Why Horses?

Most of us can attest to the fact that animals are healing in nature. Lots of people, who hear about Stable Moments, mention how therapeutic their dog or cat is for them. Although I agree that all animals have therapeutic qualities - horses are inherently designed to heal trauma.

Horses are particularly fitting for children who have experienced early childhood trauma due to the specific correlations between their characteristics. Because horses are prey animals, they are always in survival mode. Just like the kids we serve, horses constantly scan, sense and assess their environment for threats. Horses are in survival mode so much that they sleep standing up and they’re instinctively ready to flee if they need to.

Because horses can sense small changes in their environment, they are naturally attuned to energy around them. They have an innate ability to sense our emotions and uncover things about ourselves that we may not even know. Horses help us get to know ourselves better.

Children in foster care have to present themselves based on what they think other's want - to survive their ever changing environments. When we approach a horse as a version of ourselves, a horse sees far beyond our outer presentation and deep into our true selves. It takes them only a moment to find your soul and say "there you are".