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Using Horses to Define Community

Developing a sense of community through shared horsemanship and easier access to traditional knowledge

By Jessica R FauncePublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 16 min read
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Some of the horses that have connected so many people

Growing up in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, my childhood consisted of horse games with my friends such as tag, racing, jumping off the horse into the creek down the road, and pretending we were bandits on the run. Out of the horses that my family had, half of them were unwanted rescue horses that my mom found for me to work and the other half were ones I raised and trained born out of these rescues or other horses we owned. Due to my father being a crop dusting pilot, we grew up in rural areas where my dad had a good relationship with landowners who let us live on their cattle ranches with our horses. Therefore, we were able to have our horses on range land without actually owning it.

Of course, most of my friends growing up had a bit of a different background. Most of them were not the children of people with land so easily available to use. Most did not own horses and only knew what I taught them. In fact, many had very rough childhoods. Some were from low-income households, some were from families where addiction was rampant, some were in foster care. Some had situations going on at home that I would never be aware of. I didn’t realize how much the opportunity to enjoy my horses meant to the people in my life until I was in high school teaching the children of family friends how to ride and care for horses.

This pattern continued into my adult life as I continued to teach friends how to ride and care for horses, as well as their friends and kids. I then worked at a group foster home for behaviorally challenged boys for a year and a half where I also taught young boys about horses and saw it be highly transformative for them. It was pointed out to me that most people with horses do not generally share their horses with others like this, but my mentality was that if my horse likes you, then I am only further benefiting my horse by giving it more love, attention, care, and exercise while also helping a person with a once in a lifetime experience that was a daily experience for myself. The reward far outweighed the energetic cost to myself.

Horses and humans have had a long-standing connection for thousands of years. Horses reach people on an emotional level, test our capabilities, and push us out of our comfort zone. They force us to place our trust in another while convincing them to do the same. This primitive relationship starts with fragility but eventually can form into a deep bond. As society progresses and technology is more ingrained in our daily lives, people have become more detached from nature and its wildlife, including the heritage of our domesticated animals. As mental health issues have increased due to the demands and pressures of increasingly faster paced lifestyles with each successive generation, equine programs are a great way for people to reconnect with an animal that has been our partner throughout history while also allowing people to reconnect with their more primal side. Not only can these programs be beneficial to people, but also to the horses that need adoption as well.

The relationship between equine species and humankind has been very complex throughout history. Equids started off as a prey species for early humans, as is depicted in cave paintings of prehistoric humans including that of Lascaux in France which is believed to be about 17,000 years old. Fossils of horses began appearing at ancient human sites as a food source about 55,000 years ago. Unable to effectively pursue horses by other means, early humans commonly drove herds off cliffs to hunt them. This is evident in places like Salutre, France where the fossils of thousands of horses are found at the bottom of cliffs (International Museum of the Horse, n.d.). Based on an archaeological site at Botai, the first horses were ridden by people in Kazakhstan 5,500 years ago (Librado, 2016). They later became the driving force behind mankind being able to increase their hunting capabilities as they instead became a companion rather than prey. Since then, they have been by our side for countless battles and wars. They shaped the sociopolitical trajectory of the Old World by increasing the speed and power of which human tasks and interaction could occur, such as transportation, agriculture, warfare, etc.

Now that they are no longer a necessity for humans, there are a number of horses throughout the Americas that have nowhere to go. Considered now as an expensive hobby, many people think horse ownership is out of reach. What many do not realize is that oftentimes, horses could easily survive on unused land with some supplemental hay in winters when grass is scarce. The less a horse is able to be a horse, the more care they require. An increase in community efforts to allow these horses on unused space, as well as caring for and working with these horses by a few knowledgeable or interested people, could not only benefit the horses, but it could also potentially benefit community members that would otherwise not be able to engage with them. This also may help influence people to rehome horses they have connected with.

Successes of Horse Programs for People and Horses

Equine therapy has had an increasing role in mental health which has been an intensifying problem in the United States. Approximately 30% of the adult population is affected by some type of mental or psychological disorder throughout any given year’s span, and 48% will be affected by a mental disorder sometime throughout their lives. This includes depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, schizophrenia, other personality disorders, and being on the autism spectrum. Equine-assisted therapies have been shown to be effective in helping some of these issues (Wilson, 2012). Despite this, many people do not seek professional help and often self-medicate in healthy or unhealthy ways. Easy accessibility of equine programs could increase those that seek positive forms of coping.

Mustangs are feral horses that descended from the horses brought over by Europeans during the American conquests. Each year, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rounds up mustangs and wild burros. This is done to prevent overgrazing, especially on public land shared by mustangs and cattle or land that has suffered fires or drought (Bachi, 2013). Many of these horses end up not being able to be adopted, as they can take more patience to train due to their undomesticated nature. These horses often are placed in holding pens instead. Programs such as the Wild Mustang Program and the Wild Horse Inmate Program help mustangs captured by BLM get adopted while providing an altruistic activity for inmates which potentially helps inmates just as much as it helps the horses. There are limited studies on these programs, but the ones available showed a reduced recidivism and lower number of disciplinary reports among inmates that participated in the wild horse training programs (Bachi, 2013; Dalke, 2008).

