There is an old Arab proverb that declares the horse to be God’s gift to mankind. I reflect on those words now, as I watch a small, 6 year old autistic boy make his way across a muddy field in the early light of a crisp autumnal morning. In his wake follow two beautiful thoroughbred racehorses.
It was a scene that could have come straight out of a Hollywood movie. As it was, I was stood beside a field in a remote and tranquil corner of Bride, on a cold Saturday morning in late November. This is Chajara, a new and unique enterprise that is focused on the concept of healing through horses. The brainchild of Charlotte Mackenzie and Rachel Smith, it began life a few months ago, when the pair were generously gifted three horses from the Shadwell Estate in Thetford, England. Charlotte takes up the story:
‘I had returned from Dubai full of the desert and I wanted to bring that connection and all the positive things that had happened to me out there back home. I’d been in the thoroughbred racing industry for over 20 years and out in the Middle East I had been working with one of Sheikh Hamdam bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s trainers, so I approached my contacts there to see if they would be willing to help. Amazingly, the Shadwell Estate jumped at the chance to help. Other centres in the UK have had a lot of success with using ex racehorses in rehabilitation and education programmes, but there is nothing like it in the Isle of Man, so I wanted to try to give something back, both to the horses themselves and to the people who would best benefit from their contact with them.’
One such person is young James, who has been coming here for a few weeks now. His contact with the horses seems to have had a profound affect on him, something that his mother has become all to aware of, as she goes on to explain. ‘Because he doesn’t speak, James can’t tell anybody what he wants and he gets very frustrated. Children with autism have a totally different perception to things; they see and hear things differently. Here he can be totally chilled, just wandering around and checking things out. This is perfect. He has freedom and there is no noise, its absolutely gorgeous.’
The seeds of this innovative idea were first sown on a small farm in rural Ontario, Canada, where, as a child, Charlotte watched her parents dealing with the children of their city friends. Each summer, the farm would become a haven for kids from the suburbs, who were able to channel their energies into positive pursuits; energies that may have otherwise have sent them down a different road entirely. It is a memory that has stayed with Charlotte all her life and one that will ultimately turn Chajara into a proper farm, one where people; whether they be children or adults, special needs or simply troubled, can come and heal. Both Charlotte and Rachel are aware that it is a process that works both ways. ‘I remember how I was transformed going through the process on the farm’, says Charlotte, ‘I was a city kid and I was not happy. I was troubled. Then my parents go out and buy a farm and my whole life changed.’ Even Rachel’s own children have benefited from their association with the horses and all three are now more than happy to wander around a field with an oversized wheelbarrow and a shovel collecting horse manure. Chajara is very much a family orientated enterprise.
A qualified Equine Sports Massage Therapist, as well as a Reiki practitioner, Charlotte first met Rachel four years ago when Rachel attended a healing session. The pair connected straight away and as Charlotte began to contemplate more and more the whole idea of Chajara, she turned to Rachel as a kindred spirit. Rachel also comes from a horse racing background and both seem to compliment each other perfectly, with Charlotte readily admitting that it is Rachel’s steadying influence that keeps her firmly earthbound. But with the dream now beginning to take shape, both fully admit that what they really need are better facilities and funding. The field they are currently using has been unselfishly loaned to them by Charlotte’s neighbours, but as the enterprise grows, both realise that they will soon outgrow their current location and are looking around for more suitable premises.
With the growing interest surrounding the recent book and film of ‘The Horse Boy’, Rupert Isaacson’s moving account of his own spiritual journey of discovery with his autistic son Rowan, Charlotte and Rachel are keen to capitalise on this renewed belief in the power of the horse. Charlotte openly admits that Isaacson’s story was a big inspiration to her and she approached him for advice and feedback when she first conceived the idea, finding him incredibly supportive and helpful.
The ultimate aim is to provide a centre where there will be opportunities for people - children and adults alike - to learn the social skills that most of us take for granted and to examine their own needs and relationships through their interaction with the horses. Speaking to James’s mom, it seems that Chajara fills a need that is greatly lacking on the Isle of Man and she would love to see it expand so that more children like her son could benefit. In the UK, places like the Greatwood Charity have been helping to rehabilitate former racehorses and children with special educational needs for years, but this is the first such venture over here. As Charlotte points out ‘...there isn’t actually a centre where children, or whoever, can come and have nature, horses and healing all in one place. When James first came here he was very wary of getting dirty. Today he was happily wading through mud in his wellies with the other children. You can’t package that. That is the essence of nature.’
Winston Churchill once wrote: ‘There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man’. Looking around me at the smiles on the faces of young James and Rachel’s own three children, I can well believe that. Chajara seems to appeal to a basic need in all of us, one that many of us tend to lose sight of amongst the hustle and bustle of everyday life. As Charlotte so eloquently puts it, ‘...its all so authentic somehow. Horses see through the hypocrisy and the facade’.
For more information about Chajara contact Charlotte Mackenzie or Rachel Smith at Chajara@hotmail.com, or take a look at the ‘Chajara, Healing Through Horses’ Facebook page.
