You know the feeling you get at the end of a long day when you can finally just relax? Do you ever have days where you just can't relax at the end of the day? Or at anytime of the day really? Well equine therapy is one of the best forms of therapy out there for anyone with general anxiety or any who's just feeling a little stressed. While any pet therapy is great for anyone who's stressed, I personally find equine therapy to be the most relaxing. And even though I have a dog, he's better for pet therapy that's intended to get me up and moving around.
Over the Summer, I got the opportunity to work with one horse and two donkeys as a form of pet therapy. I would go over to my friend's house at night and I would muck the stalls and brush the horse and the donkeys for her. While shoveling poop isn't everyone's idea of a fun time, it was very therapeutic for me. I was able to be alone with my thoughts for awhile and do something repetitive.
Brushing the horse and donkeys was also really therapeutic for me because they could tell that I was stressed and they would lean on my shoulder and watch me brush the other animals. The donkeys sometimes fought for me to brush them and would even get jealous when I didn't get to brushing them fast enough. They never hurt me though, they were the sweetest animals that I've met. The horse loved to be brushed and I always brushed her first because she knew that she was the queen of the farm. She would always put her nose near my shoulder when I was done and make a happy sound as if to say thank you for brushing me and cleaning out my stall. It was one of the best feelings in the world to have her do that at the end of the day. Almost as great as when I finally got to lay down and sleep at the end of the day, knowing that I made the horse and the donkeys happy.
