Horse Riding Accident
The client’s story and photos are shared here with her full consent.
Case Example by Rose Ferguson
In 2016, Cherry experienced a catastrophic horseback riding accident. As a relatively new rider, this caused quite an impact on her, but she had wanted to learn how to ride for years and she was determined not to let fear control her. Just four months later, she was back in the saddle and had even launched Nalani Horse Rescue, whose mission is providing care and rehabilitation to horses who have suffered abuse, trauma and neglect.
But despite her determination to ride and her dedication to saving horses, she no longer enjoyed riding. Anxiety crept in every time she thought about riding. Because wind had caused her accident, she felt especially apprehensive on windy days. Even after getting her own horse, who was known to be a safe horse, just to ride for relaxation and fun, she had anxiety just getting on the mounting block.
Cherry developed some good intellectual tools during talk therapy with a specialist in riding accidents. While she understood and applied the tools intellectually, she felt that her body still carried the stress and the fear.
Curious to explore further, she researched different approaches, including EMDR and IEMT. After hearing about others’ experiences, she chose IEMT and found the process both fascinating and revealing. In her very first session, we focused on her most powerful negative memories: the near-fatal accident eight years earlier, a more recent fall, and the painful emotions tied to her time in the emergency room, as well as her long and painful recovery.
The impact of her first session was immediate. Soon after, while driving, a bag blew across the road in front of her car. Before IEMT, such a moment would have triggered a racing heart and overwhelming anxiety. This time, she felt calm, with no visceral reaction at all.
Over four sessions of IEMT, Cherry uncovered that her riding anxiety was just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Old negative memories and unresolved feelings also surfaced and were released.
Her transformation was remarkable. I feel like a normal person,
she said. Her riding posture improved, her body relaxed, and mounting her horse no longer carried the weight of fear. She was able to notice the difference in herself, and fellow riders also noticed the physical change in her riding posture.
For years, Cherry had carried the pressure of keeping herself safe while also worrying about how her anxiety might transfer to her horse, creating a cycle of tension between them. By releasing her own fears, she freed both herself and her horse to ride in harmony once again.
