Horses That Heal

The use of horses in warfare is as old as time, with images from the battle scenes of movies like Braveheart burned into our memory and equestrian statues of famous men, like Marcus Aurelius and Teddy Roosevelt, standing as lasting remembrances of their military conquests. But in recent years, horses have been trained for a different purpose, to help heal those who have fought in combat from emotional wounds like PTSD, depression, and anxiety. 

Equine Therapy for the Wounded

Manorville, NY is home to Enchanted Acres, the equine therapy farm of Diana Dapa O'Donnell, CASACT, EAGALA. Diana is a certified equine therapist, applying David Kolb's experiential learning model to her work, and she's also the founder of United Reins of America, which focuses on the treatment of military members. When traditional therapy either doesn't work for combat veterans, or they find it too intimidating, Diana has found equine therapy to be stealthily effective. 

Diana, who immigrated to America from Croatia in 1967, discovered she had an early ability to connect with animals and their nonverbal ways of communicating. It's this nonverbal form of communication, according to Diana, that is crucial to the process of equine therapy because it enables her and the horses, to bypass defense mechanisms that might otherwise provide obstacles to treatment. 

How do you believe the healing happens - either with veterans or with the people in recovery that you work with?

Creating safety in the moment, for effective changes to occur.  They are empowered to affect change.  We create safety because it is within you. The continuous assessment in real time, validated by feedback in real-time, from the horse, Diana, and one’s body.

Horses Are "Jung at Heart"

I had the chance to visit Enchanted Acres over the summer to not only see, but to experience, firsthand, Diana's work in action. Having no prior experience with horses, I was a bit anxious about my first real encounter with these beautiful, but powerful, thousand-pound animals: especially as my mind fixated on a few rare, tragic encounters that celebrities (e.g., Christopher Reeve) and friends have had with horses. 

My anxiety made me retreat to my training experiences with the animals I was most familiar - dogs - and how dominance theory has traditionally played a role in their training (though this is now changing). When training my mother's corgi I specifically remember a vet saying that "this breed of dog needs to know that you're the dominant one in charge, otherwise, things are going to be very rough."

With this in mind, I asked Diana if I needed to be dominant with my horse Roy so that things wouldn't get "rough." But Diana, who seemed a bit puzzled by my question, corrected my whole misconception: "We don’t want dominance at all," she said, "it’s not about dominance."

I felt relieved hearing that from her, but my relief was short-lived, for the moment Diana opened the barn door to the pen, a grand chestnut stallion named Roy galloped right over to me. Roy was nothing short of majestic, but his size, paired with the speed at which he raced towards me, made my heart leap into my throat.

Over the next hour, Diana helped me go from fearful to amazed. She asked me to think about an emotional problem in my life that I wanted to work on with Roy, and she started my session by having me guide Roy with a lead line to wherever I wanted him to go. It took several tries, as my fear was getting in the way. 

By the end of my hour with Roy, I had learned not only how to guide Roy wherever I wanted him to go, but I did so without a lead line, getting him to follow me by choice and the power of our connection. To those who have grown up with horses, this might not sound like a big deal, but for me, it was huge, on many levels: and that's the whole point.

After much trial and error, Diana gave me a tip: it was a tip so simple I never thought it would work, but it did. Diana told me to simply ask Roy, verbally, to follow me. That's all. It was so simple and worked so well, I was questioning whether, behind my back, Diana was giving Roy some secret signal, letting him know that if he followed me she'd give him a treat, but she assured me she didn't do that. 

"You’re tapping into the unplugged, organic spirit of the horse," she said. “Horses are Jung at heart: sensing, intuiting, and thinking. They carry a depth that connects with our collective unconscious.  That’s my method and what I developed: it's equi-sensory healing."

Although our session ended before I could work deeply on the emotional issue Diana asked me to consider, I remain confident that if I return for future sessions, which I intend to do, she and Roy can collectively lead me to deep healing. Diana considers herself, in some respects, to be a translator between humans and horses. Communication and healing work best, according to her, when we are "open, vulnerable, and surrendered in the moment.

"The process brings one's trauma to the present while creating a future past, in the present," through which our "equi-sensory" encounters can heal these wounds from the past. It is a process that is similar, according to Diana, to how some believe that EMDR might work. With EMDR, patients simultaneously engage in eye movement exercises while reflecting on their traumas, but find it increasingly difficult to maintain the trauma in the present moment while doing the exercises. 

I had the chance to visit Diana's farm over the summer to see and experience Diana's work firsthand. Having no prior experience with horses, I was a bit anxious about my first real encounter with these beautiful but powerful, thousand-pound animals: especially as my mind fixated on a few rare, tragic encounters that celebrities (e.g., Christopher Reeve) and friends have had with horses. 

My anxiety made me retreat to my training experiences with the animals I was most familiar with—dogs—and how dominance theory has traditionally played a role in their training (though this is now changing). When training my mother's corgi, I specifically remember a vet saying that "this breed of dog needs to know that you're the dominant one in charge; otherwise, things are going to be very rough."

With this in mind, I asked Diana if I needed to be dominant with my horse Roy so that things wouldn't get "rough." But Diana, who seemed a bit puzzled by my question, corrected my whole misconception: "We don’t want dominance at all," she said. "It’s not about dominance."

I felt relieved hearing that from her, but my relief was short-lived. For the moment Diana opened the barn door to the pen, a grand chestnut stallion named Roy galloped right over to me. Roy was nothing short of majestic, but his size, paired with the speed at which he raced toward me, made my heart leap into my throat. 

Over the next hour, Diana helped me go from fear to amazement. She asked me to think about an emotional problem in my life that I wanted to work on with Roy, and she started my session by having me guide Roy with a lead line to wherever I wanted him to go. It took several tries, as my fear was getting in the way. 

By the end of my hour with Roy, I had learned not only how to guide Roy wherever I wanted him to go, but I did so without a lead line, getting him to follow me by choice and the power of our connection. To those who have grown up with horses, this might not sound like a big deal, but for me, it was huge on many levels—and that's the whole point.

After much trial and error, Diana gave me a tip. It was a tip so simple I never thought it would work, but it did. Diana told me to simply ask Roy verbally to follow me. That's all. It was so simple and worked so well, I was questioning whether, behind my back, Diana was giving Roy some secret signal, letting him know that if he followed me, she'd give him a treat, but she assured me she didn't do that. 

Although our session ended before I could work deeply on the emotional issue Diana asked me to consider, I remain confident that if I return for future sessions, which I intend to do, she and Roy can collectively lead me to deep healing. Diana considers herself, in some respects, to be a translator between humans and horses.

Communication and healing work best, according to Diana, when we are "open, vulnerable, and surrendered in the moment. The process brings one's trauma to the present while creating a future past, in the present, through which our encounters can heal these wounds from the past."

----- Diana Dapa O'Donnell, CASACT, EAGALA, is a Life and Recovery Coach from Erickson College in Vancouver and a Certificed Equine Specialist, Primary Substance Abuse Recovery Coach at the Dunes, Founder and President of United Reins of America, Inc., Reiki Master Practitioner - Women's Ways Mystery School Level V Adept.