Can horses really heal us? (From Daily Echo)

sally churchward heads to the stables to meet some unusual four-legged therapists

12:10pm Tuesday 15th February 2011 in Living By Sally Churchward, Senior Feature Writer

WHEN Jackie Smith was looking for help with anxiety and confidence issues she found a therapist with a difference.

Forget laying on a psychologist’s couch or sitting in a comfy armchair talking to a counsellor.

Jackie headed to stables in the Meon Valley to meet her therapist, who has four legs, a flowing mane and a fondness for carrots: he’s a horse.

Merlin is one of three horses plus a donkey used by Emma Dinnage for Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL). EFL is an alternative therapy, in which the horse plays the therapeutic role.

The person receiving the therapy may try to communicate with the horse, for instance using words and movement to encourage it to move, or may just be silent.

“EFL helps the person to address and overcome obstacles and emotional blocks and move forward in their lives with increased self-awareness and confidence,” says Emma.

“It often brings up people’s emotions very quickly, quicker than interaction with another human being would, because the person with the horse isn’t worried about what the horse thinks of them, so there’s no fear of judgement.”

Jackie had already worked with Emma with her own horse – Emma is a hands on equine and pet healer – and was delighted with the results but she was sceptical about EFL.

“I thought with your own horse you have a bond but I couldn’t see how that could transfer to horses I didn’t know,” says the former nurse from Stubbington.

“But it’s changed everything! I’m more relaxed, confident and more in the moment.”

Although there is another human involved in the therapy, Jackie felt that it was definitely the horse that was helping her.

“For me it’s the horse doing the work and Emma is a guide,” she says.

“I just wish everyone could do it. As an ex-nurse, I wish it was on the National Health Service. It would save a lot of money on pills!”

Jackie and Emma agree that lots of people don’t ‘get’ EFL. “I think it’s the same as other complementary therapies,” says Emma.

“If people don’t believe in it I don’t waste my time trying to convince them.”

Emma herself came to EFL as a result of her own experiences as a horse owner. When she found out that her beloved horse, Sky, who she’d had for 18 years, had terminal cancer she made the huge decision to sell her flower shop business in London and move back to the Meon Valley to take care of her.

During the last two years of Sky’s life she began looking into alternative therapies for animals. She spent three years training as a spiritual healer for animals and became a professional animal healer.

“I realised that for a lot of the horses I was being asked to heal, their problems were being exacerbated by what was going on for their owner.

“I thought there had to be a way of helping the owner to let go of whatever they were holding onto as a way of helping their horse to heal. That’s when I discovered EFL.”

When people heard that Emma was doing animal healing they began to bring her their own horses that they couldn’t keep.

turn to p18 “A number of people asked me to take their own horses that would otherwise have been put to sleep and a couple I bought at meat markets that were clearly going to have a much less dignified fate.

“It’s important to me that the horses aren’t perceived as victims though. I didn’t want to just rescue horses without any kind of vision behind it. Now they have a second career of being healers themselves.”

She – or rather her horses – have had around 30 EFL clients. People can have anything from a couple of sessions upwards, with some coming regularly for a month or two, depending on their needs.

“People often say ‘why horses?’. It’s because horses are prey animals (they would be eaten by predators). They’re highly sensitive and are aware of any incongruities in their environment. They sense something without seeing it, whether it’s a rabbit in the undergrowth or anger swirling in someone’s stomach while that person is putting on a smile. The horse feels what isn’t seen – it feels the energy. Unfortunately, we’ve closed our senses so much that we almost only believe what we see with our eyes whereas horses use all their senses all the time. The more you’re with them, the more you do it yourself because it’s kind of catching.”

Four-legged therapists might not be for everyone but Emma and Jackie are convinced.

“Horses react to what they feel,” says Emma. “That’s how, if we want them to, they can help us get back in touch with ourselves and live a happier and healthier life.”

• For more information, visit heartoftheherd.com, email emma@heartoftheherd.com or call 07929 406850.

Sally tries EFL:

My session began with a consultation with Emma to discuss what I was hoping to get out of the process and any issues I had.

She explained that the first EFL session usually focuses on boundary issues – horses, she said, are very aware of boundaries in a way that humans aren’t always.

After having a practice with Emma trying to tell where our own boundaries were, she left me to observe the horses and donkeys to choose which one I wanted to work with. The donkey wrote itself off straight away by trotting off into its stable to munch some straw.

I was left to choose between two rather large horses and a tiny Shetland pony.

Although I used to ride as a child, I was rather nervous about the prospect of standing next to one of the large horses for a long period so Hamish, the Shetland, it was.

The session involved me trying to sense Hamish’s boundaries and then attempting to use my energy to get him to trot round the arena in the direction I wanted.

It was quite frustrating as I couldn’t get him to go for ages and I felt very pleased with myself when I finally coaxed him into taking off.

It was hard to gauge the therapeutic value to me of one session but I certainly enjoyed working with him and had a big sense of achievement, and relief, when he moved.