Sincerus Healing is a non-profit organization with the mission to help youth and adults who have struggled in the justice system. The program promotes healthy habits and healing through interacting with horses.
On Saturday, the organization held an event at Frog Pond Farm in Cedar Grove called “Healing Power of Horses” where they did just that.
Meg Raymond is the executive director of Sincerus Healing. She has a background in social work and has worked in clinical settings with families and adolescents for around 10 years. Raymond starts the event off by leading introspective exercises and reflecting on the purpose of the day before heading to the horse barn. During the event the group is introduced to a horse by petting, brushing, and speaking to it.
Though she has no formal background working with horses, Raymond is learning to appreciate the animals and the natural environment.
“I think horses offer such a wonderful mirror for not only your behavior,” Raymond says, “and not only how you are consciously presenting, but how you might be unconsciously presenting yourself. They’re not gonna lie to you. They’re also not gonna judge you. And it’s really such a beautiful way to explore what might be going on under the surface in a very non-confrontational way.”
Helen Ingersoll is the founder of Sincerus Healing and owner of Frog Pond Farm. She struggled with substance issues as a teenager and was institutionalized.
Ingersoll says she understands the difficulty of re-entering the world after being institutionalized. Horses helped her throughout that transition and now she wants to help others. Ingersoll started the non-profit in 2019 and says it has been growing ever since.
“The idea came behind my own personal journey with horses specifically, and how I was starting to see the opportunity for personal development alongside the lessons that the horses were teaching me,” says Ingersoll. “And so I decided that since I had horses and I had a farm and I had the venue and I had the space and the insight and experience that I wanted to create something where I could offer that to other people.”
William McKinney Jr. is a Chapel Hill local and has attended the event multiple times. As an animal lover himself, it immediately piqued his interest when he saw the flier on Franklin Street months ago. McKinney says he’s learned and continues to learn from the horses.
William McKinney shares a moment with Ripley (the oldest horse at the farm).
“I’ve had situations where I felt like boundaries were pushed on me,” McKinney says. “And I see how these horses, they don’t let the boundaries take away their happiness.”
He says uses the event as a form of therapy, to relax his mind and be in nature. At the event, he learns to groom horses by brushing their backs and picking out their hooves.
One of the last exercises is leading the horse in a walk without assistance. McKinney plans on coming to future events as much as possible.
“It kind of gives you some peace while you’re here,” he says. “Then you think about the horses, it makes you see how when you’re not taking care of yourself, how you go down. But I see how the horses have been taken very good care of. I just learned that if a horse could be happy, I could be happy.”
Erin McGovern works for the Criminal Justice Resource Department in Orange County. This program is offered to people in recovery or who have been recently incarcerated in the CJRD.
Erin McGovern stands in front of the entrance to the pasture at Frog Pond Farm.
McGovern attends the event for her personal benefit as well. She explains why she believes working with horses can help better her own communication skills.
“It’s another way to learn how to kind of relate and even learn more about themselves and what they’re putting off to others,” says McGovern. “I think it’s important to realize what type of aura you are putting out to the world and a lot of people don’t realize that, and I think interacting with horses or other animals can help them read that.”
At the end of the event, the group circled up and threw around a soccer ball with reflective questions taped to it. Everyone took a turn answering a question. Raymond ended the exercise with a prompt about setting boundaries.
The group circles up to do the last exercise of the day.
“The more that we just endure something, sometimes the more that we just stay with something,” she says. “Even if it might be uncomfortable for us, we definitely get seen as maybe kind and compassionate. But where could we maybe set boundaries and maybe even surround ourselves with people that praise us for that.”
Photo via Healing Power of Horses event
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