Wine Country Times

Women’s Recovery Services (WRS), a nonprofit organization in Santa Rosa, has been providing a residential addiction treatment program for women for the past 50 years. Two years ago WRS added a new program called Weekend Discoveries, designed to offer classes, provided by volunteers from the community, for the WRS women on weekends.

The classes offer some fun, a time to let down and some enrichment during the weekend times. Classes have included activities such as collage art, hair cuts, flower art, dancing, writing, music, equine therapy, bees and honey, vision board, pilates, meditation and sound healing.

The feedback from the WRS women and the volunteers is one of shared appreciation. The women have loved the classes and shared their appreciation with the volunteers; and the volunteers have viewed their experience as an opportunity to share time, talent and caring in support of the women’s work toward recovery.

One of the classes that has been most unique for the women is the equine therapy class. It is offered by the owner of Rayo Ranch in Cotati, Hilary Merrill, who has been providing leadership for the equine program since 2023. She and her volunteers are paired with four amazing Mustangs who live at the ranch and who were gathered from the wild. Together, they have offered seven classes for the WRS women over the past 12 months.

The women’s experience at the Rayo Ranch includes sensory walks through the natural setting of the ranch where the women are asked for complete silence so as to tune their sense to their environment. They are encouraged to notice any details they see, feel, hear and smell. Next they gather in a peaceful spot under oak trees to practice a couple of movements inspired by Qigong before they are introduced to the horses. These breathing exercises encourage presence, body awareness, centering energy and calming intense emotions.

The women then gather, seated, in a circle in the covered arena. They participate in a demo on equine body language designed to help them feel safe and behave respectfully around the horses. And, it serves as an opportunity to symbolically discuss topics of interpersonal awareness, respect and trust.

They are now ready to visit the horses. They enter the pasture as a group, with the horses at liberty in the comfort of their home. Visiting the horses at liberty allows for more organic interactions, which offer more transformative experiences. The women are led in discussions about the energy they feel inside and around their bodies, and how those energies might attract or deter the horses. They encounter the topic of choice as horses have the freedom to choose to be with or keep distance, to visit or leave. Discussion follows about what it feels like when horses approach and what it feels like to be close to them, to invite touch, to feel fear and to physically connect with them. The women watch the herd move together as one and disperse, and they discuss what the horses may be saying through body language to each other.

After the pasture visit, the women return to the arena for leading exercises with the four program horses. Before beginning, the women discuss ideas of intention and presence. The women are asked to notice what their presence feels like in this moment, and then to choose what they want their presence to feel like as they walk with the horses. The women are asked to make an intention and then begin leading the horse across the arena and through a set of cones. Volunteers walk next to each participant to support them. Depending on the number of women in the class, they get two to three opportunities to practice exercises and with different horses.

Finally, the women are seated again in the arena for time to process the day’s experiences together.

The women readily share their feedback about their experience with the horses. Many speak to growth, joy, presence and connection as well as being calmed by the peace of being with the horses and in nature. Many are deeply moved by the non-judgmental presence and unconditional love of the horses.

Hilary shared her feelings and those of the volunteers about the equine classes, saying, "Their elation and fullness after a visit to our ranch is the greatest gift to me and to the volunteers."

Judy Ryder is a board member at Women’s Recovery Services (WRS), a nonprofit founded in 1975 that helps families recover from a mother’s addiction.