Equine therapy: what is it and what is it for?

Equine therapy is a therapy with animals that helps many people overcome difficult personal situations or improve certain physical problems. It is not a new therapy: the father of Western medicine and great inspirer of naturopathic medicine, the Greek Hippocrates, recommended “the healthy trot of the horse” to the soldiers who returned wounded and traumatized from the wars. Over the years, it has been studied how the relationship with a horse can improve the mental and physical health of people.

Equine therapy: what is it for?

The horse’s hypersensitivity allows it to help people. Equine therapy serves:

To treat people with physical or mental disabilities.To rehabilitate criminals.To escape addictions.As a method of personal growth.

In the 17th century, some doctors used horse riding to combat gout and In 1875, the French neurologist Chassiagnac discovered that a horse in motion improves balance, joint movement, and muscle control. from the patients.

This physical focus grew in England, France and Germany from 1950 and is the one that predominates today. However has as much or more to offer on the psychic level because the patient has to build his relationship with the horse.

has to behave in the proper way to earn their trust and respect. Has to learn to pick up on their subtle messageswhich will help you to do it with other people, and you should also Control your words, gestures and behaviors. If you do, the horse responds with its friendship.

Somehow the animal offers itself as a mirror that reflects virtues or deficiencies and thus helps us to grow.

People with cerebral palsy, schizophrenia, drug dependency or relationship problems They can receive a lot of love from the horse, and more importantly, they learn to give it in return. Surely for this reason the equine therapy achieves such amazing results.

The discovery of the sensitivity of the horse has led to its being treated, when it is sick, as a complex and evolved being. Horse responds incredibly well to homeopathic treatment, Bach flower remedies and acupuncture, which in China has always been administered.

Dr. Ramón Roselló, a regular collaborator of Cuerpomente, he found out one morning that hisyour horse was suffering from acute abdominal syndrome that kept him lying down and groaning in pain.

I call Marita Casasola, acupuncturist specializing in animals, who indicated the points that he had to treat and Ramón, lacking needles, did it with shiatsu techniques. The improvement was immediate.

After thousands of years sharing life, people and horses can finally take care of each other and grow together. Perhaps the last step in the relationship will take place when the human being forgets that “the horse is only for riding” (it is more than a bicycle), when I stop trying to get their obedience.

so you can enjoy what the horse can teach you, which is beyond words. You have to live it!

Equine therapy benefits

An equine therapy session produces a cA remarkable set of effects on the human being, both physical and mental.

At the muscular level

The person is exposed to swaying movements similar to those made when walking. The patient has to react to a series of stimuli produced by the horse’s trot by activating some muscles and relaxing others.

“Rocking Chair Effect”

The horse transmits to the rider’s body between 90 and 110 rhythmic impulses that stimulate equilibrium reactions and produce a pleasant sensation, which contributes to the rider’s mental and emotional well-being.

relaxing heat

The 38-39 ºC emitted by the body of the horse, an animal slightly warmer than the human being, help relax excessively stiff muscles. In handicapped. The physical effects are interesting for people with any physical handicap.

Conflict resolution

On the psychic level, riding helps to overcome isolation. It favors overcoming fears, increases confidence and the ability to concentrate, and dispels tensions and emotional inhibitions.

before the horse emotions can be expressed and received that have caused or are still causing conflict with people.

Communication

People and children with verbal communication difficulties can get along well with horses.. Autistics have great difficulty communicating but get on quickly with horses because they use similar sign language.

general improvement

The horse returns the smile to depressed patients stimulates the social character of the shy people, promotes impulse control violent, lowers blood pressure and relaxes to very nervous people.

Know and respect the nature of the horse

Over the past two million years, the horse has survived in perfect harmony with nature without the need of man. He has known how to find pastures of good grass, clean water in crystalline streams and places to take shelter.

Only a few thousand years ago, perhaps ten thousand, that man began to tame them and use them for work or to move around, and for other more violent activities such as war or hunting. And, despite having received very harsh treatment, horses, with their exceptional energy, have always responded to man’s demands.