Programs involving inmates and mustangs did not begin as a form of therapy. Canyon City, Colorado’s state penitentiary purchased three mustangs that they lacked the skills to train back in 1970. To resolve this, a horse trainer by the name of Dr. Ron Zaidlicz was recruited by prison staff to develop a training program for the horses that included inmates. This program taught inmates vocational skills such as caring for and training horses which in turn helped the horses get adopted at auction. Thirteen other states began participating in programs such as this since then (Bernal, 2019).

The programs involving inmates and wild horses have been described as successful by both staff and inmates. These programs have greatly helped the number of mustang adoptions and have been described as highly transformative for inmates (Dalke, 2008). Both inmates and mustangs are confined against their will and must work together in order to achieve a goal. Inmates can choose their horses to work with and decide their own methods in training the horse. Not only was this program a success for inmates who participated, but approximately 5,000 mustangs had been trained and adopted out through this program as of 2013 which also brought in revenue for the prisons that participated (Bachi, 2013).

I compared four studies of psychological health and wellbeing before and after equine-based therapy. Jang, et. al (2015) performed a study investigating the clinical effects of equine therapy for management of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children 6-13 years old which showed that equine-assisted therapy and activities had beneficial results for children with ADHD. Klontz, et. al (2007) performed a clinical trial which measured the efficacy of equine therapy on mental health which showed significant declines in emotional distress and an increase in wellbeing immediately after equine-assisted therapy treatment, although they returned to levels near that of baseline 6 months following treatment. Tsantefski, et. al (2017) performed an open trial from 2012-2015 in Victoria, Australia that investigated the positive effects of equine therapy on atypical development of children and adolescents exposed to parental substance abuse. Both parents and teachers indicated a decrease in problem behavior among kids that were exposed to parental substance abuse after their 12 weeks of equine-assisted therapy sessions. Another study on equine-assisted therapy’s effects on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was published by Romaniuk in 2018 on veterans in Australia and their spouses. This study examined before, after, and 3-month follow up of equine therapy on the effects of anxiety, depression, stress, and posttraumatic stress, as well as quality of life and happiness which showed that PTSD and adverse psychological effects reduced significantly following equine intervention, although the results were longer lasting for veterans with participating spouses than veterans that participated individually. All of the studies showed short term benefits to equine therapy programs. Overall, equine-based therapy seems to show promising results for a variety of issues concerning mental health.

How Horse Owners Can Contribute to their Community

As with most things, prevention is better than a cure for mental health as well. Therefore, it is worth considering initiating more programs that allow teens and young adults from low-income families the opportunity to learn to work with horses. Easy accessibility to horse programs at little to no cost could greatly help the teens and young adults that need these connections most, as well as influence their future ability to form healthy bonds and relationships. Not only can the therapeutic benefits of horsemanship help avoid mental health issues which could help prevent behavioral problems among youth and young adults, but it can also help with rehoming and adopting horses in need, thus also aiding in conservation efforts by the BLM.

People are always convinced that owning a horse is only for the rich. Realistically, the more you let a horse be a horse, the less care from humans they require. Many horse health and grooming issues that require human care stem from human interference in the horses’ natural processes. Most hoof issues are from lack of access to walking on a variety of terrains to keep it naturally trimmed down or from the horse becoming used to shoes and no longer knowing how to go without. I have farriers look at my horses’ hooves every so often and always get confirmation that their feet look great with an occasional trim on a very wet year. My horses eat a variety of wild grasses with supplemental round bales of grass hay in the winter that last 1-3 weeks depending on the number of horses that are using it at a time. When horses have land to roam, they can get proper exercise while foraging or just horsing around.

As of March 2019, the BLM even offers a $1000 incentive to adopt a mustang to offset the continual cost of caring for the horses that are not adopted (Bureau of Land Management, 2019). There are also a variety of rehoming pages on Facebook and other forms of social media that try to give horses a second chance for unwanted and slaughter-bound horses, often giving these horses away for free or a very low cost. Therefore, it is very easy to acquire a horse in need for anyone interested. Putting a community effort towards providing for these horses could be transformative to the youth and adults within that community as well.

If you want to get involved with horses but are not ready to own one, there are countless horse programs all over the United States. There are many horse rescues that need volunteers or donations regularly. Some volunteers help with care while others post pictures of horses to social media groups to promote their adoption. There are also many barns that allow people to work off the cost of riding lessons by mucking stalls, but it takes research in your area to find these. There also are many equine therapy programs; however, the waiting list for these programs can be quite long. Basically, despite there being so many programs to connect people with horses, most either are too expensive for low-income families or have a very long waiting list for any affordable programs that allow riding; thus, very few places allow people just to enjoy horses at free will.

