Managing Stress with “Horse Sense”: 12 Steps to Integrity With Your Horse

With more than 4 million horses in the United States, horse owners find that someone needs to be in charge and, unfortunately, sometimes it ends up being the horse. It’s not the relaxing relationship these owners had pictured in their mind. Enter author Rebecca Cook and her book “12 Steps to Integrity With Your Horse.”

“I wrote ‘12 Steps to Integrity With Your Horse’ for the modern horse loving adult owner who most likely does not have generations of horse knowledge handed down in their family,” she said. “It’s for readers who are looking to manage stress through equestrian activities but instead experience the horse taking charge, causing safety issues and increasing owner anxiety.”

In the past horses were used primarily as transportation and fieldwork. When motor vehicles came on the scene, horse numbers subsequently dropped dramatically but recently equestrian activities are on the rise with 4 million horses being used just for recreational purposes (Horse Council Statistics).

Unfortunately owners may view horses as large “pets” which leads to horses taking charge and owners feeling fearful. “12 Steps To Integrity With Your Horse” is a book that was written for adults as an educational training, a personal journal, and an adult coloring book. Like a 12-step program, the book takes readers through fear and stress relievers, building trust, and maintaining good boundaries with their horse.

“Most of my riding clients are middle-aged professional women who long for the smell of the barn and the friendly ‘neigh’ of their horse,” said Cook. “Work is stressful and riding is an intoxicating freedom, a form of physical exercise and escape for the spirit.” Cook is a life-long “horse person,” certified riding instructor and an equine specialist in mental health and learning.

She also said that research shows that focusing on something that's concrete and repetitive (coloring), relaxes the portion of the parietal and frontal lobes in your brain, the same areas connected to spirituality and those that are associated with meditation and prayer, hence the coloring portion of the book. The educational part of “12 Steps to Integrity With Your Horse” helps readers discover, for example, how to display leadership when the horse steps into their space by moving the horse back and away. Cook says, "Integrity for that step is not punishment but is more like a game of who moves whom."

Author Rebecca Cook is a life-long horse person, certified riding instructor and an equine specialist in mental health and learning. She has condensed over 25 years of professional experience in the equine-assisted activities and therapy industry into twelve steps to help adult horse owners strengthen their partnership with their horse. You can reach her at http://RebeccaCook.us or view her Amazon Author Central page at http://FullStride.info.