IN TOUCH WITH THE HERD
VALENCIA — Lauren Burke of Valencia had a few assistants in her recent social work including a 2,500-pound Clydesdale draft horse and a zebra named Holly.
Burke, a 2008 Mars High School graduate, recently completed her master's degree in social administration at Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences in Cleveland.
In her required social work field placement, Burke spent the last 18 months at Spirit of Leadership at the Pebble Ledge Ranch in Novelty, Ohio, learning to communicate with horses (and the zebra) and teaching others how to do the same in an experiential learning with horses program that encourages self-discovery.
The approach is based on the belief that humans and horses share a natural connection. In fact, Burke said, horses can be a metaphor for humans who, like a herd, once lived and worked together, with each member contributing to maintaining the tribe.
And, like an isolated and lonely human, horses also suffer emotional and physical problems when separated from their herds, she said.
According to Jacalyn Lowe Stevenson, Spirit of Leadership founder and president, horses developed a herd life for survival by drawing on each other's strength and adapting to environmental changes.
“Learning to workwith horses they learn how to cooperate and collaborate,” said Stevenson whose clients include corporate and nonprofit organizations, as well as at-risk teens, battered women and the homeless.
For Burke, who grew up riding horses, the animals were no big deal. That wasn't always the case with her clients.
“I did my undergrad work at the University of Findlay in Findlay, Ohio,” said Burke, the daughter of Steven and Diane Burke of Valencia. “I dual-majored in social work and the Western equestrian program.”
“It's all about equine management, how you manage an equine business, the training, riding, understanding the horse's biology, ”said Burke of the equestrian program.
When she pursued her master's degree at Case Western, she began working with Stevenson.Stevenson uses horses to help her human clients better understand nonverbal communication in each other.“I was helping other people who don't know anything about horses,” said Burke. “How I could facilitate a counseling session with a horse present?”“This is not horse therapy,” said Burke. “That's riding for the handicapped, those with a physical or intellectual disability.”No one rides the animals; it is about engaging in a relationship with the horses and clients. Burke teaches clients how to go from greeting the horses, to creating respect and trust to leading a horse through an obstacle course.By doing so, clients achieve skills in working as a team.“Our clients are there for substance abuse or mental health issues,” said Burke, as well as corporate clients, people seeking personal growth or help with relationship or grief issues.“They're here to work on communication skills, how to be positive, how to build a relationship with somebody,” Burke said.“Now these people hardly ever sit on a horse, but they build relationships by spending time with the horse on the ground,” Buke said.Stevenson, who has been using horses in her sessions for 20 years, said, “We've been bringing horses into the human world. This is bringing humans into the horses' world.”“People learn communication skills by working with equines,” Stevenson said.“The horses bring them into the herd. By becoming good herd members, people can bring the best to their collective, whether it is their team, the business, their family,” said Stevenson.This experiential learning evolved from Stevenson's counseling sessions on her 80-acre ranch. She said she noticed clients always stopped to talk to the horses freely roaming the pastures and woods on her Western Reserve Land Conservancy Trust property along the Chagrin River.The attraction to the horses inspired Stevenson to put chairs in the field and conduct coaching sessions among the grazing horses.
Now, the seven horses and one zebra, said Burke, offer clients “a chance to be quiet and still. It's offering you a chance to be in nature, you just to go out to be with them, talk to them, tell them your story.”“Some of the horses walk away from clients in the middle of their stories. They get very discouraged,” said Burke. “But once clients realize that the horse's action might have nothing to do with them and that it's not all about you. Quit taking things so personally.”Because communication with horses is nonverbal — a turn of the ear, the flick of a tail — Burke said, the act of communicating with a horse is “checking in with yourself.”“It's through touch that horses know of your intentions,” Burke said. “The horse cares how you are going to be with them. Are you going to be gentle? Are you going to be caring?”Burke said just being around a quarter-ton draft animal can alter someone's perceptions.“They raise your awareness, you become more aware of your surroundings,”Burke said. “Increasing awareness allows you to be a little more insightful about yourself.”“It's fast, goal-oriented lives that we lead,” she said. “But when you take those blinders down and raise your awareness to what is going on around you, that's one of the gifts that horses offer you.”“When you learn something from experience, you have a higher rate of retention than from a teaching environment,” Burke said.“Sometimes it is just offering space for people to open up and be vulnerable,” she said.Holly the zebra can teach a master class in vulnerability, she said.“She's different from a horse in every way possible. She's different in the fact that she is more attuned to her instincts,” said Burke.“No way is she as domesticated as the horses are. She is much more attuned to breath. If you are breathing rapidly, she wants to know why you are so worked up. Holly is one where you really have to practice calm and stillness,” Burke said.“You have to put yourself in a vulnerable state and be very patients,” Burke said. “It took me almost a year for me to touch her; she's one where it has to be her decision.”Now that she's graduated, Burke said her goal is to some day set up an horse-based facility in this area.
