Case Stories

Elaina’s Story, as told by Sarah

This child will anonymously be called Elaina and she was at the time of her year’s work at Tranquility Farm about 12 years old. She was referred to the farm for therapeutic riding work with horses by a social worker in her county.

She had suffered traumatic violent abuse by a family member for several years before she came to us. She was so shut down, as many victims of abuse are, that she wouldn’t communicate at home or with anyone.

I worked with her with the horses, spending quality time with making the equine human connection and thereby building bridges back to reality for this child. The horses accept you even when you are this shut down and pretty soon, Elaina began to respond to this acceptance by the horses we worked with. Soon she would venture to give me some eye contact and give one word answers to questions.

After months of learning that she could trust the horses, she began to transfer this to trust me , her instructor. Horses help you build the bridge to be able to trust again and have confidence in self and others.

By the time that year was up, I could not shut Elaina up. She learned that after horrible trauma that it is good to talk and “leave it on the track and don’t look back” and that you can heal and be ok again with the horses and some people are trustworthy.

When you really think about it, we are all rescues as there’s not a person alive who hasn’t known trauma. Horses have the incredible ability to help you restore your confidence in living and give you courage to press forward in spite of the past. Horses are an amazing gift from God to all peoples of the earth for our healing.