The Healing Power of Horses

The reins of a horse in recovery

I always thought of my horse, Zero, as a wise “old soul” with a fiery spirit. When I rode him at our first horse show, at the age of seventeen, we went through a harrowing but transformative experience together. During our warmup round, he began bucking frantically. I was instantly thrown out of the saddle, landing right in front of his thrashing hooves.

At that moment, he could easily have seriously injured or even killed me, but once he saw that I had fallen off, he halted in his tracks. He backed away from me slowly, gently peering down at me through his lashes, observing me like a piece of art.

As I watched his hooves retreat away from my body, which was sprawled out in the middle of the arena, I noticed a calm, warm look in his eyes despite his excited and wound-up state. His expression seemed remorseful, as if he knew he had overreacted in his nervous excitement and hyperactivity. As if he knew he had lost control in a split second of vulnerability.

Given my own experiences with panic attacks and my nervous energy stemming from my generalized anxiety disorder, I felt a profound sense of connection and empathy toward him. I understood (all too well) the feelings of guilt that could emerge after acting in the heat of the moment out of intense emotional lability.

When a rider looks into a horse’s eyes, they find a part of their soul. A part never thought to be found.

In the months following the incident, we made remarkable strides in our relationship, and our mutual trust increased enormously. For the rest of that spring, my riding class worked on jumping sets, known as gymnastics, without using our hands as an aid (which meant going over jumps with our hands in the air).

This exercise is important in helping to build a strong yet flexible working relationship between rider and horse. The rider must learn to trust that their horse will go over the jump and not do anything to put its dynamic duo into a dangerous situation.

To succeed in this exercise, it is important to approach the jump at a constant pace and with confidence. During these lessons, I had to work hard to keep myself grounded and keep Zero centered during the jump, given his tendency to get distracted and bow out before jumps.

Some horses will test you, some will teach you, and some will bring out the best in you.

I will be forever grateful for the relationship I formed with that magnificent four-legged being. He was crucial in helping me feel grounded and safe during a period of my life when I was struggling to manage my anxiety and stress.

Despite our slip-ups, I always felt a wondrous sense of calmness, strength, and certainty on his back — feelings that I struggled to achieve in other areas of my life. With time, I came to understand his quirky anxieties and mood fluctuations more and more deeply, as they were eerily similar to my own.

Through building a relationship with Zero, I became more effective in accepting my irrational thoughts and fears without becoming them and letting them rule my life. He taught me the importance of living in the moment and embracing life in all its wonder, beauty, and hardship.

He helped me to live up to John Wayne’s definition of courage: being scared to death but saddling up anyway.

I call my horses ‘divine mirrors’ — they reflect back the emotions you put in. If you put in love and respect and kindness and curiosity, the horse will return that. — Allan Hamilton

The research supporting the use of equine-assisted therapy, also known as therapeutic horseback riding, is limited, but all of the findings to date have been very encouraging.

One study shows that equine therapy is effective for teens experiencing depression and anxiety, which would explain why my own experiences riding Zero moved me so profoundly at that vulnerable time in my youth. Equine therapy has also been shown to reduce symptoms of social anxiety in young women, particularly when combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Researchers who conducted a study testing equine therapy for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) found it to significantly increase patients’ use of mindfulness strategies in addition to helping reduce their anxiety and PTSD symptoms.

Equine therapy has also been shown to reduce irritability and hyperactivity and improve social communication in youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The bottom line is that horses can be a very powerful antidepressant and anti-anxiety therapy for troubled souls. As the old saying goes: God made doctors to heal the body. But he made horses to help heal the soul.