BY RACHEL SYDNEY GARFIELD
My mom taught me to ride at age three. At sixteen, I crashed during competition on a cross-country course in Vermont, walking my half-dead horse through the finish line on foot. I quit riding that day, running away from my dreams and a promising career as an eventer and show jumper. That grief haunted me for years.
Fast forward to my forties. As a single mother, I had finally gotten back in the saddle, sharing a young jumper with my twelve-year-old daughter, Julia. Ironically, I was writing a chapter about that first devastating fall when the second one happened.
It was a freezing day in North Carolina, and I was helping someone with their child’s young horse. Before my feet hit the stirrups, the horse bolted in a wild bucking frenzy. I was thrown several feet in the air and thought, “Please do not step on me” milliseconds before crashing on my back. I lay motionless, feet away from an electric fence. I’ve fallen dozens of times over my lifetime without a scratch. This time was different. I had broken three vertebrae (T12, S2, and S3), injured two lumbar discs, torn my rotator cuff, and injured my right hand.
My daughter Julia became my hero that day, managing the horses and talking to 911 while covering me with a horse blanket while I lay on the frozen ground. The firemen, EMTs, and hospital staff were incredibly compassionate. They administered pain medication, and I momentarily forgot my circumstances. Then reality crashed back with the diagnosis.
Overcoming the Mountain of Pain and the Discovery of the Equina Reset
For months, I lay flat on my back in a body brace. Standing between my dreams of returning to riding and my reality was a stark mountain of pain. Desperate to relieve it, I stumbled upon something life-changing, which I named “The Equina Reset.”
As a therapist specializing in trauma, pain, and sports psychology, I noticed a pattern. When pain hit, my fear increased, and I felt trapped in my body. I had lost my rhythm.
When I rose above those fearful moments and visualized cantering horses, I forgot the pain. I dug deep for answers and found myself reliant on the same dressage principles I internalized in my childhood of rhythm, relaxation, connection, impulsion, straightness, and collection. I condensed them into three simple steps, and this became my breakthrough.
The Three Steps: Reflection, Repetition, Release
The Equina Reset evolved from the revelation that the dressage principles that lead to harmony between horse and rider, also restore harmony inside the human brain and body, and boil down to three essential elements.
1. Reflection of Mind: While doing exercises, I would visualize myself cantering a jumper course. I could feel the wind on my face and the power of the horse beneath me. I painted horses from bed for months, putting passion into each brushstroke. The yearning in my heart to ride reconnected me to my lost dreams. Passion overtook me and ultimately had a healing effect.
2. Repetition of Body: Physical therapy had a rhythmic, repetitive quality like the circling, bending, and lengthening I did schooling horses. My thoughts drifted meditatively with each repetition. It had a familiar, trance-like effect reminiscent of the rotation of my hips in the saddle.
3. Release of Emotions: I pushed through the pain, wanting badly to ride again. This “thrust” that powered through me during physical therapy was the same impulsion powering a horse forward. I became unblocked. The integration of my mind, body, and spirit released the blocked energy and allowed pain to dissipate. It was reminiscent of the rhythmic quality of the horses’ gaits. It felt like a simultaneous release of all that blocked me.
The Goal Must Be Bigger Than the Pain
My yearning and desire to ride replaced the pain. It pulled me forward, and I forgot the pain. I held this goal in my mind, and it propelled me “through” becoming bigger than the pain. That was the critical shift.
The Results
The Equina Reset became my new way of life. Something unblocked and released. Ten months after fracturing three vertebrae, I was back in the saddle for five minutes at a time. Within weeks, I was riding for twenty minutes. I believe my “miracle healing” was due to this practice. It could easily have taken twice as long to heal.
There is a scientific explanation for my healing. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to create new pathways and essentially “rewire” itself during repetitive, positive habits. In trauma, the system is in a state of “fight or flight.” Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline create havoc on the body. To reregulate, we must activate the parasympathetic nervous system and engage in activities which bring us a sense of pleasure, safety, and joy.
I finally allowed myself to “have fun” both in the saddle as well as in daily life. I had to start over, one baby step at a time. I relied on painting as a distraction from feeling trapped in my body. The methodical brush strokes soothed me. This was due to the first dressage principle of rhythm. Even before we are born, we are soothed in utero by the rhythm of the maternal heartbeat.
In a world wrought by stress and fear, a new rhythm is paramount to well-being. People do not need a horse or a riding arena to heal. Walking, dancing, drumming, clapping, rowing, singing, tapping, sweeping, and even brushing an animal all have a positive effect on the nervous system. The concept of the Equina Reset is about moving through pain, maintaining balance, and going forward. In dressage, that energy is termed impulsion. During this transfer of energy, collection occurs, which is the final training principle. In reconnecting with passions and desires, we gain momentum to overcome whatever obstacles we face.
My practice of reflection, repetition, and release is the condensed version of the dressage training principles and became the path that allowed me to heal. In reclaiming joy, I moved forward. My recovery became the catalyst for living my best life and obtaining my biggest goals and dreams, including writing the book Ride it Out. I never would have guessed a backbreaking horse fall could transform my entire life, but it did. In the end, I discovered a whole new rhythm founded on safety, joy, and forward motion, and it was born from my understanding and love of horses.
Rachel Sydney Garfield is an equestrian, an artist, a therapist, and the writer of the upcoming book Ride It Out. 18 months after breaking three vertebrae in a horse fall, she relied on the dressage training principles and neuroscience to guide her own recovery framework and return to competition. Carrying on the resilient family legacy of her grandfather Sidney Garfield (creator of the Timex “takes a licking and keeps on ticking” campaign) she shares her path to help others navigate pain and obstacles. Follow her journey on Instagram: @rachel_sydney_equestrian.
