In pasture, they take reins of healing

Ebony refused to budge. For several minutes the black American saddlebred stood firmly in place, even as Debby Anne Brayton repeatedly pulled the lead rope connected to her halter and tried to coax the horse onward.

Ebony and Brayton were standing in part of a pasture that Brayton had marked and labeled "fear," "the unknown" and "moving forward." As eight other horses wandered freely around them, 1,200-pound Ebony remained stiffly in place for several minutes.

"I can't get her to move forward," Brayton told Lynn Moore, founder of Acres for Life, an equine-assisted learning and therapy just south of Chisago City, Minn. In a typical spring through fall season, Acres for Life serves about 300 clients who come for reasons ranging from personal development to healing. There are at least a dozen such facilities in Minnesota.

"Are you sure you want to move?" Moore asked gently.

Brayton has worked with Moore and the horses for several months. After winning a free session through an event at Hazelden, the Vadnais Heights resident was struck by the power of the experience and kept coming back.

Sexually abused as a young girl, and an alcoholic and cocaine addict as an adult, Brayton has been sober and in recovery for 15 years. She continues to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder along with issues of control, trust and how to move forward as a survivor.

"I'm letting my past hold onto me," Brayton said. "It's that old negative chatter -- 'She's not gonna move.' "

In the distant field were squares Brayton had labeled "the wounded becomes a healer," "safe" and "peaceful."

Ebony's hooves sank farther into the damp ground, planted in the first square.

Horses as mirrors for human feelings

Horses are great animals for therapy and personal growth because they use all their keen senses, can pick up on energy around them and are extremely gentle, Moore said.

"They're like a mirror for us in that we can look at them and based on their body language and nonverbal feedback they reflect our innermost feelings and fears," she said.

The Moores are both certified by Utah-based Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association, or EAGALA. When the couple started Acres for Life there were a few hundred people nationwide certified by EAGALA, but today there are more than 3,000.

A 10-member team of facilitators at Acres for Life holds group and individual sessions built around everything from professional development, empowerment and parenting to dealing with loss, chemical dependency and depression. Clients don't need any experience with horses. All the work with the animals is done on the ground; riding isn't part of the experience.

Equine-assisted learning and therapy "helps people learn about behaviors that may be hindering them in relationships or in life or just in achieving things so they're able to say, 'Now that I'm aware of this I want to do more or less of it in my life,'" said Moore, who also holds a master's degree in addiction studies and is a licensed alcohol and drug counselor.

"What we're trained to do is make observations and state what's going on and help that person put their own meaning to it if there is meaning to something."

For example, sometimes a horse senses a person holding back and will repeatedly nudge the person, push them gently forward or the horse might even clear its throat. The facilitator points that out and asks the client what they think of it. Often it turns out there was something the client wanted to ask or bring up.

Heather Jeffrey of Big Lake had a powerful realization during an equine-assisted learning group exercise last year. The task was to put a halter on a horse and lead the animal back to the group's meeting spot. Jeffrey, who has had a lot of experience with horses, completed the task quickly and then felt paralyzed because she didn't know if she should help those who were struggling with the exercise.

"Here I am 35 years old, and I realized all my life I've been bound by needing to know what the rules are," she said. "Within 5 minutes I was just in tears because I didn't expect the power of what happened out there." Jeffrey was so moved by the experience that she started helping at the barn and is going back to school for therapeutic coaching. She says people are attracted to certain horses and horses are drawn to certain people.

Some mental health professionals, such as licensed marriage and family therapist Judith Driscoll, accompany their clients at Acres for Life.

"The experience can just go right to the core of a person and bring about change," said Driscoll, who has witnessed several breakthroughs in her clients. It helps that people make their own meaning from things that transpire in the pasture, she said, and being outside in a natural, tranquil environment encourages them to open up. "It helps people tap into their own compass or intuitive sense of what's right for them."

'I surrender'

Standing near the motionless Ebony, she realized that fear might be holding her back, blocking her from moving forward in life. But maybe today wasn't the day to take the next step. That was OK, too. She decided not to force it, so in her head she repeated to herself, "I surrender, I surrender."

Just then the energy shifted. Without even the slightest tug, Ebony started to walk forward.

Sarah Moran is a Minneapolis-based health writer.