to have a strong felt-sense which helps us to embody any change we make.
“The boy had not mentioned the death of his father at all during the four sessions he had had with the horse. Yet as he sat on the bench, after they had finished playing, with the horse beside him accepting the loving strokes and scratches, there was undoubtedly the most meaningful conversation taking place between their hearts” Pam writing about an equine assisted therapy session.
