The Horse Connection | A Horse Story

By: Ashley Vitola

My mother has been diagnosed with several diseases that affect her immune system and put her in a lot of pain. I often get frustrated with her because she can not do some of the things my friends mothers can do, but there is one thing we share together and that’s our love for horses. I mean I love my horses, but there is something about my mother that I was not aware of. If she was ever down or depressed because she wasn’t feeling well she would say, “I’m going to the horses I need my time alone.” My father and I respected her wishes and let her be. We often asked her why she went out there when she wasn’t feeling well. We figured since she was in so much pain how would going out to the horses do her any good? Then once when we were feeding the horses I was watching my mother, and I don’t mean just watching her talking to the horses but really watching her. Id never taken the time to watch her so closely, but what I saw touched me. She has this connection with the horses.

When she is with them her pain seems to disappear, and there is no one around just her and her horses. My mother had taught me a lot without even knowing she was teaching me. She showed me how something as being with someone or something she loves heals her, and somehow in the midst of it all I learned how to communicate better with my mother and to accept her illness. I owe it all to the horses, and now that I think about it they are healers you just have to be the kind of person willing to let them into your soul. It may sound weird, but they are healing my mother in her own way.