Why Horses?

What have horses got to do with it? In previous blogs, I've explained my main role at Stable Lives is skill development. I've explained why I focus my sessions on parents. But you may still be wondering, what have horses got to do with this skill development of essential life skills? I'm so glad you asked!

Horses changed my life. Horses also changed one of my children's lives. In doing so, our whole family experience changed as well. This in turn lead me to find answers to how horses had helped us and set me on the path to studying Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) as a practice.

It can be hard to put into words what horses bring to this work and why they are so fundamental. Many people who work closely with horses, just know. They understand what horses bring to people because they have experienced it themselves. That is exactly why finding words to adequately explain it is a challenge because what horses bring is an experience, that is felt. It is also complex and multifaceted.

Firstly, as mentioned in a previous post, healthy horses embody the skills I help people to develop. So healthy horses model the skills and behaviours we want to emulate. This allows people to see them demonstrated in real time. If horses can master these life skills, surely humans can do it too!

Notice I said healthy horses embody these skills. Sometimes, horses kept by humans develop coping strategies to deal with the unnatural or harmful ways human interact with them. So horses can develop unhealthy ways of being just like humans can. Usually this happens when they are taken away from their natural way of living and forced into a lifestyle that doesn't resemble a natural, horse life. Humans have developed modern lifestyles that have taken us away from our natural ways of being too which is why I suspect, these skills have been lost or dulled in us.

Horses also have a massive electomangnetic field. I'm not a scientist so I will quote a study used by the PTSD Association of Canada.

"Horses are also likely to have what science has identified as a "coherent" heart rhythm (heart rate pattern) which explains why we may "feel better" when we are around them. . . .studies have found that a coherent heart pattern or HRV is a robust measure of well- being and consistent with emotional states of calm and joy--that is, we exhibit such patterns when we feel positive emotions."

This is part of that experience or feeling I explained before that horse people just know. But science has actually found scientific evidence and reasons why being around horses feels so good.