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00:00So I had my horse for 25 years. He died in my arms when he was old.
00:04It ended up being a really beautiful relationship, but it wasn't easy in the beginning.
00:09And somehow they just keep you going, they keep you going.
00:12They give you the comfort, they give you the support that you need, just like he's doing right now.
00:19So how we work with them in the sessions is that we allow them to be very free and we allow them to really interact.
00:26And they just know, they just feel what is required in a certain moment.
00:31And that's what we really use. And that's what makes it very different from the normal work with horses.
00:38Where in the equestrian world, the mindset is sometimes a little bit different.
00:44It's more about achieving something. In our sessions, you don't have to achieve anything, you can just be.
00:50And that's something I really like. It's the human part.
00:53And everybody is just allowed to be human when they come here.
00:57There is no right or wrong, everybody can just be who they want to be, including the horses.
01:03And that's where the healing part comes in. You don't have to wear a mask, you don't have to pretend anything.
01:09You're allowed to just be and to just feel. And that gives people a lot of release.
01:14And it gives people a time to be in nature, be connected to nature,
01:19which is something that we tend to lose sometimes in our busy lives.
01:23When you allow the horses the full freedom, and they know that they can participate or not, they're allowed to say no,
01:30you have to convince them using your feelings and your emotions.
01:34Like, you know, if you are doubting, the horse will feel that you're doubting.
01:39And you need to first convince yourself and you need to first trust yourself that you can do it.
01:43And then if you truly believe it, that's the moment the horse will come with you.
01:47And it's such a big visual impact, like you just see it, you know, once that feeling inside has changed,
01:53that it's a memory that really stays with you for a long, long time.
01:56So horses help us to really be very grounded, very present.
02:00And in these moments that you are very, very present, you can really understand a lot of things from yourself,
02:06because they mirror our emotions in a very special way.
02:11So yeah, it's been now over three years that we have helped a lot of individuals and a lot of groups.
02:17And we not only work here in the UAE, we also have retreats overseas where we take groups of people to travel.
02:24They travel with us to very unique locations like Georgia, Zanzibar, Spain.
02:29And we really have transformative retreats with them where there is really big breakthroughs.
02:36We recently had a group of seniors here with Alzheimer's.
02:40Forget Me Not is an organization that organizes a lot of events for these groups of people.
02:45And it was such a beautiful morning.
02:48We had a lot of volunteers here that were helping.
02:51And it was just so beautiful to see how kind and how calm also the horses behaved on that day.
02:56Like they just knew that they had to be very kind with these people.
03:01We had people in wheelchairs where we took the horse to the wheelchair so they could, you know, slowly lift their arm and touch the horse.
03:10Other people who were a bit still physically more fit were able to walk the horse or brush the horse.
03:17And just seeing the smiles on their faces was just...
03:20So our dream and our vision is really to spread a lot more awareness about how horses can also help people in other ways.
03:28Not just being a sports instrument, but really giving the horses...
03:32And there's a lot of horses in the UAE and there's also a lot of retired horses.
03:36To give them a second chance in life and give them a different meaning where they can help humanity from a very different viewpoint.
03:43And also there are so many beautiful moments that we witness.
03:48And to have more of that, to spread more of that, you know, bring more people to work with horses in a very unique way.
03:55And yeah, I think there is a big demand to also develop more of such centers where therapeutic interactions with the horses are predominant.
04:04Healthcare. There's a lot of people in the UAE who stay longer and longer and longer.
04:09Including also, you know, a lot of illnesses that come with that.
04:13And the horses can support in a great way.
04:16Horses are a huge symbol of the Arab culture, of the UAE.
04:22And they play such an important role.
04:24And I think this is a role where horses can still do a lot more than they are doing at the moment.