At Pine Hill Ranch, Joy And Healing Go Hand In Hand

Feature image: Stacey Garrett, director. Photos by Jane Colclasure

Few spots in Arkansas offer the sort of peace that one finds upon arriving at Pine Hill Ranch.

The path begins on Colonel Glenn Road in Little Rock, just off Interstate 430. Car dealerships and gas stations turn into apartments and residential subdivisions before giving way entirely to gentle rolling hills and stretches of pasture broken up by the occasional singular home.

After navigating the winding two-lane stretch, a quick right hand turn onto Congo Ferndale Road brings visitors to Pine Hill Ranch and an experience unlike anything that can be found in the city. The silence in the air, broken up by the occasional singing bird or trilling insect, is inviting and welcoming, enticing visitors to exhale and take it all in. This is where people come to connect, where they get back in touch with things once lost.

A cozy, homey front office is connected to a row of stables, each one a home to a different horse. This is typically the best place to find Stacey Garrett, the ranch’s bubbly and enthusiastic director. Some people spend the better part of their lives scrabbling about trying to find a calling, but Garrett is exactly where she wants to be. She grew up on a farm in Kansas, a farm that included two Shetland ponies that took her breath away, and she has been living in that moment ever since.

It is Garrett who tends not only to the gentle animals in the stables but to the people who find their way there. Some are there simply to ride or to learn how to do so. Others, groups of others, can be found using Pine Hill Ranch’s scenic space for weddings and even corporate events. Some — many, in fact — come to Pine Hill Ranch to heal.

“Anyone that has ever spent any time around horses knows that everything around horses is therapeutic,” Garrett said.

That was not something Garrett dwelled upon too heavily when she was younger. She loved horses, loved riding them, grooming them and taking care of them. She loved competing with them, eventually heading off to Oklahoma State University to become part of the school’s first-ever equestrian team.

Garrett would realize later that the feelings of comfort and safety she took from horses was more common than she knew. The more she read up on the concept, the more she realized that the same experience she had on that farm in Kansas could be recreated as a means of helping people navigate trauma. She has been at it ever since.

“That has always been kind of my story, to come from a competitive background training and riding for Oklahoma State,” Garrett said. “Having horses in my life in that role was a little different than where I find myself now, but the therapeutic benefits and the joys and the peace that I got from horses has always been there.”

That joy and peace is not just some abstract hunch Garrett has been mulling around, she is backed up by reams of data. A 2021 study conducted by the National Institutes of Health concluded that equine-assisted therapy can improve patients’ cognitive, emotional and affective functions, as well as fine and gross motor functions, which can help positively affect conditions such as acute anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, among others.

That makes Pine Hill Ranch so much more than a place to ride horses. The ranch is home to Healing Hooves, which can best be described as Pine Hill’s therapeutic and clinical arm. Garrett functions as Healing Hooves’ executive director, handling patient referrals from outside clinics and serving as a certified equine therapy practitioner.

“Here at Pine Hill, we have that mindset of horses reaching people at very different levels, especially for Healing Hooves,” Garrett said. “We’re just intentional with those steps. Brushing a horse is therapeutic. Walking a horse is therapeutic. Riding a horse is therapeutic. We have all these steps that we have data for that are proven to be therapeutic.”

Of course, just about any pet owner could argue that interaction with a loving animal is therapeutic, and they are likely not wrong. Yet hippotherapy, the term given to equine-related activities prescribed and led by a licensed therapist, is more than good vibes; it is also hard science. A horse’s rhythmic gait mirrors the pelvic movement of human walking, leading to the rider making continual microadjustments to maintain balance and proper posture while riding. Not only does that aid in developing core strength, body awareness and general coordination, but it has also been proven to aid conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy and even traumatic brain injuries.

The key is the breadth of emotional intelligence found in horses. Unlike certain other animals, horses can read human emotions, going so far as to be able to recognize a person’s facial expressions and body language as positive or negative. Horses also have an advanced long-term memory. What that boils down to is that horses choose people just as a person may choose a horse, and they have the cognitive ability to remember their favorite people when they arrive for therapy. For some, simply being “chosen” by a particular horse can have proven psychological benefits.

That is something Dr. Susana Mora understands too well. A licensed veterinarian, barn manager and lead instructor at Pine Hill Ranch, Mora left her native Colombia to pursue a career in America. Very quickly, she found herself missing the horses that marked so much of her childhood.

“I moved to Arkansas three years ago,” Mora said. “I’ve always loved horses. Horses have been part of my life since I was 2 years old. I came here, and I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have any horses around, so I’m like, ‘I need horses.’ I was driving by one day, and I saw this huge property, and I’m like, ‘Wow, that barn looks amazing.’ I called to schedule a tour, and that’s when I started volunteering here.”

Mora found horses at Pine Hill Ranch, and more importantly, she found the comfort that comes with them.

“When you drive through here, you just feel like you’re in another world,” Mora said. “It’s just so peaceful. It’s my happy place.”

Specifically, Mora’s joy came from a horse named Wilbur, who chose Mora as quickly as she took a liking to him. Feeling that daily connection never gets old.

“Being with Wilbur brings me back to my calmness,” Mora said. “It centers me again. I think that’s what we want to give to people, to bring them to a space of tranquility and peace.”

Right along with that tranquility and peace is accessibility. Between hosting events, giving riding lessons, offering boarding for horse owners and the all-important therapeutic services offered through Healing Hooves, there is something for pretty much everybody at Pine Hill Ranch.

“This is not for cowboys and cowgirls,” Garrett said. “It’s for humans.”