Modern day uses for horses include policing, sport,
exhibitions ... and rehabilitating the injured and the
incarcerated. Tim Hayes has been working with horses both
on ranches and in sports centres for twenty years, and in
RIDING HOME he shares some recent experiences of how
horses
are helping troubled people.
Our first visit is to a correctional facility, where men
with records of violence have to volunteer and pass
behavioural tests before being allowed to work training
mustangs. Due to the perceived overpopulation of wild
horses and competition for grazing, the Bureau of Land
Management takes some mustangs off the range to be
adopted.
But fully grown wild horses are not rideable. So the
prisoners get the chance to gentle them and start them on
a
riding horse career. This programme uses natural methods
and shows the prisoners that the powerful horses are in
fact acting out of fear - just as they did on the streets,
if they're honest. Offenders who work through this
programme have half the usual rate of recidivism. I did
think that the inmates were self-selecting, but the main
point is that it works for both horses and inmates.
Tim Hayes then explains the way that the horse is adapted
to spot predators, and its survival mechanisms. Humans
look
like a predator species to the wise horse. Their herd
communication is mainly done by body language, especially
among mustangs rather than domestic horses, and they
establish a pecking order and groom one another.
Back to working with people, Tim observed a session where
people in need of therapy were asked to interact with calm
horses although they had never done this. Discovering
something about themselves - like being unwilling to ask
for help - and voicing it was helpful to these patients.
Autistic children are also helped by watching horses' body
language. In another session, a difficult youth is helped
to express his anger at his divorced parents by
interacting
with horses. Tim states that he has a longstanding
interest
in human psychology which makes him interested in finding
out how exactly so many people are helped by equine
partners. Horses For Heroes was the saviour of a young
woman who had been a Marine soldier and saw too many
combat
horrors. Her PTSD ruined her life for years and therapy
didn't seem to help. While the original function of this
equine therapy was envisaged to be for soldiers unable to
walk or missing limbs, the organisers realised that it was
aiding not just the physical side but the emotional side
of
these heroes.
While dogs are also helpful in therapy, dogs are
predators,
and Tim Hayes believes that the difference with horses is
partly because they are prey. People react differently to
them and receive different responses. He comes across as
an
honest person, self-aware, with a deep-seated interest in
both horses and humans. I like that RIDING HOME contains a
lengthy list of organisations which are cited in the book
or provide similar aid, therapy or other resources to
those
who may require them. This informative and helpful read
will be of benefit to many readers and of simple interest
to many more.
For thousands of years one animal has contributed to human
survival more than any other. It has been a source of
food,
a means of transportation, a provider of physical labor
and
an instrument of war. This extraordinary creature is the
horse. Throughout human history people have loved, owned
and
ridden horses. Horses fascinate us; they silently speak to
our hearts. Young and old, rich or poor we are drawn;
whether to books like The Horse Whisperer, events like The
Kentucky Derby, TV Specials like the award winning HBO
movie
Temple Grandin or movies like Steven Spielberg’s War
Horse.
Millions of people — horse owners and non-horse owners
alike
— have also discovered the amazing abilities of horses to
help us heal and recover from disabling physical and
mental
conditions such as autism and multiple sclerosis by
participating in what is known as Equine Therapy. Now
something quite extraordinary has been discovered about
the
ability of horses to help humans. Men and women afflicted
with severe emotional damage are healing and making
dramatic
recoveries by receiving the simple love, understanding and
acceptance that comes from establishing a relationship
with
a horse.
The unique message of Tim Hayes' Riding Home is two-fold.
On
an individual level it is the first and only book to
explain
why horses have this remarkable ability to heal and
positively transform emotionally wounded men and women
whether they be troubled teens, prison inmates or war
veterans with post traumatic stress disorder. On a
societal
level Riding Home offers a powerful argument for the
expansion of such equine programs that accomplish what
many
institutional organizations that utilize traditional
psychotherapy and pharmaceutical medication have often
been
unable to achieve.
To have a relationship with a horse is to discover and
know
yourself, other humans and the world with more truth and
compassion than one could dream or imagine. Horses help us
discover hidden parts of ourselves. They cause us to
become
better people, better parents, better partners and better
friends. They teach us that when we’re not getting what we
want, we’re the ones who need to change either what we’re
doing or who we’re being. A horse can be our greatest
teacher for a horse has no ego, he never lies and he’s
never
wrong.
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