Woman Heals Patients through Equine Therapy during Pandemic

Janet has an office in The Woodlands and an equine therapy ranch called Trails Less Traveled in Magnolia. Horses, miniature donkeys, and a dog help people with conditions such as bipolar disorder, addiction, autism, et cetera.

“It’s not about the quantity of horses you have because sometimes you have a family come and you just use one horse,” she says.

The horses have helped patients with loneliness and anxiety during the pandemic.

“Horses can’t get COVID-19 so being in the outdoors and interacting with equines has just been amazing for people. For a while I had to take a break from my office for about two months…and I even took a break from equine sessions because we didn’t know how this (pandemic) was going to affect people,” she notes.

Ms. Nicholas has begun offering sessions at Trails Less Traveled again, though.

“They (horses) are incredibly intuitive at what they do. They have the best sight, sound, hearing, sense of touch…because they’re trying to stay alive all day long. That’s just bred into them. They are also relational…herd animals,” she says.

No expertise with them is necessary and patients do not have to ride them. She notes they can read nonverbal expressions very well. For instance, they notice when a patient is nervous.

Janet says what she likes best about running Trails Less Traveled is being out in nature and jokes that what she likes least is working in the Texan summer heat. She also enjoys that horses are not like dogs.

“You cannot just call a horse over to you. They’re prey animals and so it’s really about relationship building,” she says.

Even one of the animals benefits from being at the ranch. Deetz the horse, a rescue, was addicted to chewing fences as a result of his trauma but today he lives there happily and is one of the most popular ones at the facility.

Trails Less Traveled was founded in 2006. Ms. Nicholas treats people twelve and older.