Horses Are The Best Medicine

When life’s hard, hanging out with a horse can offer solace and self-esteem beyond the physical benefits. Pippa Cuckson reports on how they’re increasingly being used to help heal minds as well as bodies

- Pippa Cuckson

ANYONE who rides a horse takes it for granted that they will be refreshed and upbeat after a hack or a day following hounds, which is why it often becomes a later-life hobby for captains of industry, politicians and celebrities. They find a refreshing equality and informality in the horse world that contrasts with the pressures of public life.

As Winston Churchill wrote (and with apologies to others who uttered this simple truth before he did): ‘There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.’

We’ve used the horse for war, for work and for winning medals. Now, it has an important new role for the 21st century: it’s recognised by medical professionals as a willing, nonjudgemental healer of soul as well as body, with growing evidence that the feel-good effect has many more trigger points beyond an exhilarating canter through the countryside.

Horse therapy is not a modern concept —the Greek physician Hippocrates wrote about it in about 400bc—and the term hippotherapy—using riding for occupational therapy—is drawn from hippo, the ancient Greek for horse.

One early pioneer was Lady Harriet Kavanagh, whose son, Arthur, was born in 1831 at Borris House in Co Carlow, with truncated limbs and no hands or feet. His mother put him, aged three, on a pony and Arthur took to riding easily, later following hounds and even trekking across Russia, Persia and India in his bespoke ‘chair’ saddle. He also became leader of the Unionist MPs and regularly sailed himself to Westminster, mooring under the Houses of Parliament.