Animals and humans rescue each other through therapy
LITTLETON, Colo. — The last few years have brought their share of challenges for Kara Hardman.
“I’ve definitely been feeling a lot of grief,” she said, explaining that the death of her family pet, coupled with caring for aging parents, created a sense of loss for her.
By chance, something unexpected is helping Hardman process her sadness.
“I do equine therapy here and have been doing it for a few months now it’s been very helpful,” Hardman said while standing outside on a large expanse of grass, gesturing toward the horizon. “It’s great to be out in nature and doing this. A lot of traditional therapy is inside so it’s nice to just be out, when the weather is good. It’s great to be around the horses they have this way of mirroring what you’re feeling.”
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Hardman started volunteering at Zuma’s Rescue Ranch several months ago, then decided to try equine therapy for herself. The ranch rescues horses that would normally be put to death and retrains them to do equine therapy with people.
Nicole Irvin is the head trainer and said the horses there have been through a lot of trauma.
“No matter where they’ve come from, we’ve helped them work though it so that they can connect with humans who’ve had similar trauma,” she explained.
The ranch sits on 90 acres in Littleton with more than 60 rescued animals. Irvin feels every horse has a right to survive and live, it just takes some work.
“We take in horses from all types of backgrounds; places where they haven’t been taken care of, maybe they’ve been starved, or maybe they’ve come from an abusive situations, auction houses, kill shelters, all those kinds of things,” she added.
Equine therapy has been used as a supplement to traditional therapies and mental health treatments for decades. Studies have also shown that it helps veterans with PTSD process trauma.
For Hardman, equine therapy helps her identify her feelings, which she feels gives her a sense of calmness when she’s not with the horses.
“You come up to a horse and if you’re feeling chaotic on the inside they will also be chaotic. So, if you’re not as good at identifying your feelings which is something we all go to therapy for so it works really great to show you ‘oh! This is what I must be feeling right now.’ And then you can tune into your body,” she explained.
Zuma’s Rescue Ranch has been around since 2018, even rescuing mini horses like Jerry.
“We got Jerry a year ago,” added Irvin, saying that he started out being terrified of humans. “He’d run and try and hide. Now he trots up to me and lets me put his halter on and he helps me teach lessons. Now he’s more like a dog,” she explained with a laugh.
The ranch also recently rescued Finnegan, a curly gypsy cross horse. “He’s a big goofy looking dude. We love him. He’s hilarious. He initially needed some training to know not to step on you and he’s trained and now our therapy partners love him.”
Dana Knowles is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at danaknowles@rmpbs.org.
Lindsey Ford is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at lindseyford@rmpbs.org.