Because of this, I would like to encourage horse owners, especially those that are familiar with therapy programs or riding programs, to have promotional days open to a variety of people in order to help spark interest in people of all ages, such as a sort of “field trip” day for schools or organizations that allow people simply to interact with horses at their own comfort level. I would like to see more people within the surrounding communities have the opportunity to interact and help with the care of horses. Over the last few years, the number of horses I care for has increased as I have taken on more rescue horses and taught more people to ride and care for horses, not because I can regularly interact with that many horses or even afford them on my own while working full time and completing graduate school, but because I have the land available to keep them on and people interested in learning more that are willing to help. We all pitch in on hay and other supplies and all utilize these horses, making the horses all have a much more fulfilling life. Not only has my horse bill became cheaper since I have so many people willing to help out, but my horses are better and happier since they get used so regularly with their own sense of community besides just me.

I would also like to spur the formation of free or low-cost community programs with horses that are accessible for everyone. This could include after-school programs for kids that do not have their own horses and whose parents cannot afford horse lessons. Kids should never be deprived of opportunities to pursue their passions based on the economic state of their parents, and horses require experience to learn. I would also like to encourage people with extra land to allow rescue horses on it to live out their days rather than in overcrowded holding pens, as I have seen a handful of landowners in eastern Washington do along the Snake River and in the areas surrounded by Turnbull Game Reserve near where I keep my own horses. In the Inland Northwest there are many wildfires each year, meaning that reducing the excess biomass could potentially help land from becoming a fire hazard while also enriching soil with manure, possibly making it beneficial to landowners if they keep the herd to a reasonable capacity. If landowners were to allow horses on unused land for community programs run by community members, I believe they would be pleasantly surprised with the amount of care the horses receive from others. It would have the potential to be highly transformative for both horses and community members, giving both a much-needed sanctuary.

My own life has become filled with much more of a sense of community since allowing others free access to my horses. Afterall, horses are living beings that have emotional attachments besides that which they have to me, as it should be considering they are herd animals. When my animals were more one-person animals, I loved their loyalty but used to feel bad about travelling or working too much because my horses and dogs would be angry with me for not taking them with me, as I am sure many animal owners are familiar with. Now that they have their own sense of community on the ranch outside of just me, they are happy to see me, but not dependent on that to go on adventures and feel loved. They have a whole community of people who take them on adventures and look out for their wellbeing, sometimes now even teaching me new information and catching things I miss based on the interest they have gained in horses since forming a relationship with mine. It is frightening to trust others with anything you care about, but it has been very rewarding for me and my horses. I believe if more people adopted this type of mentality about animal ownership and land usage, it could be truly transformative for the animals and the communities of people around them.

Literature Cited

1. Bachi, Keren. (2013). Equine-Facilitated Prison-Based Programs Within the Context of Prison-Based Animal Programs: State of the Science Review. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Vol. 52. Pp. 46–74. DOI: 10.1080/10509674.2012.734371.

2. Bernal, Katherine. (2019). Recidivism and the Wild Horse Inmate Program: A Case Study on the Inmates at the Florence, Arizona State Correctional Center. University of Arizona. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/634267

3. Bureau of Land Management. (2019). Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Incentive Program. https://www.blm.gov/programs/wild-horse-and-burro/adoptions-and-sales/adoption-incentive-program

4. Cushing, J. L., & Williams, J. D. (1995). The Wild Mustang program: A case study in facilitated inmate therapy. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Vol. 22(3/4), 95–112. DOI: 10.1300/J076v22n03_08

5. Dalke, Karen. (2008). At the Threshold of Change: The Inmates and Wild Horses of Canon City, Colorado. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, Vol. 14(4). https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/949

6. International Museum of the Horse (n.d.). Hunted Horse Early Hunters. Retrieved from http://imh.org/exhibits/online/legacy-of-the-horse/hunted-horse-early-hunters/

7. Librado, P., Fages, A., Gaunitz, C., Leonardi, M., Wagner, S., Khan, N., . . . Orlando, L. (2016). The Evolutionary Origin and Genetic Makeup of Domestic Horses. Genetics, 204(2), 423-434. doi:10.1534/genetics.116.194860

8. Jang, B. et. al. (2015). Equine-Assisted Activities and Therapy for Treating Children with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Vol. 21(9). Pp. 546–553. DOI: 10.1089/acm.2015.0067

9. Klontz, Bradley, et. al. (2007) The Effectiveness of Equine-Assisted Experiential Therapy: Results of an Open Clinical Trial. Society and Animals, Vol. 15. Pp. 257-267. DOI: 10.1163/156853007X217195.

10. Romaniuk M, Evans J, Kidd C (2018) Evaluation of an equine-assisted therapy program for veterans who identify as ‘wounded, injured or ill’ and their partners. PLoS ONE 13(9): e0203943. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203943.

11. Tsantefski, Menka, et. al. (2017). An open trial of equine-assisted therapy for children exposed to problematic parental substance use. Health and Social Care in the Community, Vol. 25(3), Pp. 1247–1256 DOI: 10.1111/hsc.12427.

12. Wilson, Kristen. (2012). Equine-assisted psychotherapy as an effective therapy in comparison to or in conjunction with traditional therapies. University of Central Florida. http://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2376&context=honorstheses1990-2015.

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Jessica R Faunce

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