The History of Equine Therapy ~ By Michelle Shocklee

 

My latest novel, All We Thought We Knew, is set on a Tennessee horse farm during World War II and the Vietnam War. Researching wartime is always sobering. So many soldiers never make it home. So many come home changed--physically, spiritually, and mentally. Because one of the characters in the book is a wounded Vietnam warrior, I spent a lot of time reading about various programs created to help soldiers deal with everything they experienced during the war and everything they must face after they come home. 

One of the most fascinating programs is Equine Assisted Therapy. ETA can be used to treat a variety of conditions, including anxiety, autism, cerebral palsy, dementia, depression, developmental delay, mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and physical and mental conditions. It is also used for PTSD, loss of limbs, and other debilitating issues soldiers face when they return from war. After reading about the benefits to wounded warriors, I knew I wanted to include some type of horse therapy in the book, especially because I have some experience with it firsthand.

From Verywellmind.com

Many years ago I worked for an older couple in their home. Mr. and Mrs. B were retired and enjoying life when Mr. B suffered a stroke. I had the privilege of helping him with his speech and physical therapy during his recovery, but I also took him to equine assisted therapy appointments. There, I was able to observe how horses and people with disabilities or various issues interact with the horses. It truly is beautiful. 

But how has equine therapy come about and how has it evolved through the centuries? 

Me with some of our horses

Horses have been utilized as a therapeutic aid since the ancient Greeks used them for people with incurable illnesses. Some of the earliest recorded mentions of using horses in this way can be found in the writings of the Greek physician Hippocrates who discussed the therapeutic value of riding as early as 400 BC. Benefits of therapeutic riding were also recorded in 17th century literature where it is documented that it was prescribed for gout, neurological disorder, and low morale. In 1946 Equine Therapy was introduced in Scandinavia after an outbreak of poliomyelitis, or polio.

The type of horse therapy we see today had its beginnings in the 1950s. A Danish woman, Lis Hartel, won the silver medal in dressage in the 1952 Olympic Games. The reason this captured the world's attention is because Lis was paralysed. In 1944, Lis, then a 23-year-old pregnant mother, contracted polio and lost function of her legs. Gradually she reactivated most of her muscles, although she remained paralysed below the knees. After three years of rehabilitation, she was able to compete in the Scandinavian riding championships and finished second in women's dressage.

Lis Hartel,(Photo by Terry Fincher/Keystone/Getty Images)

Soon after, therapists in countries such as Germany, Austria, and Switzerland began to increasingly pair therapeutic riding with physical therapy treatment to inspire lasting neuromuscular changes in their patients. Word of this type of therapy spread. By the 1980s, American and Canadian therapists traveled to Germany to learn about it and bring it back to the USA. The American Hippotherapy Association (AHA) began in 1992, and the popularity and use of this type of therapy has grown.

Today, there are different types of equine therapy. Therapeutic Horseback Riding is used by disabled people who ride horses to relax, develop muscle tone, coordination, confidence, and overall well-being. Hippotherapy, which is the type of therapy Mr. B did, is an intervention used by a physical therapist, occupational therapist, recreational therapist, or speech and language pathologist and is also focused on people with physical disabilities. While therapeutic riding is mostly recreational with some clinical benefits, hippotherapy is mostly clinical with some recreational benefits. Equine Assisted Learning can be helpful for anyone with any sort of issue, and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy includes a therapy component so that the individual may reflect upon and further process his or her experiences with the horse. Through grooming, feeding, ground exercises, and riding, clients learn about themselves and others, and works with a therapist to discuss their feelings about working with horses. 

Your turn: Have you heard of equine therapy or know someone who has used it?

Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels, including   Appalachian Song, a Christy Award Finalist; Count the Nights by Stars, winner of the Christianity Today Book Award; and Under the Tulip Tree, a Christy Award and Selah Award finalist. Her work has been included in numerous Chicken Soup for the Soul books, magazines, and blogs. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of two sons and mother-in-law to two beautiful daughters, she makes her home in Tennessee, not far from the historical sites she writes about. Visit her online  at www.MichelleShocklee.com

ALL WE THOUGHT WE KNEW

1942
Ava must put her life back together after her husband is killed at Pearl Harbor. A job at Camp Forrest provides income, but it also puts her in contact with Enemy Aliens interned on the military installation. Can she trust the German medical student whose friendship means more to her than it should?

