Do you have your very own healer in your pasture?

As horse owners, we often overlook the benefits we are receiving from our trusty steeds. It’s very easy to take for granted health benefits we are receiving while interacting with horses.

While dogs and cats are known to visit hospitals it isn’t well known that horses also provide healing benefits. Horses are known to provide healing for disabled riders and facilitate learning for Equine Assisted Learning programs. But what is the potential for healing on a day to day basis? Could your good barrel horse be a healer?

Here are 10 indicators that your horse is a healer:

1. You feel better after a ride. Your mind feels clearer.
2. Your aches and pains you had before your ride are now gone. Your headache is gone and you feel more focused.
3. You feel less stressed.
4. You are less tense and angry than before your ride (if you feel more of this AFTER a ride, your horse is not a healer but likely a TEACHER…more on that another time!)
5. You have built more patience and self-esteem during your time with your horse.
6. You feel less pain and more clear after brushing your horse and doing body work on him.
7. You have been taken by surprise and overcome with emotion while working with your horse and cried out of the blue.
8. Your horse has pushed his head into your chest and stood there in a relaxed state.
9. Your horse has repetitively nuzzled your hands, your hip, shoulder etc (without trying to bite you).
10. Your horse has run his muzzle up and down your arms or legs. He has nuzzled your “sore spots”.

Just like many people have the purpose of being a healer, many horses also have that purpose. It has always been my belief that horses come into our lives for a reason. Sometimes that reason is to help us heal. Sometimes it’s to teach or learn other lessons, but for many of them, it’s to help you through your journey by healing us! It could be through healing your mind, your body or your spirit.

In many riding for the disabled or mental health programs, it’s no secret horses can work miracles. Who we don’t necessarily recognize, are the healers in our own backyard and the benefits they are providing to us on a daily basis.

Horses have the ability to move and transmute energy from your body. They can help you deal with heartache, just as they can nuzzle your hip and move out pain and inflammation. Horses are very well grounded can easily shift that energy to one that no longer causes issues.

You could have your own body worker in your pasture and you weren’t aware of the good work they do for you. If you find your horse licking and chewing, curling his lip up, shaking his neck, pawing the ground or yawning after giving you a nuzzle or nose rub, you may be the one on the receiving end of the healing. These are signs often associated with a horse receiving the benefits of an energy release. However, they can also be attributed to what the horse is doing for you, as he clears the lower vibration energy.

If your horse receives energy work (and even chiropractic or therapy work) you may notice other horses around hijacking the healing and also receiving the benefits. You’ll notice a horse 2 stalls down having a big yawn. They are helping to move the energy not just for that horse, but for themselves and the other horses. It’s team work for the herd as a collective unit.

Some of the scientifically proven benefits of working with horses include lowering blood pressure, reducing stress, tension, and anger. Horses are also proven to increase patience, trust, and self-esteem in humans. All these great benefits as a horse person we take for granted as we share our everyday lives with these magnificent creatures.

If your horse is a Healer/Teacher combo, you may also be benefiting from learning about unconditional love and forgiveness through your horse. Learning to give and receive the aforementioned is very healing.

It’s been my experience that they younger horses that haven’t been “trained” a certain way to behave will be more open to giving healing than the aged performance horse for example. Not to say the performance horse isn’t a healer, but just like in many people that gift is often suppressed due to outside conditioning. Horses can also have the conditioning peeled back just like we can do in our coaching sessions for people. It’s sometimes a process to uncover the inner healer.

Next time you’re out with your horse, pay attention to how he’s reacting to you and how you feel before and after your interaction. Spend some time working on the ground with your horse letting him smell your hands and step towards you. You might find yourself with a horse resting in your chest feeling unconditional love at its fullest or pain being moved out of your body by his muzzle.