Colorado Singles Resource Guide - Fall 2007 - (Page 16) NON-PROFIT by Barbara Wright and Nancie McCormish horse Listener Suddenly alone and disoriented at 54, I floundered about trying to find an anchor in this strange land called Singlehood. It’s a fact that most the women will live out their lives alone past the age of 55 and die in their late seventies “went up and down like it was pulled by a string” and only after hearing the words “SOLD TO ” echoing over the loudspeaker did I realize I had somehow purchased the royal red horse for a song without even a bidding number. Once at home, we discovered he was afraid of everything. Not always the same things, not always predictably. His responses were hair-triggered. He pulled, he got loose, he jumped fences, he was even afraid of the sound of his own hooves on the ground. Some days he was calmer than others, so we started thinking of him as Victoor 1 and Victoor 2, never knowing which horse would show up. We tried most of the standard methods to work and early eighties dependent on only themselves for company. What to do with this perhaps 30-year stretch of single living? Time to reinvent oneself. This brings up huge questions for women who have spent their lives in service to their families, friends, relatives and co-workers. I went into therapy briefly looking for answers to these questions and experienced EMDR, a fast-acting stress therapy that allowed me to clear a path back to sanity after the emotional rollercoaster of divorce. How this therapy experience and horses intersected is miraculous, ironic, laughable and all somehow fitting. Finding Victoor I had attended an auction in Calhan with the intention of purchasing a few PMU foals, the byproducts of pregnant mare urine factories, weaned early and typically sold at slaughter auctions for the few dollars they bring. Wandering through sale pens on that cold January day, a very tall chestnut-colored Arabian stood out among the crowd of anxious horses awaiting their fates. He seemed to “stand like a prince”. As he was later led into the sale ring, he seemed to “own” it. The announcer barked his name “Victoor PF”, and divulged he had once been a champion Arabian halter stallion in Arizona. My arm He pulled, he got loose, he jumped fences, he was even afraid of the sound of his own hooves on the ground. with spooky horses but ended up with the proverbial “beautiful garden ornament.” Studying the fear cycle in humans made me realize that Victoor’s responses were identical to those exhibited by people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. The only element missing in his fear was language. Since humans and horses are both mammals, I decided to try adapting human treatments like the one I had experienced to help Victoor. Within one hour I had positive results and I called it Equine FALL 2007
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.