1969
Mattie ran away from the pain when her brother was killed in Vietnam. Now she’s back in Tullahoma facing another devastating loss. Yet it is the bundle of WWII letters Mama insists she reads that makes her question everything she thought she knew about herself.

https://www.tyndale.com/p/all-we-thought-we-knew/9781496484178

Why Did Being Left-Handed Turn Bessie Blount Griffin Into an Inventor and Handwriting Analyst?

Her elementary teacher rapped Bessie Blount Griffin's knuckles when she wrote with her left hand. Bessie's answer: She not only learned to be ambidextrous, but she also learned to write with her feet and her teeth.

Bessie Blount Griffin

If it was wrong to write with her left hand, the child reasoned, it must also be wrong to write with her right hand.

But this experience led to a lifetime of helping disabled people.

Bessie, born in 1914 in Virginia, attended a one-room schoolhouse built after the Civil War for children of former slaves. After sixth grade, she had to educate herself, as no secondary schools in her area accepted black students. She eventually made her way to New Jersey and was admitted to Union College and Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene. She became a nurse and a physical therapist.

Bessie Blount Griffin assisting a disabled
veteran to write with his toes.
Photo: Bessie Blount Griffin Foundation

It was her work as a licensed physiotherapist that led to her becoming an inventor--that and her natural curiosity and determination to help people. While working at Bronx Hospital in New York with World War II veterans who had lost hands on the battlefield, she realized that her own experience could help them. She began teaching them to write with their feet and their teeth. "You're only crippled in your mind," she told them.

Soon, she was experimenting with a feeding device that would allow a person without the use of arms to be more independent. The individual could bite on a tube and have bites of food delivered to his or her mouth. In 1951, she patented a portion of her design, a neck brace that supported a bowl or cup close to the mouth.

Portable Receptacle Support,"
B.V. Griffin, April 24, 1951,
U.S. Pat. No. 2,550,554 U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office

Bessie approached the U.S. Veterans Administration with her invention, but they were not interested. Neither was the American Veterans Association. Instead, she donated the rights to the French government, which put it to widespread use in their military hospitals.

Next, Bessie devised a disposable cardboard emesis basin. Since the VA showed no interest in this invention either, she licensed the patent for use in Belgian hospitals, where it remains standard equipment.

Because of her inventions, Bessie was featured on a TV show, The Big Idea, in 1953, becoming the first woman and the first African-American to appear on the show about the latest inventions. According to sources, she was not as interested in making money as she was in helping people. She is quoted as saying she had proved "that a black woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind."

Always looking for a new challenge, Bessie began to study handwriting analysis. She noticed her patients' handwriting would change depending on their condition, and she believed there were parallels between a person's physical and emotional well-being and their handwriting.

She specialized in graphology, the analysis of handwriting to profile behavior. A person's signature, she said, is as valid as fingerprints for identifying an individual. Police departments in New Jersey and Virginia hired her to conduct forensic research. In 1977, she became the first African-American woman to train and work in the documents division at Scotland Yard.

When she returned to the U.S., she continued her work as a forensic science consultant into her eighties. She worked with museums and researchers, using handwriting analysis to auth2oth Centicate documents related to slavery, the Civil War, and Native American treaties. Her family reported that she also continued to invent but did not apply for any other patents.

At the age of 94, she visited the site of the schoolhouse she had attended as a child in Virginia. Though it had burned, she wanted to build a museum there to honor the school's legacy. However, Bessie died just a year later, in 2009, before she was able to achieve that goal.

Nevertheless, the legacy of Bessie Blount Griffin lives on in her inventions, her forensic research, and her contributions for the benefit of others.

Sources:

The Inspirational Story Of Bessie Blount Griffin, The Trailblazing Wartime Physical Therapist and Forensic Scientist, Bessie Blount Griffin, The Pioneering Black Inventor And Nurse (allthatsinteresting.com)

Bessie Blount Griffin (1914-2009) • (blackpast.org)

Hidden Histories: Bessie Blount Griffin – Yale Scientific Magazine

The Woman Who Made a Device to Help Disabled Veterans Feed Themselves—and Gave It Away for Free | Innovation| Smithsonian Magazine

Bessie Blount Griffin: A Black Woman's Journey to Pioneering Forensic Scientist - A&E True Crime (aetv.com)

“Bessie Blount Griffin,” Virginia Inven, accessed May 5, 2024, https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/changemakers/items/show/169

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and 1940s. Her historical short story, “All That Glistens,” won honorable mention in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest.

Another historical short story tells of a cafe waitress who waits for the love of her life to come back to her after the war. “A Song for Annie” is available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes.