Without sounding too dramatic, horses could save your life.
This thought popped into my head as Charlene and I were partaking in the suicide awareness & prevention workshop at the Alliance Calvary Assembly church. One of their wonderful presenters, Youth Team Leader Jennifer Jacobo, was speaking specifically about suicide awareness and prevention relating to our society’s youth. Many EPH riders and volunteers fall into the youth demographic, so our attention piqued. Jennifer presented the statistic that 27.5 teens per 10,000 in the U.S. committed suicide in 2020; suicide is listed as the second leading cause of death among people aged 15-24. She brought this home by reflecting that Alliance, Nebraska, with its nearly 10,000-person population, could reasonably argue that this would be like losing one classroom of students per year. Sounds like a lot. To us, one sounds like too many.
Jennifer and the other presenters offered helpful advice, guidance and sources of assistance should you be confronted with this topic by someone you know and/or love and we encourage you to learn more about the warning signs and appropriate responses. Among the list of practical ways to help improve the mental health of our youth, including getting exercise, maintaining a healthy diet, setting goals for near-future life events, helping others in the community, encouraging healthy coping skills, one idea kicked up its heels: getting outside. Jennifer cited an article by Danielle Cohen entitled Why Kids Need To Spend Time In Nature (https://www.childmind.org/article/why-kids-need-to-spend-time-in-nature) which noted that the average American child spends about 4-7 minutes a day playing outside and over 7 hours a day in front of a screen. You would hope that our small town, with its recreational opportunities and agricultural-based activities, would lend itself to a greater availability of outdoor exercise opportunities, but unfortunately the norm appears to be a laser focus on phones and laptops instead of chasing butterflies or picking flowers. This crisis of a lack of getting off the couch and basking in nature has become known as Nature Deficit Disorder. The article recommends three hours a day of outside activity for kids to receive the benefits of being in nature. A possible solution is waiting out in the corrals.
The EPH herd is anxiously waiting to help the riders build self-confidence through improved riding skills. The social aspect of meeting like-minded people and riders who can’t wipe the smile off their faces after completing tasks while horseback cannot be overlooked. Learning empathy and responsibility for another living creature is a life lesson which extends acres and acres beyond the EPH property. Being asked to think creatively using their own imaginations and finding an outlet to express these thoughts through the horses, develops brain power necessary for a healthy mental state. A benefit of being involved with a program like East Point Horspice is the under-appreciated family bonding witnessed with nearly every rider. The interactions of riders and their families create conversations and memories for years to come.
The program at the very welcoming church proved to be one of those events we learn not to take for granted. If you subscribe to the notion that things happen for a reason then perhaps you shouldn’t ignore the possibility that the words you are reading should be taken as a gentle nudge to seek solace in the horses and their remarkable abilities to make us better humans.