Jerry Finch is at it again-making headlines and raising awareness!!
Bravo, friend!!
The Texas City Sun
"Healing program focuses on horses
By Lora Bernard
Published August 07, 2000 12:11 AM CDT
"A lot of people wouldn't know that people with Parkinson's disease are
angry," said
Jerry Finch who has suffered from the disease for 10 years.
Finch is the president and founder of Habitat for Horses, a non-profit
group dedicated to creating a sanctuary for old, abused and sick horses.
This month, the group will host a three-day seminar for people who
suffer from
Parkinson's disease. The seminar begins Aug. 18. Call 935-0277 for more
information.
Finch said he hopes to show Parkinson's patients that they can find
inspiration and comfort through the physical act of caring for broken
old horses.
"They have problems and lose control and shake a lot," Finch said about
Parkinson's
patients. "They stumble a lot and they become depressed and feel like
they cannot grab a hold of anything. Their anger goes inward."
He said that as he began to care for the animals, he learned from them.
Anger control and self acceptance topped his listof lessons.
"Mine is under control now and my control is the horses," he said. "I've
dealt with it
with the horses and watching how a horse gets into itself. Parkinson's
is an inside
thing a lot of the time."
During the seminar, Finch said the group will share personal experiences
and offer
support to each other. But, he said he hopes that the relationships they
develop with the horses will offer them the most comfort.
As far as the walking part of horse care, if you get together with a
horse and take the
horse out to the fence and lead it...and then in the stall, you start to
rub it and
start loving it and spend just minutes with just you and the horse,
there's a connection," he said. "That connection is alive and something
is given and you learn
that a horse can be humble with all its problems. And even more, they
still love and they forgive themselves."
The horses in the organization's care have either been abandoned,
neglected or
abused. Others have just gotten too old for their owners to care for."
<http://www.texascitysun.com/NF/omf/tcsundaily/story.html?[rkey=0002116>
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Joan E. Snyder 48/10
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"Hang tough........no way through it but to do it."
Chris-in-the-Morning (Northern Exposure)
