why do you own horses?

[peteyfoozer]

I had a love for horses ever since I was a kid. I lived in the #1 drug center in the country as a kid, but my activities with horses kept me out of that mess. Boys and everything else took a back seat to my riding. I spent every free minute with them and trained show horses and riders for 30 years. Then I learned about NARHA and opened an Equine Assisted Therapy Center. We were able to treat over 66 different types of disabilities including, CP, MS, Autism, Spina Bifida, Stroke, ADHD and others. There are almost no limits to what a horse can do for people, especially for people with special needs. It is a therapy platform that is extremely successful and cannot be reproduced in conventional settings. THere has been great success in treating kids and adults with both physical, emotional and psychological challenges. I even rehabilitated myself after a couple of bad accidents by riding, and now it is the only way to keep my muscles strong and my joints moveable due to RA, as it allows me to use the muscles without impact to the joints. I had to use a wheelchair to get through shopping two years ago due to pain and lack of strength. I had quit riding a few years earlier. I started again and now I am independently walking. I also live on a working cattle ranch so they are therapy, recreation and working partners. Amazing animal, the horse!

 

[Denim Deb]

After my car accident in '98, the doctor recommended horseback riding for just that reason. I'll never be 100% of where I was B4, but I'm better. Plus, I really think that's one reason my Meniere's has not developed worse than it has. I know that some places work on balance therapy. This is part of mine.

 

[FarmerChick]

and while great exercise obviously, my ortho doctor when I had my neck injury--did the MRI--and showed 2 bulging dics in my back. I was surprised. Nothing they could fix but I asked 'what could have done it' cause I almost never hurt my back I could remember. He said horseback riding. someone who rides their whole life like me probably at some point damages the cartlidge like me. Hmmm....well worth it in my book HAHA

 

[hqueen13]

We have one riding instructor here that will do private therapy with kids, and we had an autistic kiddo say his first words while riding.

Pretty awesome stuff, the horses are such gifts!

 

[Buster]

I prefer more practical animals. I have a couple that aren't, but they are small and cheap.

Practical is in the eye of the owner.

No doubt. In my eye, it is something I can eat or provides something I can eat or that does work around the place, like guard or kill mice. Horses certainly can be practical, though. A friend owns a ranch and uses them to check on or move his cattle, especially in rocky terrain where a four wheeler isn't practical. And there are those who use them as draft animals.

But I would do neither, so they would be decidedly impractical for me.

 

[Denim Deb]

I prefer more practical animals. I have a couple that aren't, but they are small and cheap.

Practical is in the eye of the owner.

No doubt. In my eye, it is something I can eat or provides something I can eat or that does work around the place, like guard or kill mice. Horses certainly can be practical, though. A friend owns a ranch and uses them to check on or move his cattle, especially in rocky terrain where a four wheeler isn't practical. And there are those who use them as draft animals.

But I would do neither, so they would be decidedly impractical for me.

Even w/out doing that, they can be practical for some, not all. For me, I enjoy everything about horses. (OK, I'm not that crazy about shoveling manure, but it's part of being a horse owner.) Plus, they do provide manure for the garden. And, if you have room to store it and age it, you can ever sell it.