Riding Home: The Power of Horses to Heal by Tim Hayes

Riding Home: The Power of Horses to Heal Reviews

• 
  Foxdreams

  Ultimately, I wish this book was about what it claims to be about. It also could have REALLY benefitted from a competent editor.
  
  My problems span both content and presentation.
  
  Content: this book. repeats. itself. multiple. times. In all ways. Sometimes 3 chapters down the line it will suddenly begin rehashing something explained in detail previously. This happens throughout the book.
  
  Staying on topic: This book could not. Within each topic chapter the information wanders all over the place and by the end tends to barely even touch what the topic is supposedly about. This got incredibly annoying because at times I had to listen to the author's bizarre asides about how divorce is the Worst Thing Ever, how Autism is the Worst Thing Ever, and how (this is where he really lost me) women are attracted to "the masculinity" of horses because we all want to "secretly control large, powerful men" (WHAT?! The lesbians of the world are cackling, my dude) and all this in chapters that were supposed to be about themes such as "why humans like horses". The INCREDIBLY reductive asides on stuff like gender theory (Women like horses because we all want to be mothers, as it befitting our natural instincts! Because we're hard wired to want kids! You heard me right!) really took me right out of the story. I kept wanting to stop this book but I kept hoping maybe it would improve in content or editing. It does not.
  
  There's also for some reason an entire chapter on "natural horsemanship" (dominance theory, which although popular has been disproved multiple times over as no more natural than other outdated training methods, as horses will never see humans as herd leaders since they know we aren't horses. Look it up, 'join up' has been successfully performed with small robots, it's really fascinating stuff) in a book about therapeutic horse stories. I get that the author has a vested interest in promoting it since he depends on it for his living, but if I wanted that couldn't I have bought a different book??
  
  I just wish somewhere on the book it would have been communicated that this isn't an in depth collection of how and why therapeutic horse riding works, it's simply a random rambling collection of surface thoughts interspersed with anecdotal stories and the author's personal opinions on his own childhood and a variety of bizarre other asides.
  
  When it actually WAS on topic and talking in depth about therapy stories, I was on board. I especially liked the stories about the prison programs with the mustangs. But overall, if you're bothered by what I mentioned or looking for more in depth stories, skip it.
• 
  Nancy

  Horse Can Heal Humans
  
  If you love horses, you know how delightful it is to be around these gentle animals. I own several horses, but before I read this book, I didn't realize how many ways they are used to heal humans. Hayes reports on horses being used for healing in a variety of programs.
  
  In a maximum security prison in Colorado, prisoners are used to tame wild horses and discover compassion and an ability to deal with their own fear. There are several programs known as Horses for Heroes that help returning soldiers suffering from PTSD deal with their demons. Autistic children have been helped through programs that include horse therapy. Teenagers suffering from emotional or addiction problems find healing in horses, as do people with cerebral palsy and other physical disorders.
  
  In addition to discussing the programs for healing with horses, Tim Hayes recounts his own relationship with horses from being a cowboy in Idaho to teaching natural horsemanship in New York City. For those people unsure about getting on the back of a horse, natural horsemanship emphasizes ground work. You can become a friend of a horse and gain all the benefits of the interaction without having to ride. Although once you get to know your horse and realize how gentle they are, you'll want to take the next step and ride or drive.
  
  This book is a tribute to the amazing relationship between humans and horses. Too many people today miss out on the wonders of dealing with nature because of their city lives and reliance on electronic devices. I recommend that everyone read this book to become familiar with the joy of horses and learning to live with nature.
  
  I reviewed this book for Net Galley.
• 
  Cara

  After completing an overview class on Equine Assisted Activities and Therapy earlier this month I have been packing my Want to Read list with equine therapy titles. Riding Home by Tim Hayes turned out to be a good place to start. Tim provided a flyover view of equine behavior -- how the human brain works, and how those two things play into equine therapy -- without getting too deep in the scientific weeds. he also included moving testimony from those experiencing PTSD, autism, and trauma who were immensely comforted and set on a path to healing by working with horses in a therapeutic setting. Highly recommended!
• 
  Analie

  Tim Hayes beautifully reveals the healing power of horses through story after story, culminating in his own life. I loved reading about his bond with "Austin," the horse who taught him so much about himself. I hope more equine programs expand to prisons and beyond, creating the lasting change the Wild Horse Inmate Program in Colorado has achieved.
• 
  Marc Gingras

  amazing and inspiring!
• 
  Allison

  I have to say coming into this book, I wasn't really sure what I was in for the. As a horse lover and owner myself, I can personally account for the healing horses can offer.
  This book is filled with real life accounts of therapy via a human/horse relationship. Great read for horse lovers or anyone considering healing through horses.
  
