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A Listening Ear

It is common to find it hard to talk to our friends or family if we are struggling with our mental health. We might find it hard to trust those around us, or we might worry that we will be judged for what we think or feel. For this reason, horses can be much better listeners than people! We can talk to them about anything, knowing that they offer a safe and non-judgemental space for us to share our thoughts and emotions.

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Movement

When we feel low or anxious, our activity levels tend to drop. This is because our body senses that we are not feeling 100% and tries to conserve energy - just like when we are physically ill. Exercise is one of the best things we can do for our mental health. Riding, or caring for, horses involves physical activity that can release hormones that help our mood to improve (even just brushing them!). This also brings increased awareness of our body and can build our fitness levels.

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Being Outdoors

When we are struggling emotionally, we tend to stay indoors. This can feel like the safest place to be, as we do not have to face the challenges of being out in the world. But this is not always helpful, because we need natural light, fresh air, and all the sensations of the outdoors to help us feel our best, and cope with the challenges we are facing. Horses can give us a great reason to get outdoors and be in nature, no matter what the weather!

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Emotional Awareness

Emotional awareness involves identifying what emotion we are feeling at any given time. If we have little emotional awareness, we may struggle to express what we are feeling and why. Spending time with horses can give us the time we need to process our inner experiences in a calm way. Horses are also very good at giving us feedback; they sense how we’re feeling and react accordingly. When we understand how to read horses’ behaviour, it helps us to understand ourselves as well. For example, if a horse that is usually relaxed has become spooky, we might ask ourselves whether we are feeling particularly worried something in our lives.

Communication

One of the key skills that horses can teach us is how to communicate. We spend a lot of time talking in our day to day lives, but horses make us concentrate on other forms of communication such as energy levels and body language. To effectively communicate with a horse, we must tune in to our own behaviour, and be able to change this, to influence the horse.

Motivation

Spending time with horses can be a highlight of the week for lots of people, both children and adults. It may be the thing we look forward to the most and can help us to get through difficult situations knowing that we have this time coming up. This helps to boost our motivation, making it easier to do other tasks that we would usually find hard.

Confidence & Self-esteem

We grow our self-esteem through developing confidence in our own abilities, and this is linked closely to our overall mental well-being. When we learn how to interact with horses, we are challenging ourselves to learn new skills, often exceeding our own expectations and gaining a sense of achievement. We may come to see ourselves as competent and successful, which helps us to feel good.

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Living in the moment

When our mental health is poor, we might begin to worry about the future or dwell on things that have happened in the past. A well-recognised strategy to help with this is to keep our attention focused on the present moment (sometimes called mindfulness). Horses are experts at being in the here-and-now, and spending time with them can teach us to focus on what is happening right now.  Soothing is a very useful strategy when we’re feeling worked up or distressed, it helps us to calm our emotions and come back to a manageable level of emotion. Many of the activities we do with horses have this soothing effect, but grooming is particularly useful in these circumstances. When we are brushing a horse, we are using our senses (particularly touch, sight and smell), and the calm, repetitive movement helps our mind to settle down.

Relationships

For those of us who struggle to make relationships with others, interacting with horses can be an opportunity to experience a more meaningful connection. The horse-human relationship is very unique; it requires a huge amount of trust and non-verbal communication from both sides. For us to build this relationship takes patience, acceptance and understanding, which are all helpful skills we can also use in other areas of life.

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Enjoyment

Having fun and developing a sense of purpose Horse riding is enjoyable, fun and caring for animals can give people a sense of purpose.