Neighing, nibbling, and nudge, nudge and more nudges. I was watching a majestic, glossy, chestnut bay with a dazzling star on his forehead rolling on the ground, thrashing around in the mud, like a playful golden retriever. The horse was free of reins, harness or any muzzle; he was just free to be himself.
And then, he almost took me by surprise; he ambled up to me suddenly, nudging my shoulder as if to say, “You’ve been here a while. You haven’t petted me yet?” I obliged, patting his mane a little nervously. “Don’t be afraid, he won’t hurt you,” smiled Maria Ollero, the co-founder of the Dubai-based wellness company, Heal With Horses. Somehow, it was easy to believe her.
Our conversation punctuated by these little interludes. While the horses came, nudged, and playfully nibbled on their heads, Ollero, a Spanish expat, and her co-founder Monica Kubik, a German expat, related their stories of how they both healed, and continued to heal with horses.
For Ollero, the journey began with a catastrophic life-changing event: A brain injury. One day, she woke up and found half of her body completely numb. Terms like ‘mass’ and ‘lupus’ were strewn around, and it was getting more complicated to understand the nature of her injury.
Healing with horses and healing horses
While doctors supplied her with medicines, Ollero felt that there was more to this sudden illness. She had grown up in Spain, deeply connected to Nature and animals, and somewhere over the years, she felt that she had lost this link. “So, when I got sick, I knew that I had to connect again with this essence,” she said. Ollero believes that sickness is also connected to emotional imbalance, and she had to set it right within herself. Along with treatments, she began Reiki and energy-healing as well to get her through this particularly painful time. Months later, she was declared clinically clear of any trouble. However, this nerve-wracking episode that had almost derailed her life, called for an entire reset.
And that’s how horses cantered into her life. “When I returned from Spain after a holiday, I came across a person who was in charge of rescuing horses,” she explained. The person needed help, and Ollero explained that she didn’t have enough money to support her. Yet, one thing she could do, was help in energy healing the horses.
Instead, it became an “incredible” two-sided healing journey. “I learned that these majestic creatures go through so many emotions. They have feelings and different personalities. However, as we know them, they’re born, raised and they die in stables. They’re meant to be free in Nature. And that’s why I think that they also have energy blockages,” she says.
Gradually, people brought their horses with difficult issues to her, which ranged from anger troubles and body pains. Sometimes, people complained that the horse would refuse to be ridden. “I would support the horses through energy healing, and saw that the horses would get better,” she says. Similarly, spending time with horses helped people feel better. Her curiosity was fueled, and so she took the UAE-certified course of Horse Guided Empowerment, which helped her understand the power, emotions and physiognomy of horses, and that’s how she met Kubik as a classmate. Together, they kickstarted their own company that has held events internationally.
“And now, we do sessions to help people heal with horses, overcome emotional barriers, feel better physically and emotionally, and to find a way to calm them down,” she says.
It’s a matter of curiosity, now. What is it about animals, and especially horses in this respect, that heals a person, sometimes more than another human? What is this quiet, unspoken relationship with these majestic, powerful creatures?
‘A mirror to our feelings’
A calm horse is definitely a soothing balm for a stressed and traumatised system, say experts.
Saliha Afridi, a clinical psychologist and the director of Dubai-based LightHouse Arabia, a wellness clinic, has her own story to share in this respect. “I started riding 5 years ago and it changed my life. It changed my relationship to my body, it made me a more attuned and sensitive communicator, and it taught me so much humility when dealing with another spirit - this supported how I approached parenting my four children,” she explains.
Afridi describes how she used her own nervous system to calm her horse down when he was nervous, and when she was irritated, he could regulate her. “The research on electromagnetic fields is not very supported right now, but I can tell you anecdotally that a calm horse can definitely support a traumatised or stressed nervous system. My horse grounded me, and it felt like love and support of the deepest kind. There is literally no other animal that you can have this type of relationship with,” she asserts.
Horses are sensitive communicators. They command respect, clarity, consistency and respectful communication. To learn to communicate effectively with a horse, you have to learn how to engage in such a manner —this often helps people with their own emotional regulation and improves their interpersonal communication styles...