  
  ** I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. **
  
  
• 
  Susan Grodsky

  Tim Hughes seems to be a very nice person. I bet he would be a good teacher of natural horsemanship.
  
  But writing just is not his thing! There are perhaps 25 pages of really useful information in this 247 page book. It's extremely repetitious. And his long-winded stories of children, convicts, and veterans whose autism, anti-social tendencies, or PTSD is cured by exposure to a horse are encouraging, but have a flat, predictable narrative arc. A more data-driven approach would have been more persuasive.
  
  There are some good insights, such as the observation that a horse in his natural environment spends the day grazing, walking, occasionally running, and being in physical contact with the other horses in the herd. If you've seen pairs of horses in a pasture, swishing tails in each others' faces, you've seen horses au natural.
  
  Given that, how happy can a horse be if he spends most of his days barely able to move because he is tied in a stall? Or in solitary confinement in a barren corral?
  
  Hayes correctly points out that many of the "vices" horses are said to have (such as gnawing at fences) arise from having their natural behaviors frustrated. I wish he had taken the next step and asked why horses must be confined in environments that frustrate their nature.
  
  I think one reason he doesn't go there, is that, in the end, he and I have very different attitudes towards horses. Although he is an advocate of natural horsemanship, his attitude is the common one: that horses are there to do what we want them to do.
  
  He knows that the horse is unhappy in that barren corral, he knows that horses don't like bits in their mouths and saddles around their bellies and people on their backs. They can be trained to accept all these things, because horses, like most herd animals, like most prey animals, adjust rather than fight. But it's not the life they want to live.
  
  And then you have me. It's been decades since I was a horse-riding 12 year old, mad to be flying over fences. Horses still make me happy. But now I am happy when I see them grazing in pastures. I am happy when I know that they are happy.
• 
  Anastasia Dmuhovska

  "Horses fascinate us; they silently speak to our hearts."
  
  The book Riding Home: The Power of Horses to Heal was published in 2015. The author of the book is Tim Hayes, who is a psychologist and a natural horsemanship clinician. This book is about the ability of horses to heal mental wounds, which prevent people from a fulfilling life. This book will show you how horses can help you find yourself again, and believe in your own strength. Each chapter tells a story that will definitely resonate in your heart.
  
  During the reading I couldn't help feeling that the author was a good old friend of mine, who generously decided to share his valuable knowledge. Obviously, the author was inspired to write the book by his own experience. Tim grew up in a troubled family, like most natural horsemen. The author believes that he is united with his colleagues by the desire to establish a special relationship with the horse, through compassion and respect, rather than through brute force and suppression of will. It was a negative experience, from the past, that led them to this concept of relationship. Fortunately, Tim found a way to heal himself, moreover, he realized that he could help others to do so, and the book is proof of that. A definite plus of the book is that none of my questions were left open. The author explained everything very clearly. This book is about getting back to yourself - Riding Home. "Horses help us discover hidden parts of ourselves."
  
  I highly recommend the book to anyone who has even the slightest connection to horses, or just loves these beautiful creatures. After reading it, you will enrich your inner world, better understand the nature of horses, and acquire hope for healing. This book will open to everyone the world, full of love, trust and compassion; the world of natural horsemanship.
  
• 
  MaryAnn Benson

  The premise of this book is very solid: the power that horses have to heal. Mr. Hayes goes into great detail about the nature of the horse psyche. He does a wonderful job of making the case for treating horses as sentient creatures capable of reading our emotions and responding to the most subtle shifts in body language. He provides some powerful anecdotes of people changed by their interactions with horses. A hardened prisoner comes to a fuller understanding of his own issues by training a wild horse. A combat veteran with crippling PTSD has a fortuitous encounter with a horse that saves her life. A teen-age drug addict with severe emotional scarring from a disastrous home life completely shifts his life trajectory with his work with horses and an autistic child completely out of control is miraculously changed when a horse named Alfie recognizes her need for unconditional love and she responds with her first beaming smile, setting the stage for life-altering relationship with horses.
  
  Hayes explains the concept of Natural Horsemanship, a training method which acknowledges and values the sophisticated intellectual and sensitive workings of the horse intellect. The writing is perceptive and informative.
  
