Lucero looks curiously at the newcomers. He walks around his companions and turns his attention back to strangers. “It’s a piece of junk, but we still want it,” presents Patricia Segredo, the president of Equino Sentido, the animal protector that rescues and fosters horses that have had a long life of service, to give them a golden retirement.
Next to Lucero, who in his case is passing through until his owner can visit him again after giving birth, is Madur or Mochi. In total there are nine horses, specifically two ponies, two mares, and five horses. All of them competed, they were on farms or in riding arenas where, “despite having an owner, they were not visited, something very cruel for any living being,” says Patricia. And it is that Equino Sentido, although it has a path as a normal equine center for 11 years, three years ago it adopted an unusual vision among those who work with horses, and that is to decide that these equines are not going to be ridden anymore, that they are free from reins, from irons in their mouths and, above all, that they are the ones who decide how they can help others, if they can help at all.
“For them it is also a job to be constantly going around, if it is a child or two it is an enjoyment, or if you ride your horse or your mare, with which you have a connection, as in a friendship or a couple. But when you use them constantly, even if it is to help others, it is true that you earn money, but I realized that I was hurting the horses”, says the president of Equino Sentido. Patricia explains how she came to this conclusion: “I have always been in contact with horses, since I was little. I loved riding and being with them, I rarely competed, because I felt bad in the field of seeing who is better than who. There came a time when I left it, I dedicated myself to studying Labor Relations and Human Resources. So I went back and detected a need, a problem, what was happening with the horses that were older, injured, and whose owners, even having resources, were not going to see them, locked up”.
He says that it was then that he began to study equine therapy in Barcelona. “I rode the children and the adults, as they taught me, very nice, but that equine therapy continues to use the horses. It is therapy for the children, for the parents, but not for the horses, which you can burn just as if they were jumping, raid or racing horses”.
It was then that he decided to create the association as it is now. “We have been working with humans and horses for 11 years, but we have made transformations, and the main thing is that we have not ridden them for three years, we registered as an association, which until then we were not.” The result is that “we have gained in physical and mental health, both the horses and us. Now we do equine therapy, which is also done in many parts of the world, which is grounded, non-invasive. It is a relationship of coexistence, contrary to obedience, because from the moment you mount a horse, you put reins, iron in the mouth, that relationship is one of submission and control.
“It was an awakening,” he says with a smile, while looking at Lucero who has returned to pry around the interview.
This way of dealing with equine therapy allows “if the horse is not receptive, it does not participate in the therapy. The horse decides if he is in a position to help someone or not. There are horses that do not want to be therapists, others do, and you have to see that difference. It’s like people, there are some who are willing to help you and others who are not in a position to do so. He adds that “if a physically and psychologically broken horse arrives here, it is very likely that he will not be able to help someone.”
He says that the horses that arrive at this refuge are usually equines injured in competition or sick horses. “Magec is veterinarily hopeless. He has equine diabetes. We have spent money that we did not have, until the vet told us to leave him and for him to live in peace for what he had left. There is no treatment for his wounds, which do not heal ”.
“There are also cases like Lucero’s -he continues-, who does not behave as well as the rest, although we love him very much, who belongs to a friend, who has just given birth, and cannot go to see him, and that for the animal is criminal, and he is here. She pays for her food and lives with us.
Patricia would love to provide more services like Lucero’s, but space is limited. “The Cabildo offered us a farm in Valle Tabares, in 2021, and 6,000 euros a year for nutrition, but we have not heard anything. It is painful. It is preferable that they do not tell us anything, ”she laments. And it is that the protector is in the middle of a hunting ground of the Cabildo, in Finca de España, La Laguna, with no possibility of expansion. “At first, the relationship was complicated, “but now we all get along well. We have made ourselves known and opened the doors, ”she says.
Therapies
Regarding the relationship that is fostered in Equino Sentido, it is that of being, being and presence. “It is what is called 3,000 pedagogy, in which the pedagogue Nidia Mendoza advises us, and it consists of taking into account the emotion of the other, both human and animal. We work with Apanate, Aspronte, Afes Salud Mental, Fundación Ideo with minors with judicial measures”.
Patricia says that “they are people who stopped believing in themselves, just as they stopped believing in horses, and they see themselves reflected in the fact that this other opportunity is possible. The improvement is notable and we don’t take more for physical and mental health, because being outdoors is what we want, but it also wears us out”.
To date, Equino Sentido has managed to rescue some twenty horses that it has placed in farms and rural hotels, in which “we have made sure that they are not put to use, at least to the extent that we can”, and clarifies: “I’m not saying it’s bad to ride, I love it, but when it’s your horse, when you have a bond with it and it’s very likely that it wants to take you.”
The last horse they have helped is a 25-year-old mare, champion of the Canary Islands. “They notified us so that we could pick it up, but we don’t have space, and with what the price of fodder has gone up, it’s impossible. We have found a man who has a farm and was looking for a horse for his grandchildren, and he is going there”.
The average life of a horse is about 45 years, although “they can leave at any time because their digestive systems are very delicate, and colic can take them away in a couple of hours,” explains Patricia.
The entities with which Equino Sentido works allow them to have the minimum income to run the shelter, but also donations, both in money and in kind. “We have the agreements, which allow us to have an income that allows us to maintain this. But still and everything, my parents, my brothers, my neighbors, lend a hand because you get three bad ones in a month and everything gets out of balance. Whoever wants to collaborate can sponsor the animals that live here, and they can come and see them. It is a way of having a horse looked after and they help us with their expenses, and everything is transparent. We also receive donations in kind, because maybe it is easier for someone to go to a wholesaler and send us a bale of straw, blankets, I think, we are open to everything”.
Equino Sentido also has the help of 40 volunteers. Asia Billanova, 18 years old, and Inmaculada Bencomo, 60, who is also the vice president of the association, are examples. Macu is 11 years old “by pinion”. “For me it is my life, they are part of my being, I move here as if I were part of the herd, it is a way of living, and the truth is that time stands still here, what is outside is something else” .
Asia, a Veterinary Assistant student, has discovered a world of tranquility. “I have always liked animals, all of them,” she says. “And when I got here I fell in love from the first second. Being here is forgetting everything else, it is calm, infinite serenity, ”she adds.
Patricia takes the opportunity to remember that volunteers are welcome “and if they know how to handle pallets, much more,” she says with a laugh.
“I hope that the Cabildo listens to us and lets us graze”
Patricia Segredo says that, given the lack of space they suffer, they have turned to the Cabildo to allow them to graze. “We are waiting to see if the Cabildo listens to us and lets us graze and release the horses. We don’t want anything, just to be able to release them to graze. For that there must be a series of permissions. There is an order in grazing, which is cow, horse and sheep, three levels of grazing that do not degrade the environment and prevent fires”.