Talking about the healing properties of horses, she explains that they mirror our feelings. “As they are animals who are members of a herd, they are highly sensitive to the emotional states of those around them,” she says. If a person is anxious or sad the horse will sense that and react accordingly, and respond as a mirror. “Depending on the depth of the bond between the horse and the person, as well as the horse's own level of composure and maturity, it may offer support to those in emotional distress, showing up as a presence of comfort and understanding,” she adds.
Being around horses, grooming them, walking with them also reduces the stress hormones, and increases the release of oxytocin – the happiness hormone, adds Afridi. “These hormones promote a feeling of relaxation and wellbeing,” she says.
Moreover, horses are sensitive communicators. They command respect, clarity, consistency and respectful communication. “To learn to communicate effectively with a horse, you have to learn how to engage in such a manner —this often helps people with their own emotional regulation and improves their interpersonal communication styles,” says Afridi. You have to calm yourself down, communicate gently and firmly, attune to the horse and only then will a horse respond in kind.
Valentina Faia, a Dubai-based psychiatrist, elaborates more on the communication skills that develop with horses. “The experience of managing these powerful, massive, beautiful and yet very fearful animals, has the capacity to lower our defensive systems, challenging old beliefs around ‘dominance’ and ‘power’,” she says. Once you engage with horses, you are compelled to develop newer insights, look for different perspectives and find ways less conventional to deal with problems that you eventually encounter. “Spending time with horses has been associated with an overall increased socialization, which probably reflects those improvements in communication, verbal and non-verbal, which get translated into social skills, she says.
The experience of managing these powerful, massive, beautiful and yet very fearful animals, has the capacity to lower our defensive systems, challenging old beliefs around ‘dominance’ and ‘power...
You experience confidence and a surge in self-esteem when you form a relationship with a horse. You communicate effectively. And gaining its trust and co-operation, has a profound impact on a person’s confidence and self-esteem. “The experience of connecting with such a powerful creature is one of the most empowering and validating experiences I have ever felt,” says Afridi.
The horse that saved her from anger issues
If Reiki took Ollero to horses, Kubik has been around horses for as long as she can remember. “I was a very angry teenager, as I had to keep shifting homes. I had my own horse, and he was with me for 25 years. He died in my arms when he was old,” she recalled. “He really helped me. It was a beautiful relationship, even if it wasn’t easy in the beginning,” she recalls. Horses keep you going, somehow, says Kubik.
And so, when people come for Ollero and Kubik’s sessions are held at Melia Desert Palm grounds, Dubai. The horses are allowed to roam freely. Most of these are retired horses; rescue horses, or those that don’t ride anymore. it’s a second chance at life for them too, as the founders explain.
No one rides the horses, but there is inexplicable healing and comfort just being around them, watching them, and touching them, as both Kubik and Ollero explain. “We’re just eye to eye with the horses. The people just want to be with the horses. You are allowed to just be, and this gives people a release for their energy, and just be around Nature. There is no reason for pretense here,” said Kubik. The horses somehow heal too being around the people too, she added. It’s a respectful interaction, with much playing around. “They also learn to trust more,” she said.
People who come to visit, usually have no experience with horses. Both Kubik and Ollero discuss which area needs to be addressed, be it anxiety or depression. “When you allow the horse the full freedom, you have to also convince them of your emotions and feeling. Otherwise, the horse will know you are doubting them. Slowly, you build your confidence with them and establish a relationship with them, and then that’s a feeling that remains with you for a long time,” said Kubik. Don’t treat them like magical beings. They won’t instantly cure you of all your troubles, so don’t expect quick fixes. Just be around them. Cherish their company.
There are several stories, within stories, of how being around horses have been a sense of grounding comfort for people, sometimes bringing them back from the precipice. Troubled teenagers, those processing raw grief, and others battling anxiety and depression, have all found some hope again in horses. In fact, a group of senior citizens, suffering from Alzheimers from the organisation Forget Me Not, had visited Ollero and Kubik. It was a day that the two won’t forget in a hurry, as even the horses that day seemed kind and gentle to everyone. “A 94-year-old woman in a wheelchair also raised her hand to touch the horse, which was a real effort for her too. These things really stay with you,” explains Kubik.
