More than seven years ago, when I first started volunteering in the field of Equine Assisted Activities & Therapies (EAAT), I picked up a copy of Carole Fletcher's Healed by Horses, A Memoir. At the time, I enjoyed Fletcher's story. I made note of Fletcher's words, "The horse did not heal me. It's working with horses that heals, by developing discipline, courage, patience, and perseverance."
Recently, I came across my notes of this passage and decided to give Fletcher's memoir a second read. This time, I read it as an experienced EAAT professional. I have known the healing effects of working with horses on my own soul and I have also facilitated a connection with horses and therapeutic riding for hundreds of individuals with diverse physical, cognitive and emotional challenges.
This expanded perspective allowed me to read Fletcher's memoir with a whole new appreciation for its exceptional value as a book-length, personal testimony to the transformative power of working with horses. While the EAAT field is filled with anecdotal evidence (and thankfully more and more established research!) to underscore the value of what we do, Fletcher's testimony takes the reader close - we understand her as a vibrant young woman who owns horses prior to a terrible accident; we read of her excruciating, life-threatening burns and her fight to live; and finally, we are transported along with her as she beats all odds and makes it back onto a horse. In fact, she goes on to build a life with horses.
Horses are part of Fletcher's healing before she even leaves the hospital bed where she spends seven months after her accident. Inspired by a doctor's advice to "Give her a reason to live," Fletcher's mother posts a poster of Bailey, Fletcher's horse, in the hospital room and writes in big letters, "HE WILL CARRY YOU." Fletcher writes, "When the poster of Bailey went up on my wall, it gave me a focus - something to long for and dream about. My vantage point shifted... from inside to outside - from my airless [hospital] room to hills and fields."
After seven months in the hospital, Fletcher finally makes it to the barn to see Bailey. She writes, "I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressed my face into his satin coat, and took long breaths. I wanted to inhale him." Fletcher writes about getting on him for the first time. Notably, she again uses the word "shift" in her description. She writes, "It's a test of courage to get on the back of a thousand-pound animal while you're feeling frail. Riding horses, you come to know that there are many such times, when desire overcomes fear... [On Bailey] I had shifted just a little: a cautious and downtrodden woman was at least moving in the direction of bold and assured rider."
Fletcher's story illustrates with very personal testimony a shift in meaning and motivation that I have also witnessed to varying degrees in my work in the EAAT field. This shift is the boy with autism who settles on a horse and produces language for which his parents had given up hope; it is the older adult with a degenerative disease who rides and realizes she still has adventure in her life; it is the young adult with a life-altering spinal cord injury who finds the courage and tenacity to get back in the saddle, take the reins and ride! Over and over again, those of us who work in the field witness how horses and riding can facilitate a shift in perspective, motivation and intention that changes lives for the better. (I often think about how important the word "transition" has been to centuries of horsemen and women. I ponder these shifts, these transitions - physical, emotional and spiritual - that horses help us to make.)
Testimony like this - the way that horses essentially transformed Fletcher's life, post-accident, move the reader from cover to cover. Fletcher clearly labels the book a memoir and intends it as such. While she has worked with riders with disabilities, the text is not necessarily intended solely, or even mostly, for professionals in the EAAT field. Having said that, I would suggest this book as an essential read to any EAAT professional who might want to better understand their students' perspectives as well as in fact one's own connections to horses: How do horses heal? How can being around horses help to "right" or reframe a life that has been suddenly and significantly altered by injury or disability? And, in Fletcher's case, how does a life-long commitment to horses and riders eventually allow her, if not to overcome completely, than to find personal meaning and deep joy in her existence?
These are questions that drive our field. Carole Fletcher's very personal answers to these questions drive her narrative and make it an engaging and perspective-shifting read for anyone working with horses, serving people.
*Fletcher, Carole with Lawrence Scanlan. Healed by Horses: A Memoir. NY: Atria Press, 2005.
