Equine therapy works wonders on those battling stress

SUFFOLK

Hoofbeats drummed into Leo Parde's consciousness as he jogged along a fence line in rural Chuckatuck. The retired Marine veteran turned and saw a large Paso Fino horse keeping pace with him on the other side of the fence.

"There's this 1,000-pound critter jogging along with me and we struck a connection," he said. "I don't know if I adopted him or he adopted me but we have fun."

Parde's blossoming relationship with his four-footed buddy, Mr. D'Omega, has also been therapeutic, easing the flashbacks and anxieties of the post traumatic stress that flared up when Parde, 68, retired from his job as a National Parks historic interpreter and moved to North Suffolk.

"When you retire things come back to haunt you," said Parde, who served two tours and was wounded in Vietnam. "Now I can sleep again."

Jackie O'Connell-Bagnati, a licensed clinical social worker, understands the connection and promotes the power of horses to heal in Horses Healing Hearts, an equine-assisted psychotherapy program, based at HorseSpa Farm in Chuckatuck.

A therapist at the mental health clinic at Langley Air Force Base, she has seen equine-assisted psychotherapy work well with children, teens and adults dealing with substance abuse, behavioral, relationship and stress-related issues. She has seen the power of the horses in helping develop social and leadership skills as well as improving problem solving and communication.

She was living in Arizona when a friend put her in touch with a horse professional who was starting an equine-assisted therapy business and needed to hire a licensed clinical specialist. O'Connell-Bagnati, who grew up riding horses in upstate New York, signed on and fell in love with horses all over again.

After moving to North Suffolk, she teamed with Wendy Parker, an equine specialist and owner of HorseSpa Farm, to form Horses Healing Hearts.

Recently, the women demonstrated their program to representatives of Alternatives Inc., a youth development agency in Hampton, and others interested in Horses Healing Hearts.

O'Connell-Bagnati and Parker explained that the program was experiential, with hands-on lessons in the pasture. There is no actual riding involved, strictly groundwork with the horses.

"Horses are big and while these are not wild horses, horses do kick, so don't hang out right behind one and don't get your feet under theirs," Parker cautioned the group.

Parde came along to help with the demonstration.

O'Connell-Bagnati divided the group into teams of three and told them to link arms, with only the person in the middle of each trio allowed to speak. The task was to retrieve, any way they could, at least one horse from the three grazing on the far side of the pasture.

The groups tried sweet-talking the horses, pushing on their flanks to guide them, and tugging gently on their manes. Unmoved, the horses continued to chomp on the grass.

As the groups struggled to find a successful method, Parker pointed to a pile of halters and leads, lying overlooked on the ground nearby.

"We didn't say how you had to do this," Parker said, smiling.

Armed with halters, the groups soon corralled all three horses and were ready for the next exercise.

What did they learn?

"We teach kids to think out of the box and we walked right by the halters," Ally Graul, from Alternatives Inc., said. "But this is so far out of our realm."

The group also listed other lessons learned about individual styles, making assumptions about rules, group dynamics and thinking out of the box.

"The horses put up with all of you just fine, but went on eating grass," Parker said. "They had their own agenda."

The next exercise required each team to temporarily pen a horse with four poles - impossible without teamwork and ingenuity.

"The exercises teach how to handle new situations," O'Connell-Bagnati said. "Horses are honest and powerful communicators and they make a big statement."

And what would the horses say about the humans struggling to complete their assignments?

"Horses are in the moment," Parker said, "They're not thinking, they're grazing."

After each exercise, O'Connell-Bagnati gathered the group to analyze what they had learned. But occasionally she'll skip the analysis and let groups figure lessons on their own.

"Kids talk in the vans on the way home and process what they've seen," she said. "They come back with new ideas the next time or we may have to do it again."

When O'Connell-Bagnati wanted to try equine-assisted therapy for marital counseling, Sarah Wilson jumped at the opportunity and enlisted her husband, Eric.

After seven years of marriage the couple wanted to re-establish communication and learn to deal with the friction between them. Wilson works at the farm tending horses, but her husband, a teacher and coach, had little experience with them.

"This is so much better than being in a counselor's office where you can get defensive," Sarah Wilson said. "Jackie is so comfortable and asks really guiding questions."

After five sessions the couple saw an improvement.

"We faced challenges together and were really nice to each other," she said. "We do have more to work on but it is an opening and just so effective."

Alternatives Inc. was impressed, too. Linda Hansen, the group's creativity director, said the nonprofit is always looking for ways to help children grow and was happy to find a local resource.

"We do a lot of leadership development and think some of our teens would benefit from this kind of experiential, hands-on learning," Hansen, the group's creativity director, said. "We've never in 35 years done an animal strategy and I think it's so cool."

Phyllis Speidell, (757) 222-5556 or phyllis.speidell@pilotonline.com