Rhode Island Monthly March 2020 | Page 80

Carol Allen, founder of HorsePowerment, poses with Arie and Rollin in front of her classroom. W e’ve all heard of pet therapy, a.k.a. animal-assisted therapy, a.k.a. people relying on animals to help them recover from or better cope with various health issues ranging from cancer to anxiety (thanks, mayoclinic.org). So it’s understandable why people might assume that Tamarack Farm HorsePower- ment, with its horse-driven sessions, falls into the same category. They’d be wrong. “Therapy is more about dealing with the past and learning coping strategies; Horse- Powerment basically picks up where therapy leaves off,” says owner and founder Carol Allen. “Our mission is to supply skills for the future, help people develop their leadership and communication skills through tailored equine assisted learning programs.” We’re sitting at a folding table in her classroom, an open red barn on the edge of Tamarack Farm in Coventry’s village of Greene. Allen and her husband, Ron, are on brand — she in a fuzzy zip-up embellished with wild horse illustrations and he in his workman jeans. (The most country thing about my attire is my sturdy boots; I was warned to wear shoes I wouldn’t mind getting dirty.) We also have some company: A sweet cat named Sammy purrs away on my lap and two muzzles 72    RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MARCH 2020 poke out from the stable behind me, overseeing our chat. Allen, a Pennsylvania native who grew up riding horses and later driving and training them, started HorsePowerment last year while getting ready to retire after twenty years in education. “I knew that I wanted to continue helping my kids, my special needs population, during retirement,” she explains. “Then, one day, I was reading through a horse magazine and there was an article about programs that help humans understand, based on the way they interact with horses, how they can improve their communication skills, team-building skills, leaderships skills, confidence and more.” But what’s so great about horses? “Horses are prey animals, so their number one concern is safety,” Allen explains. “They naturally work best in teams, as a herd, and they react immediately to what’s in front of them — that’s what’s kept them alive for millions of years. They can perceive what you are thinking before you even decide to act on it. If you’re nervous, not having a good day or not giving the task at hand your undivided attention, they’re going to pick up on that and think that they can’t trust you as a leader. They will keep their distance. Through their reactions, horses are able to show us when we are being clear, focused and effective. It gives people the opportunity to experience immediate, direct and unbiased feedback.” Allen already had the horses: Arie, a twelve- year-old Arab-Paint, and Rollin, a thirteen- year-old Morgan. Regularly calling them her “boys,” Allen likens them to the odd couple as Rollin is messy and Arie is neat (but neither is immune to a treat or two, I learn when they gobble some up from my palm). She also had more than thirty years of experience with the gentle giants, and had her spacious property, Tamarack Farm, to set up shop. “I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to get this training,’ ” she recalls. “It’s amazing how when one door closes, another door opens.”