  The one issue I have with the book is its redundancy and excessive description. There were times when I skipped ahead a paragraph or two because it seems as it was repetitive. The book could have been just as powerful and instructive with a much smaller word count. The anecdotes were the best part of the book and more than adequately illustrated the authors points. Much of the explanatory information could have been condenses.
  
  Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will recommend it to fellow horse lovers.
• 
  Evelyn Walker

  I wanted to like this book, I really did. The author tries so hard to convey the magic that many of us feel around horses, but it feels like he is trying too hard to make his point. I volunteer in the therapeutic riding industry and I see firsthand what horses can do for people, but I feel that this book might set people up with false expectations. The "magic" with horses and therapy doesn't just instantly happen, and sometimes it doesn't happen at all. And some of the scenarios he describes sound positively dangerous - sending a teenager with no knowledge of horses at all into a group of six horses without instruction or anyone accompanying him? That's a recipe for disaster, not matter how old and tame your horses. Also the author spends a lot of time talking about natural horsemanship, training techniques, and horse behavior. There was nothing new in any of this information, and I've read it many times in other books. Maybe, if I was unfamiliar with horses, and horse therapy this book would have been more interesting.
• 
  Carrie

  This book had a lot of promise. I feel like it ultimately fell flat. As a horse-lover and life-long horse owner/equestrian the magic of horses is something very real. While there were a lot of good examples in here, it was sooo repetitive and disorganized and some statements were just absurd. I won’t go into detail and ruin it for anyone but I’m glad I listened to this while doing other things and didn’t spend the time reading it.
• 
  Jessica Richters

  Probably more of a 3.5 for me, but I rounded up.
  The stories about people and horses coming together in this book are very inspiring and actually DO talk about the power of horses to heal.
  However, there's a good chunk of this book that talks about the "why's and how's" horses help people heal, which I guess is kind of interesting too, but it gets very repetitive...
  Over all, it's alright, but not as good as it was hyped up to be.
• 
  Chauntel Skye

  As a horsewoman who was witnessed the healing power of horses firsthand, I have to give the author a big thumbs up for making this knowledge accessible to the general population. That said, I felt the personal accounts were sometimes a little forced and cliché, and I think the themes of the chapters came across as a little disjointed or out of order. Overall great book and a must read.
• 
  Kim

  I love horses to begin with and this book just confirms why. It talks about how they are used for therapy for PTSD autism chemical dependency etc. Horses are great at understanding humans and if it doesn't like something you are doing you had better change it because they wont change their behavior. Great read for any horse lover
• 
  Meredith

  As someone who has been taking lessons for a year and looking into getting my own horse, I greatly appreciated this book. It enforced things I already know but really enlightened me on why I am so drawn to horses. It reinforces the importance of the trust and relationship that are built and the healing that comes with that relationship, even if you didn’t know you needed it.
• 
  Joanna

  I received a copy as a First Reads winner and loved it. I had a ranch for a few years where we rehabilitated injured show horses. From my experience with the physical and emotional issues we dealt with, I could easily relate them to what was discussed in this book--for both horses and humans.
• 
  Heather

  Sweet book. Needs more substance. I like the book because I love horses and learning about natural horsemanship, but this books is overly sentimental about horses and gushy with dramatic stories of people with PTSD (largely) , while the most salient content was few and far between.
• 
  Donna

  This is such an amazing, insightful read about the therapeutic benefits of horses. From those with PTSD, to troubled teens to anxiety disorders to autism, equine therapy has proven to be extremely beneficial.
• 
  Theresa

  Overall a good book. It gets a little repetitive but I learned a few things and it prompted me to reflect as well. Great book if you love horses and want to know a little bit about them as well as how they can heal and affect us.
• 
  Lynn Lidstone

  Loved this book! Tim Hayes is insightful and easy to read. I will read this again....and probably again.
• 
  Shelley

  meh. Just don't feel this lived up to the description.
• 
  Kim Ludeman

  Fantastic book!
  
  This book gave great case studies/ stories of how horses help heal the insides of humans! I love all the references for further insight and understanding.
• 
  Jeanne Chilson-Raza

  Excellent book
  
  This book was full of knowledge, examples, and lots of compassion. I would recommend everyone read this book!
  Lot of references to verify information as well
• 
  Rey

  AWE, just loved everything about this book. Such important and relevant information.
• 
  Tracey Gemmell

  An interesting read about the connections between humans in need and their equine friends. Probably more suited to the novice horseperson than those with more experience, but enjoyable for all.
• 
  Laura Lockhart

  I enjoyed this book and learning about the horses and trauma. Some of it was repetitive but overall a good read.