Chester understands boundaries and body language. Chester can read someone’s energy and react accordingly. Chester might be just what people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder need to get on with their lives.

And he works for sugar cubes.

Chester is a 20-something horse used at the new Medicine Horse Center of Montana, a ranch north of Whitefish serving as an equine therapy center.

Natalie Norrell, the therapist, and Bobbi Hall, the horse whisperer, are planning to specialize in adolescent and veteran therapy.

“The way we work is by building a relationship with the horse,” Norrell said. “The opportunity to connect to the horse is a privileged one. Horses don’t connect to people unless they feel you’ll show up and connect as well.”

According to Norrell and Hall, horses are intuitively connected to body language and people’s attitudes. If a potential therapy patient is stiff and standoffish, the horse will mirror the actions.

The type of therapy is an excellent one for people who may not have normal or healthy boundaries, such as those who have suffered from rape or sexual assault.

“On the surface, the experience seems really simple,” Norrell said. “But it can have really profound implications for the person in therapy.”

Hall, who raises the horses with her daughter, laughs at the term horse whisperer.

“They whisper to me,” she said. “I’ve been around horses my whole life but have been doing equine-assisted learning for just over two years. The work I’m doing now I just like so much better.”

For patients, or for a reporter who didn’t know what he was getting himself into, Norrell and Hall take the person into an arena of sorts with a therapy horse.

Chester, the horse with a kind demeanor, is one of these hoofed therapists.

Hall will bring the horse over to the patient and let them sort of gauge each other. If the person shies, the horse will as well. If the person had open body language, the horse will feel more comfortable.

After introductions, the patient can walk with the horse around the arena, gesturing to help the horse keep its distance or speed. It can give patients a sense of control of their lives, that another living being will respond to boundaries and body language.

A lack of body language could lead to Chester (or any other horse) licking your hand to get your attention, which makes it sticky taking notes later.

This playful method of therapy can be ideal for patients who may have come reluctantly.

“Research is starting to show that when working with adolescents, horses are incredibly effective,” Norrell said. “Horses don’t feel like therapy. Some teens don’t want to talk to a person, but they may feel comfortable working with horses.”

After the initial encounter  with a horse, dictating body language and boundaries, there is plenty of experience to get up on the animal itself.

Norrell hopes to work with The Learning Center at Red Willow in Missoula, Veterans Affairs and with at-risk youth in the Flathead Valley.  

“Horses are highly effective at treating post-traumatic stress,” Norrell said. “When we have trauma, there is a series of events that sort of shuts off the Broca’s Area, the part of the brain that regulates speech. It just kind of goes offline and many PTSD sufferers find it difficult to process things verbally.”

Norrell, Hall and horses such as Chester could be instrumental for patient recovery, especially when combined with typical office therapy work.

More information on the Medicine Horse Center of Montana can be found online at http://artandcounseling.com/medicinehorsecenterofmontana.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.