How horses are helping heal trauma and stress, Dubai

Gulf News

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Transcript

00:00So I had my horse for 25 years. He died in my arms when he was old.

00:04It ended up being a really beautiful relationship, but it wasn't easy in the beginning.

00:09And somehow they just keep you going, they keep you going.

00:12They give you the comfort, they give you the support that you need, just like he's doing right now.

00:19So how we work with them in the sessions is that we allow them to be very free and we allow them to really interact.

00:26And they just know, they just feel what is required in a certain moment.

00:31And that's what we really use. And that's what makes it very different from the normal work with horses.

00:38Where in the equestrian world, the mindset is sometimes a little bit different.

00:44It's more about achieving something. In our sessions, you don't have to achieve anything, you can just be.

00:50And that's something I really like. It's the human part.

00:53And everybody is just allowed to be human when they come here.

00:57There is no right or wrong, everybody can just be who they want to be, including the horses.

01:03And that's where the healing part comes in. You don't have to wear a mask, you don't have to pretend anything.

01:09You're allowed to just be and to just feel. And that gives people a lot of release.

01:14And it gives people a time to be in nature, be connected to nature,

01:19which is something that we tend to lose sometimes in our busy lives.

01:23When you allow the horses the full freedom, and they know that they can participate or not, they're allowed to say no,

01:30you have to convince them using your feelings and your emotions.

01:34Like, you know, if you are doubting, the horse will feel that you're doubting.

01:39And you need to first convince yourself and you need to first trust yourself that you can do it.

01:43And then if you truly believe it, that's the moment the horse will come with you.

01:47And it's such a big visual impact, like you just see it, you know, once that feeling inside has changed,

01:53that it's a memory that really stays with you for a long, long time.

01:56So horses help us to really be very grounded, very present.

02:00And in these moments that you are very, very present, you can really understand a lot of things from yourself,

02:06because they mirror our emotions in a very special way.

02:11So yeah, it's been now over three years that we have helped a lot of individuals and a lot of groups.

02:17And we not only work here in the UAE, we also have retreats overseas where we take groups of people to travel.

02:24They travel with us to very unique locations like Georgia, Zanzibar, Spain.

02:29And we really have transformative retreats with them where there is really big breakthroughs.

02:36We recently had a group of seniors here with Alzheimer's.

02:40Forget Me Not is an organization that organizes a lot of events for these groups of people.

02:45And it was such a beautiful morning.

02:48We had a lot of volunteers here that were helping.

02:51And it was just so beautiful to see how kind and how calm also the horses behaved on that day.

02:56Like they just knew that they had to be very kind with these people.

03:01We had people in wheelchairs where we took the horse to the wheelchair so they could, you know, slowly lift their arm and touch the horse.

03:10Other people who were a bit still physically more fit were able to walk the horse or brush the horse.

03:17And just seeing the smiles on their faces was just...

03:20So our dream and our vision is really to spread a lot more awareness about how horses can also help people in other ways.

03:28Not just being a sports instrument, but really giving the horses...

03:32And there's a lot of horses in the UAE and there's also a lot of retired horses.

03:36To give them a second chance in life and give them a different meaning where they can help humanity from a very different viewpoint.

03:43And also there are so many beautiful moments that we witness.

03:48And to have more of that, to spread more of that, you know, bring more people to work with horses in a very unique way.

03:55And yeah, I think there is a big demand to also develop more of such centers where therapeutic interactions with the horses are predominant.

04:04Healthcare. There's a lot of people in the UAE who stay longer and longer and longer.

04:09Including also, you know, a lot of illnesses that come with that.

04:13And the horses can support in a great way.

04:16Horses are a huge symbol of the Arab culture, of the UAE.

04:22And they play such an important role.

04:24And I think this is a role where horses can still do a lot more than they are doing at the moment.

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