Whether by nature or for social reasons, in many cultures powerful men have tended to prevail over the weak. It is not strange that the human being has wanted to obtain by force the obedience of the horsewhich after all has received treatment similar to that sometimes suffered by women and children.

But at the same time, there have always been men who they have recognized the nobility, loyalty and even wisdom of the horse. The qualities of the animal, which could not be erased by domestication, have allowed the human being to overcome the relationship of mere utility with it.

Until the 1960s he fulfilled his obligations in the field and in transport. After, motor vehicles, whose power is still measured in “horses”, replaced them.

In 1865 there were about 675,000 horses in Spain. In 1980 only 248,000 remained. The pessimists already saw the horse in the zoo. But in 1990 the census counted 260,000 specimens. It seems clear that we are witnessing a rebirth of the horse, and what is better, a transformation of its bond with the human being.

Of course, domination and exploitation continue, even if it is now for sports or leisure purposes, but there are also many people trying to relate to horses in a different waysurely because they want to live, in general, in greater harmony with nature.

The movie The Man Who Whispered to Horses (Robert Redford, 1998) made this topic reach the general publicinspired by the authentic experiences narrated in the works of Monty Roberts (published by Ed. Tutor).

Tom Booker Heals violent behavior problems in a horse through understanding and gentle methods. that he had suffered an accident. That film helped many people see horses in a different way and above all He revealed another way to treat them.

the people they know the art of whispering, Indian dressage or natural dressage, are currently in high demandboth in the world of competition and among fans who have problems with their horses or want to relate to them in a more “human” or, why not, more “equine” way.

At the same time, equine therapy centers offering care for people with disabilities or following social rehabilitation programs have multiplied.

The essence of the change is that now psychology, the soul of the horse, is taken into account. Between us this rapprochement is carried out from the science of ethology, which studies the behavior of animalsbut other cultures did it from observation and intuition.

The essential psychological characteristic of the horse is that it is peaceful. To protect himself from danger he flees, does not face. That is why in the wild it lives in herds whose members remain alert to any sign of threat captured by one of their companions. Besides the pack has a leader, which is not the strongest and most violent horse, but an experienced and serene mare.

Another feature is that the horse needs to feel safe and for this it requires open space, to flee if necessary or at least see a way out.

When these data were not known or were neglected a wild horse was hunted with a lasso and then trained by coercion, shouting and physical punishment. Later he remained locked up in a narrow stable because it was the most practical and economical.

Since the horse does not react well when you try to control it, the consequence is a relationship of mistrust and psychological imbalances in the animal, and in the tamer who doesn’t quite get what he wants.

On the other hand, whoever knows what the horse’s soul is like would prefer to do as Cherokee IndianswhatAnd they followed the wild herds for dayswithout burdening them too much, and suddenly turned back to their camps. The horses followed and they entered the fences that they had prepared for them. This happened because horses respond to that kind of pressure with counter-pressure.

Also they started riding in the water, where the horse learned to support the rider without resisting and without being punished, and perhaps the latter felt safer in the event of a fall.

So it turns out that these Indians did not resort to violence, they respected the need for the horse to be with others of their kind and to adapt to new situations at their own pace.

How to interact with a horse

The good relationship between horse and people begins from the day of birth of the foal The caretaker caresses and massages him so that he begins to assimilate the type of contact he will have with human beings.

Between horses contact is very importantespecially among the foals, because they are constantly playing and touching each other.

They love caressesbut they have to be done with the whole palm and pressing a little, because if we caress them like a dog or a cat we will make them tickling that they dislike. At the same time the caregiver also enjoys the contacta pleasure that people deprive themselves too often.

The secret to teaching your horse things and becoming friendly with it is knowing its language. It is a very communicative animal, with a highly developed social capacity.

Has a code of gestures to understand each other with the other members of the pack and the human being can use it to listen to him first and speak to him later.

For example, If the horse directs its ears forward, it is open to the proposals of the caretaker.; if he crushes them back, he doesn’t like the situation at all.

If man and horse come to understand each other, this animal is endowed with such sensitivity that it can capture the intentions of the human friend that he carries on his rump through a slight movement of the legs, of a certain inclination of the body or even your…