Healing program focuses on horses
By Lora Bernard
The Texas City Sun
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
list
of 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.
--
Help us save the horses! Habitat for Horses, Inc.
A lifetime home for abused, endangered horses.
http://www.habitatforhorses.org/
