Therapy for People Relies
On ‘Equine Sensitivity’

By Sara Nelson

Up a winding dirt road in Brookfield, Georgie Stapleton and her husband, Brian Locke, have carved out an idyllic setting for their home of three years. Stapleton’s gardens add color to the hillside, and there is room to roam and a new, clean stable for Stapleton’s three horses.

The setting is also perfect for Stapleton’s new business. Stapleton, a counselor who has lived in Central Vermont for over 20 years, has developed a unique therapeutic practice that uses horses to provide behavioral feedback for people. Stapleton is calling her business Midnight Mountain: Equine Assisted Personal Empowerment.

Just a few years ago, Stapleton wouldn’t have predicted her life would lead in this direction. She had worked as an adolescent and addictions counselor for the Youth Services Bureau for close to two decades when a friend gave her a book about the spiritual presence and healing power of horses.

Although she’d been a "horse person all my life," Stapleton said she was skeptical of the book’s premise.

"It sounded hokey," she recalls.

She was so skeptical that when the author, Linda Kohanov, came to give a demonstration in Maine a few years ago, Stapleton decided to attend "basically in order to tell them how wrong they were."

To her surprise, Stapleton found herself converted by the "profound interactions" she witnessed between humans and horses at the workshop. In fact, the experience changed the course of Stapleton's life.

She quit her job and traveled west with her Morgan horse, Midnight. At Kohanov's Epona Center in Arizona, Stapleton studied "Equine Assisted Learning" with the author who had inspired her.

After completing her training with Kohanov, Stapleton said she knew that she wanted to find a way to combine the methods she’d learned with her own counseling experience.

Midnight Mountain allows her to do just that. With the help of Midnight and two other horses, Stapleton is offering monthly three-day workshops as well as individual sessions with her horses or the client’s horse. She also offers clinics at other barns.

Stapleton says the sessions can help participants "understand and build healthier relationships with people" and "teach people to be in their body."

Equine Sensitivity

"The premise behind the work is that as animals vulnerable to attack, horses have evolved to be extremely sensitive," Stapleton said. "If someone pretends to be happy when they feel sad, to a horse that's like the lion in the bushes."

Stapleton uses several exercises to harness the power of this equine sensitivity. For example, she said, an exercise in which participants physically set a boundary with a horse teaches them to be confident setting emotional boundaries with humans.

The group workshops Stapleton has developed include these equine exercises as well as yoga and group discussions. Designed for six participants, the workshops will also employ two co-facilitators drawn from a group of several mental health professionals in the area who attended Stapleton's first workshop, held in June.

Her next workshop will be held August 14.

Stapleton said she's still figuring out the financial side of the business with the assistance of Locke, an engineer who also helps with the technical details of Midnight Mountain. She said she may explore grant funding for work with certain groups, such as recently-released prisoners.

Stapleton said one of the challenges of starting her own business is "promoting myself, because I've never had to do it before."

As a horse person who is "fascinated by people," Stapleton seems to have found the right profession.

"What I love about this work is that it's so concrete," she said.

"As a counselor with 20 years of experience, a lot of times I could probably tell you what's going on, but the horses help you see it for yourself."

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