August 2020 Issue

EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN August 2020 Page 19 For Mental Health Therapy, Just Add a Horse Therapy (www.bluebellequine assistedtherapy.com ) in the barn and sprawling indoor arena on Glassman’s Kindle Hill Farm in March, just as the COVID 19 crisis put the brakes on business- es large and small. Horses Are Everything “I became aware of how horses could be useful in this through Leslie,” Homsher says. “Because horses are everything to her.” He says that when he was a graduate student, he did research on animal-assisted therapy with dogs as co-ther- apists. “At the time there was very little on equine-assisted therapy.” But once he finished school, he looked around for a way to bring horses into the picture. He found EAGALA, an equine-assisted therapy model that brings a licensed, creden- tialed mental health professional, a qualified equine specialist, and a horse together with clients who are given safe space to analyze their situations. “One of the reasons I chose to go through EAGALA for training is because it’s an evidence-based program,” Homsher explains. “They set up peer-reviewed research, with quantitative and qualitative analysis. With EAGALA there is a reason why things are done the way they are done. It produces results.” Molinari, who has been involved with horses since she was 12 years old, believes that horses give back much more than people realize. “There’s such a mind/body connection with them,” she says. When she was rehabilitating former race- horses, people often praised her for giving so much to the horses. “No,” she told them. “They do way more for me than I do for them.” This emotional connection is the essence of what Homsh- er believed they could capture through their therapeutic model. “There are things the horses can bring out in a client that would take me a much longer time,” he says. “I think I’m an excel- lent therapist, but I think the fact that the horse is able to be a non-judgmental tool, for lack of a better word, it’s a being that this client can look at and not be scared by.” A Blank Slate In a typical session, the client would be in the ring with Molinari, the equine special- ist. Homsher observes from outside the ring as the client and the horse interact. A client struggling with self-confidence issues, for instance, would be asked to lead a horse from one point in the ring to another. The work is all on the ground, and frequently the clients have little or no experience with horses. Ultimately, the client is asked to take the lead rope off the horse (Continued from page 9) (Continued on page 23)