Nearly four and a half years ago, this teen client came to Project Horse. She was from a local residential treatment facility and they were starting an 8-week equine therapy program. During our group introductions on the first day, I was taken aback when I turned to meet this girl but only saw hair.
All of her features were covered by a thick veil of shoulder length hair.
After the introductions, we walked to each pasture to meet the horses. As we walked, the other participants talked and eagerly looked around to see which horses we'd be meeting first. The teen girl, invisible by her cloak of hair, walked in silence with head bowed. Using her fingers, she continually combed and arranged her hair so it remained safely covering her entire face.
We stopped at a few pastures to meet the rescued horses and hear their stories, many of which are both heartbreaking and heartwarming. The teen girl approached the fence and put her hand out to greet each horse, but made sure her hair stayed over her face.
We then came to a pasture with two special rescues - they were wild mustangs. They had once lived free out west, but one day they were rounded up, taken from their families, and put into new homes with people who did not treat them very well. These mustang mares eventually ended up at an auction house, but a rescue organization found them and got them safety out. The mustangs, aptly named Faith and Hope, made their way to Project Horse where they would live until a forever home on a mustang sanctuary could be secured.
As the story was told, the mustangs came to the fence. The dark mare named Faith, with her childlike curiosity, was interested in meeting the teens. Yet poor treatment in the past by humans made her unsure and nervous about what to expect... Faith stood restlessly at the fence with her long wild-looking forelock covering her eyes and falling halfway down her long nose.
We then saw the teen girl with hair covering her face stand very close to Faith. At that moment, Faith stopped moving. She stood very still, her head now hanging quietly over the fence. Faith allowed the teen girl to stroke her nose and face. The two - girl and mustang - appeared suspended in time, connected from the instant they came into contact.
In a moment that no one there will ever forget, the teen girl parted her hair out of her eyes, revealed her features and gave Faith a gentle kiss on her nose. This was the first time any of the treatment facility staff had seen the girl's face since she came to the residential center 5 months before.
Something happened for both the girl and the mustang that day, during those few but significant minutes at the fence. Each seemed to intuitively know what the other needed: an opportunity to expose oneself, while remaining safe and non-judged. Both horse and girl exchanged the gift of unconditional acceptance that day, allowing each to begin to consider other possibilities, with a newfound sense of confidence and hope.
During the next several sessions, the teen girl revealed more and more of her face. She became fully engaged in the program activities with all of the horses, not just the mustangs. And on the final day of our equine therapy group, she had her hair pulled completely back from her face.
We felt honored to witness the moment when a little dark mustang mare and an invisible girl found each other so that their healing could begin.