RIDER HEALTH & WELFARE
WORKING WITH HORSES...
acknowledge negative or painful emotions, look at them for what they are, and release them. Then you are back with your horse in a positive space.
...AND THE MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS By Emma Hutchison, co-founder of HorseBack UK
W
e all know that horses are amazing creatures, and we all have our reasons for loving them. If you were asked your own reason, you may not put at the top of your list that they are sensitive and communicative and can help us create new emotional responses. But they are and they can. What is more, there are many ways that working with horses can help humans with their mental health. One of the most common mental health problems is acute anxiety. Worry lives in the future; it feeds off the disaster scenarios of what might happen. To connect with a horse and reassure a horse, you need to anchor yourself in the present moment. As you do this, you can’t start running those familiar catastrophes in your head: you are here, now, with this living creature in front of you, with your feet planted in the good earth.
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Being still Horses adore stillness. Humans who work well with horses become very conscious of their own bodies; the body language, the way the body feels, how they hold themselves. The horse sees all this and reads it, as if it were a billboard in Piccadilly Circus - which is why awareness of your body and aiming for a position of stillness and calm is so important. Again, practicing this helps to create the habit and makes it easier to draw on this stillness when needed. Dealing with emotions Working horses well also teaches you about being aware of emotions. Horses are prey animals, so they have evolved over millions of years to sense emotion and intention from
half a league away. If you bring unresolved anger or frustration or fear to the field, the horses feel it like they feel a storm coming. So, we have to learn to be aware of our emotions, to give them a name, and to process them. For example, anger is never useful with a horse; a furious human will result in a nervous and defensive horse. If you want to connect with a horse, you have to let the anger go. Anger has no place in that relationship. Again, this becomes a mental habit, and the more you practice, the more you can
Mind-body connection Since the mind and the body are closely connected, learning to be aware of your body can provide considerable help when dealing with troubles in the mind. A lot of difficult emotions get stuck in the body; tension in the shoulder, fear in the stomach, anxiety pressing on the head. Before working with a horse, take a body audit, and make sure everything is relaxed, so that positive energy can move through your body and transmit itself to the horse. This is beneficial for both horse and human and means we (both) start in the right state. Awareness The basic foundation of working with horses is awareness. If you learn to be aware of your mind and the stories it is telling you, your emotions and what they are saying, and your body and how it is reacting to those stories and feelings, then you’ve got a head start in working well with a horse - and looking after your own mental health.
