How God Uses Horses to Heal: The Power of Equine Therapy
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Jodi Stuber, co-founder and program director of HopeWell Ranch, joins the podcast to share how, through her organization, God uses rescued horses to help meet people’s emotional, spiritual, physical, and social needs.
“I’ve always loved horses. I’ve seen how they can help ground people and help make people feel better. It’s a different approach, but it’s really powerful, especially when you invite the Holy Spirit to join you.”
Jodi
Through their compassionate approach to equine therapy, Jodi and her husband Ty have seen God touch and heal hundreds of people: Veterans with post-traumatic stress, people with disabilities, and children and adults dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, and other challenges.
HopeWell Ranch has eighteen horses—some rescued and some donated—that God uses to help people. Each animal has unique traits and specialties.
“Each personality helps a certain personality,” Jodi says. “So every horse has a part to play in fulfilling the HopeWell mission: to create a loving environment of hope, healing, and purpose for children, individuals, and families where lives can be transformed.”
As Christ-followers, Jodi and her team worship and pray together, preparing themselves to be the hands and feet of Christ to the people they serve.
Using a model from the Equine-Assisted Growth and Learning Association, the HopeWell staff members invite the Holy Spirit to partner with the horses to bring about healing in people.
“Horses are prey animals. Prey animals are constantly vigilant about who or what might hurt them. So the horses are very in tune. They can feel your heartbeat four feet away. They will know you’re if you’re nervous. What’s beautiful about the horses is that they can sense a person’s energy.”
Jodi
In equine therapy, healing can happen in many ways. A person can learn from observing the horses. Other times watching how a person acts around horses, and how the animals respond to them, can bring deep insight.
The way a person maneuvers around horses can shed light on issues they may not communicate directly. For instance, Jodi and her teammates always tell people not to stand directly behind or in front of a horse, where a horse can’t see them. So when a therapist sees a child consistently putting themselves in those positions, it suggests that the child likely puts him or herself in danger on a regular basis—potentially without being aware.
Hope for Veterans
HopeWell Ranch serves many Veterans. Still Jodi was struck when one man expressed what Christ had done for him through equine therapy. Jodi recalls:
“One day I was out in the field. Somebody pulled in in a truck. He got out of the truck and I went to meet him. I shook his hand and he said, ‘You really don’t know me, but I want to thank you. The very fact that I’m here, shaking your hand, in this moment, is because of the services you provide here at the ranch.’”
The Veteran told Jodi that before he came to HopeWell he was suicidal. But when a friend (a fellow Veteran) invited him to the ranch and they spent time with the horses together, he didn’t want to die anymore. “Because I’ve been shown something more,” he said.
Another Veteran brought his granddaughter to the ranch to meet his favorite animal—a donkey named Bubba Jack.
The granddaughter fell down by the gate and started to cry. Bubba Jack ran over to her and stood over her protectively until she was able to get up and compose herself.
Comfort and Joy for Children
Horses can have a particularly powerful impact on children going through grief and trauma. At one session a group of children who had lost a classmate came to the ranch to process their grief. Jodi took them to see her tallest horse, Lincoln. As Lincoln hung his head over the gate, forty-three children raised their hands up to take turns petting him.
With Lincoln watching over them the children started to lie down on the ground unexpectedly. When the teacher asked why, they told her they were “just so tired.”
From Jodi’s point of view, the children were laying a burden down, comforted by Lincoln’s presence, and finding much-needed relief.
The horses seem to perceive what various children need. For instance Jodi has seen a horse go from energetic and goofy to gentle and calm around a child in a wheelchair, or a child in delicate health. During a camp for children with cancer, a little girl in a fragile state—with heart issues and cancer in her legs—wanted to ride a horse.
The girl’s mother said, “It’s her wish. Please, please make her wish happen.”
Jodi helped the girl onto a gentle old horse named Victory. Her mom and dad cried as their daughter’s smile lit up the world—pure joy. Slow and steady, Victory started to walk…
Jodi’s Heart Horse
Jodi has experienced healing with the help of a horse herself—thanks to her heart horse, Solomon.
“A heart horse is the horse you remember forever.”
Jodi
Solomon saw Jodi through difficult times. When she struggled, he would come and stand near her, seeming to know what she needed.
The closeness and attunement of an animal can feel like permission—to feel, to let tears flow. Solomon gave Jodi that permission when she needed it most. He helped her heal and gave her a vision for healing others in partnership with horses. Jodi shares about her journey with Solomon in her book, Project Solomon: The True Story of a Lonely Horse Who Found a Home—and Became a Hero.
Through the pandemic and its aftermath Jodi has seen a growing need for creative, Christ-centered healing tools, like the equine therapy she practices at HopeWell Ranch. She sees deep loneliness and the effects of isolation weighing people down and hopes that her clients can learn from the horses about the importance of deep bonds and connection.
“Horses are the epitome of community. They’re herd animals, so they need each other to survive.”
Jodi
Horses correct one another, commune with each other, eat together, sleep in the same spaces … and at the same time, they make room for us—people who need them.
Jodi hopes to create a haven of renewal and connection at her ranch, and a place where God can work in people’s lives, using his creatures as tools of healing.
Join Us At Warrior Getaway!
Warrior Getaway is designed to serve American servicemen and women who have visible and invisible injuries as a result of war. Veterans, along with their families, are provided a safe space for respite, community, and healing.
