A Horse to Heal (Horses Used As Therapy)

San Martin - Atop Rocky there’s no couch, no tissues, no stern Jungian waiting for my life story and nothing to hang on to.

Martha McNiel has me recite the alphabet, a trick - she calls it a technique - to get me to breathe. She asks about my favorite nursery rhyme, and tells me to sing my favorite song.

“Reach forward and tug on his ears, hug him, tell him he’s a good boy,” McNiel says. “You’re a good boy, Rocky!”

I do. Rocky, a stout pony with a shaggy blond mane, is a good boy. Even though I probably weigh too much for him, he’s not going to drop me.

I begin to relax and so does Rocky. He lets out a breath that sounds like’s he’s flapping his lips. Plbblbbllllbbb.

“Did you hear that?” McNiel asks. “He’s relaxed. When you relax, he relaxes.”

Then it’s time to go. My first ride on a horse, and my first therapy session at DreamPower Horsemanship, in the role of a 10-year-old Romanian adopted from my homeland when I was five.

I’m suffering from reactive attachment disorder, a common problem with adopted children. I don’t want to be close to anyone, least of all my new parents.

So McNiel puts me on a horse in her office in San Martin - if a riding arena at Taylor Made Farms can be called an office.

A true believer in the healing power of horses, McNiel is pioneering the field of equine-assisted psychotherapy. Whether it’s children with severe emotional problems, former gang members or adults with relationship troubles, McNiel, a licensed marriage and family therapist, helps them on horseback.

“Instead of going into your therapist’s office and sitting in a chair and looking at each other, we do the same thing in a more experiential way,” McNiel said recently. “There are a lot of programs that use animals to assist in therapy. The interesting thing about a horse is that people recreate their human relationships.”

McNiel says grief, depression, anxiety, abuse and nearly every other psychological ailment and disorder can be treated as effectively on a saddle as on a couch. In a single day last week, she and her staff worked with a 7-year-old autistic girl learning motor skills, a 57-year-old woman taking confident rider classes, an 80-year-old retarded man who dreams up growing up to be a cowboy and a handful of teens with a variety of serious emotional and mental problems.

“We work with a lot of teenagers,” McNiel said. “Some we work with are from court-ordered drug treatment programs, gang members, kids with a violent past. Some are referred by teachers and some come from other therapists. Often, they’ve tried other kinds of psychotherapy and it hasn’t worked.”

McNiel, who’s been a therapist since 1993, created DreamPower in 2002. She was inspired to start the program, she said, by Sept. 11. At the time, she was commuting from the North Bay to her practice in San Francisco.

“I really expected that the Golden Gate Bridge was the next thing that was going to be blown up,” McNiel said of the day the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked. “I really feel like I was placed on this earth by God to have an equine-facilitated therapy program. I decided that if I was going to be blown up I didn’t want to go to heaven and never get around to doing the thing I was sent here to do.”

So inspired, McNiel became certified with the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association and moved to San Martin. DreamPower is one of five NARHA-certified programs in California and one of just two where therapists work primarily with mental health patients. NARHA representative Ainslie Kraeck called McNiel one of the leaders of her field.

“She’s absolutely wonderful,” Kraeck said. “She has a lot of training and experience and is very willing to help people coming up who are interested in the field.”

McNiel relies on a volunteer staff, all of whom are certified equine therapists or interns working toward certification. Jessica Pinto, who grew up in Mill Valley, began working at DreamPower just a few weeks ago.

“Working with these kids in incredible,” she said in a break between lessons this week. “First of all they’re teenage boys, who are hard to reach anyway, and you see them down on their knees talking baby talk to the minis. One kid chose the puniest mini to be his horse and said he did it because all the other horses ganged up on him, and that’s how he felt. They open up without realizing it.”

Those small steps, the connection with an animal, the ability to talk about their past or their feelings, is how progress is measured at DreamPower, Pinto said. “Those little things are why we’re all here. Everything here is in baby steps and small successes. If you can’t focus on small successes, it’s overwhelming.”

For Jakki, a 7-year-old autistic girl, the small success is that she’s now brave enough to let go of the reins and raise her arms as her therapists lead her horse in circles. In just a few weeks, she’s gained balance and motor control. She’s having fun on the horse.

“Her mom’s biggest goal is for her to have balance,” said Garry Stauber, who volunteers dozens of hours a week at DreamPower and leads its board of directors. “Sometimes our goals are different. We also want to build confidence so later in life she’ll be comfortable on a horse.”

Stauber also works with Marsha Larson, a 57-year-old San Jose woman who’d been riding for 17 years, but lost her confidence after a series of falls from her Arab, Spark. Larson still loves to ride, but she’s terrified of falling.

“I love horses and they are my passion, but it’s not natural for me “ she said. “They are very sensitive to my fear. I get fearful, I clinch up, I lose my balance and I lose my seat.”

Stauber said that Larson has no “kinetic awareness.” When she closes her eyes she loses track of her relationship to her surroundings. He has her riding T.C., a 21-year-old quarter horse known for being “too cool.” He’s the right horse for Larson because he’s calm and predictable, and will help her be comfortable.

“All of our clients come here with a dream,” Stauber said. “It’s our desire to make those dreams come true, no matter what they are.”

The kids who attend DreamPower must complete an eight-week course with miniature horses before they can ride a full-size horse. And before they can ride, they have to learn to groom, lead and halter.

