-The Arts Fuse
Tim Hayes’s Horses, Humans, and Love (Trafalgar Square Books) is an indispensable coaching guide for those with equines. I board my pony with twenty other horses, and working with these animals can generate frustration and backsliding. This book is helpful because of its specificity and humane approach.
The author draws on natural horsemanship principles. Readers are reminded that creating relationships of mutual trust, respect, and kindness are far more beneficial than turning to the tactics of force, fear, and intimidation. For Hayes, the most effective way to make horses to change their behavior is for us to change ours first. Relaxation and recalibration, rather than tension and anxiety, smooth out problematic habits and improve human/animal interactions.
A previous book, Riding Home: The Power of Horses to Heal (St. Martin’s Press) contains several equine therapeutic practices, exploring how establishing relationships with horses have proven to help troubled teenagers, war veterans with PTSD, those struggling with addiction and eating disorders, survivors of sexual trauma and people on the autism spectrum.
In this new book, Hayes draws from his own story of leaving the film industry to work with equines and the welcome impact that decision had on his self-acceptance, marriages, and sobriety. He and his students learned that the issues they encountered with horses “turned out to be the same difficulties they experienced in other areas of their life.” Connecting to horses physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually nurtured healing compassion for themselves and created empathy for others.
A central point in Horses, Humans, and Love is understanding the herd mentality of the animal. Once a hierarchy is established, the horses care about and protect each other. The author’s hope is “If we can learn from horses…. maybe we can learn how to love ourselves, each other, and the herd of eight billion we call humanity.” Pertinent lessons from the barn for our fractious times.