This page: Jake Taraksian,
a client at Yellow Horse, in
Ashaway, with Twix and
Joye Briggs, Yellow Horse
founder. Facing page:
Joye Briggs with Bonny.
DIESEL SAUNTERS CLOSER,
reaching his white and gray marbled
head across the paddock’s fence. His
hooves sink in the muddy terrain and
his haunches quiver as his nose sniffs
the air. His eyes are laser focused on the
driveway as Tamara* approaches.
The twenty-year-old former ranch horse chortles a high-pitched
whinny while tossing his cropped mane. Tamara puts her palm to
his jowl, gently stroking his neck and giving him a kiss on the
cheek. He wraps his head around her shoulders in as much of an
embrace as a horse can offer.
The reunion is sweet, but brief. They did not come for caresses
or a walk in the woods. Today they have work to do. For Tamara,
there will be tears, anger and vulnerability as each of her equine
therapy sessions with him have been. She shares feelings with the
horse she didn’t know she had.
58 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MAY/JUNE 2020
Like other clients, Tamara first approached equine therapy, and
Diesel, with trepidation, insecurity, confusion, judgment. She knew
nothing about this therapy, and at the time, wasn’t ready or able
to deal with herself. This is what equine-assisted psychotherapy
is about, however. It allows angry, hurt clients to connect in a safe
space and deal with pain that is wreaking havoc on their lives — on
their terms, in their own time.
“I was in a bad place for so long,” says Tamara, a thirty-year-old
mother of three from East Providence. “I bounced in and out of
homelessness most of my life, endured abuse and abandonment.
I doubted myself, didn’t think I was worthy. Some days I couldn’t
even get out of bed, I was so depressed. And this barn is the only
place where I feel comfortable letting my emotions out. It sounds
so simple, but I just need to take a deep breath and get out of my
head for a bit. Diesel knows that. He’ll be on the other side of the
paddock and he’ll come over to me at the right moment. I just know
that he’s telling me, ‘You know who you are, what you’ve overcome,
*Name changed to protect identity