How horses break down our barriers

Lifestyle –  Judy Murphy meets the women behind Horse Connect which offers a range of unique equine therapy services

A large paddock on a farm to the west of Galway City occupied by just a horse and pony might not seem like an obvious place to learn more about human behaviour. Nor does it initially look like a place that might help children and adults with physical, sensory and intellectual disabilities.

But this yard is home to a new business called Horse Connect Enterprises, which offers a range of training and therapy services, based around horses and humans working together to break down barriers and change people’s behavioural patterns

Eileen Bennett and Mary Mitchell of the organisation explain that the services offered depend on clients’ need. They include Therapeutic Riding, Equine Assisted Learning and Equine Assisted Therapy.

But before the interview proper begins, the women invite me to join the horse and pony in the paddock. Cue a brief lesson into Equine Assisted Training.

A little grey-white pony called Polly has her head over the gate as we approach, consumed with curiosity about the stranger – me. The other creature, an elegant bay mare, pays little attention.

We enter. Acting as though I were a client, Mary and Eileen suggest that I select the animal I want to engage with and approach it. I head towards the bay. She has no interest in me. Polly, however, does nuzzling and playfully pushing her head into my hand.

Eventually, too, she moves off, but we remain inside the paddock.

A few minutes later, there’s drama. The bay mare has become curious and moves closer. The minute she does, Polly goes ballistic, neighing and head-tossing and kicking her heels to beat the band.

We stand and watch as the animals repeat this pattern of behaviour several times.

Eventually Eileen turns to me, and asks, ‘what do you think was happening there?’ I offer my impressions and she nods.

In a short few minutes, Eileen and Mary have observed how I reacted when I was rejected by my chosen animal while being pursued by the animal I didn’t want. By asking for my opinion, they are encouraging me to draw my own conclusions about the incident.

Meanwhile, the rivalry between the horse and pony as to which is dominant offers a metaphor for the way humans behave towards each other.

After that brief experience, we humans leave the arena, but had it been a real training session, I would have had further exercises with the horses to provide even more insight into human behaviour, according to Mary and Eileen.

Both are passionate horsewomen and both have first-hand experience of how horses can benefit humans.

“Horses respond with unique insight into who we are in the moment. They are profoundly gifted reflectors of our true selves because their very survival depends on reading us right. Horses know when we’re grounded, focused and real.

“And they know immediately when we’re not – even if we don’t know it ourselves. Also, the horse never sees a person with a problem, challenge or issue. The horse only sees a person,” they say.

Mary is a riding instructor and the mother of a teenage daughter with special needs. To help her daughter, Mary trained as a Special Needs Assistant some years ago. And started integrating her new knowledge with her equine work – her daughter loves horses and is now a Special Olympic rider.

Mary then got an opportunity to train in Therapeutic Horse-riding, via the Connemara Pony Breeders Society, Forum Connemara and Paving the Way (a support group for people with disabilities).  Therapeutic Horse-riding used for children and adults with a variety of physical, cognitive, emotional and developmental disabilities. This was the beginning of Mary’s journey to co-establishing Moycullen-based Horse Connect.

For Eileen, the realisation that horses could help people with a range of problems went back even further.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.