Live Large. Celebrate Ordinary.
Instructor Tommy Wong gives Falco a shower after daily workout. “Horses are wary of water getting into their ears, as they have no way of getting the water out. So when we shower them, we take extra care with their ears.”
“When you lead the horse, energy travels through the rope. They are a mirror image of you.”
Hazel Lim, 40, was describing to her clients, how to work with two of the horses at EQUAL - Matahari and Chevy. They are amongst about 1,600 horses living in Singapore, but they do not compete in races, polo tournaments or dressage.
These horses are healers.
Vulnerable youth are given the chance to build trust and bond with horses. Through Equine Assisted Learning (EAL), they work on life skills like impulsivity management, self-awareness, and navigation of boundaries
Housed in stables amidst the lush greenery off Thomson road, are 11 therapy horses who found their second careers at EQUAL, a charity founded in 2011 which puts retired horses to a nobler task of “rescuing” people.
Many of these therapy horses were “rescued” from race courses and polo clubs, when their first careers ended due to age or injury. They are then re-trained for equine-assisted learning (or EAL in short).
EAL is a method of imparting social-emotional skills through interactions with horses, under the guidance of trained facilitators. Through activities like grooming, leading and riding, beneficiaries work on life skills like impulsivity management, self-awareness, and navigation of boundaries. They can also improve self-esteem and gain confidence by interacting with these gentle equines.
“There is a horse for every person,” said Hazel. “They can have character traits similar to you, or traits which you hope to gain as a person”
Vulnerable youth, families with special needs children, and elderly with conditions like dementia and depression are common groups of clients working with these equine healers.
(From left) Therapy horse Ribena, led by instructor Matthew, walks with a beneficiary from Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home.
Aniq, 9, focuses on the task of grooming Chevy, and in the process, builds trust and bond with the former polo pony.
Farina, 30, a mother of three young children, is one such beneficiary. A full-time homemaker, she is the main caregiver of two boys diagnosed with autism - Aryan, 11, and Aniq, 9. Because Aryan loves animals, she decided to give EAL a try.
Instructors Evangelynn Tang and Danny Chee help to dress up Ribena for a photo session with the elderly beneficiaries.
The final leg of the EAL programme for youth involves riding, but this only takes place after weeks of building up trust and bond with the horses.
“The horse is much bigger in size, compared to the kids.”
“But Aryan managed to remain calm with the horse. I felt he has gained a lot of confidence as a young person,” said Farina. “His younger brother Aniq has also learnt to how focus on the tasks of caring for the horse, instead of running all over the place.”
At the start of the 10-week course, families are usually introduced to all the horses, and asked to pick a horse they will prefer to work with. Farina was drawn towards Chevy, a former polo pony from Argentina.
“The sessions help build a bond between us. ”
Farina and her sons Aryan and Aniq cuddle up to Chevy after completing an EAL session.
“After 11 years of experiencing hope, disappointment, and challenges raising my boys, I can at times become emotional and sometimes it’s not easy to stay calm as a main caregiver,” Farina revealed. “But Chevy has a calm and cool personality.”
“I would like to bring out the Chevy in me.”
EQUAL is located at 100 Jalan Mashhor and more information can be found www.equal.org.sg.