“What I want to know is that they can control their temper and follow directions,” McNiel said. “In three years, I’ve only asked two kids to leave and they were kids who threatened to hurt the horses. We work with risky kids, kids many places wouldn’t take, but have to be very bad [to leave the program].”

People give themselves way with horses, McNiel said. Teenagers with a rough and tumble background tend to be rough with the horses. Kids with a poor self-image are afraid of even the minis. Adults act with horses the way they do with people.

“If you are very passive and allow yourself to be walked over by the other people,” a horse will do the same, McNiel said. “Horses will swing their head and bump into you, step on your feet, push you of the way. Many times women will not set proper boundaries. We work with them to identify proper boundaries and have the horse respect those boundaries.”

Relationships and they’re assorted dangers are under constant discussion at DreamPower. Patients have many problems in common, but none more so than an inability to form a proper, trusting relationship of any kind. DreamPower is set apart not just by the horses, but by an atmosphere that encourages patients to bond with their instructors.

“The needs of these kids are so complex, we need to know the whole person,” McNiel said. “We want the kids to get attached to the horses, and if they happen to get attached to us, that’s OK. We want them to care for an animal and develop a relationship with an animal that’s a really safe relationship.”

In my case, back in the role of a 10-year-old boy rebelling against my adoptive parents, Rocky is helping me learn to trust my mother.

McNiel tells me again to sing. I’m quiet because I’m embarrassed, and worried that I‘ll give something away if I sing the first words that pop into my head. Now I’m nervous and feeling vulnerable.

McNiel rescues me by singing “Row Row Row Your Boat” with me until she’s sure I’m comfortable, and leads me around the arena as I learn to give Rocky basic commands: “walk on” and “whoa!”

Then, at McNiel’s direction, I spin around and sit facing out over Rocky’s tail while my “mother” leads the horse.

With a spotter beside me in case I start to slide, my mother leads me safely around the arena. I stretch out and scratch Rocky on the rump and tell him he’s a good boy. I lean forward and hug his behind. He exhales.

Justine gives Chester a kiss on the nose after a short run.

Jessica Pinto leads Felicia as she rides T.C.

Garry Stauber and Jessica Pinto guide horses for Emeri, left, and Felicia as they practice a balance exercise.

Justine rides at Taylor Made Farms in San Martin.

Theraputic riding is third party and medicaid billable at least for the disabled. It is a big business. We have centers springing up like weeds.

Our adopted daughter had "factors" of reactive attachment disorder. When she was about 8 she started taking horse back riding lessions. When she was 15, we bought her a horse. She's amazing with animals. They absolutely worship her. It was one of those very expensive therapy things we did which at the time didn't seem to be making a huge difference but which I believe in the long run, kept her from, at the age of 24, being a junky and a prostitute. She a hard working wife and mother... still with a lot of issues but of so much better.

This is really cool. My daughter doesn't have any difficulties, but she is crazy about horses. We can't afford one, but this farm near us needs volunteers. She volunteers there in order to be near the horses. It's a win-win opportunity.

I have seen this therapy work wonders with behavior disordered kids and IMO is money well spent. Back in my case management days I saw kids open up and respond to the horses yet be totally unresponsive to people. The kids on my caseload that took the lessons had severe mental illness issues. For the physically disabled kids there's also a physical therapy effect because of the physical requirements just to stay on the horse. Those muscles get worked out.

If you are truly interested I am sure there would be some information online to help you out. There would be more than a monetary payoff too.

I must admit that although I do ride horses for therapy, it is only for relief of stress of everyday life.

Plus there was a desire to help pay for the feed and care needed for the horses I already own.

I volunteered to do this in the eighties at Therapeutic Riding of Tucson. It was a miracle a minute and supplied many good memories. The horses really did know the difference between disabled kids and able adults and made it quite clear to us able adults. I encourage everyone to volunteer at a place like this.

10 posted on 11/08/2005 5:42:36 AM PST by badpacifist ( Numbers 22 :27-31 If your ass won't move there may be an angel in the way)

Sadly, there is no one way to help individual with psychiatric, physical limitations or mental disabilities, autism, etc., etc. People are just too complex, and continually medicating into insensibility is IMO a crime of avoidance.

If this works for some, I'm all for it. Might even try it myself.

My horses feel insulted by that---

And well they should, because horses (the four-legged variety) are beautiful!

My sister bought a mini pony and donated to the abilities center near where she lives. She met up with them after she had a below the knee amputation. It is a really great thing and she loves the faces of the children on the ponies.

Did she ever read the book, Horse Whisperer?

It is about a horse-loving girl who loses her leg in an accident. And her horse, who was also injured, becomes part of her therapy.

Don't know if she ever read it. She bought her horses after accident and they were definitely therapy for her.

It might make a good Christmas present for her.

Don't bother with the DVD. It was not one of Robert Redford's best efforts.

It is a big business.

There is a center in our area. After moving to at least 6 different stables,in the last 10 years, including the joint vocational school, they are building their own facility. On donated land of course. From walk-a-thons, raffles, dinners...these people are always begging for money, supplies and volunteers. They drive a Mercedes btw.

Granted, there will be always be abuse on government funded "for the children" programs.

I must admit that although I do ride horses for therapy, it is only for relief of stress of everyday life.

I think it was Teddy Roosevelt who said, "The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man."

There's nothing wrong with wanting to make your hobby pay for itself. The thing is there is an added bonus in the fact that part of the reward is intrinsic. Money can't buy the smile and joy on a disabled kid's face when they are successful at something physical. It's also amazing watching the horse instinctively know the difference between the abilities of the kids and the trainers. They just know.

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