Flemington

23 Whether they’re leading a horse or doing groundwork, therapy is based on mindfulness and ‘being in the moment’, empowering young people to manage their anxiety, regulate their emotions and improve their communication skills. “They will walk to a creek with a horse, sit on a bale of hay in the hay shed or hose a horse’s leg. The horse is the intervention, there are unlimited role-play scenarios taking place in real-life nature and the clinical psychologist is noticing everything along the way.” “Often that’s just the environment a child needs to take that first step towards sharing the most horrific and heartbreaking issues going on in their lives. And if you asked 15 parents, they would say that (head therapy horse) Crackajack has saved their child’s life,” Alisha says. Ex-racehorse Crackajack is just one of a number of injured or homeless horses that have found a purposeful life after racing, helping humans while also healing themselves. He’s in good company with others like Sale Cup winner Eraset, One Won’t Hurt, Cauliflower and Street Prince to name a few. While these thoroughbred geldings may have held no monetary value as injured racehorses coming off the track, they are the perfect equine therapy horses and priceless in the eyes of parents. “They are so humanised; they have been exposed to humans since they first opened their eyes. Racehorses have already beendesensitised; they’ve seen dogs, helicopters, umbrellas, everything! There’s not a lot they haven’t seen, and the more they have raced, the more they’ve seen and the more easily they take to equine therapy.