With a herd attuned to human physiology, the founders of Ara Equus say their therapy helps clients find clarity, calm, and a truer sense of self
After about five years in the industry in Tweed, Ontario, Tina Penacchio and Susan Marie have brought Ara Equus to Carleton County.
The two co-founders are based in Bedell, near Woodstock. They moved to the area to provide the region with the psychological assistance Marie needed and couldn’t get when she lived in the Maritimes.
“We came back to the Maritimes to give back. The services are still not here that I needed in my early 30s to save my life. Coming to a region where there is a shortage of mental health practitioners, this is one of the reasons why we chose this particular region, because we could bring that, and help find what I didn’t have,” said Marie.
According to 2024 data from the Canadian Mental Health Association, there are approximately 700 to 800 mental health practitioners in New Brunswick, excluding social workers. The same article found that in Ontario, there are 1,600 per 100,000 residents.
The two hope to give back to the region by supporting those who seek their assistance. Pennacchio says it’s all about helping people embrace themselves and feel hopeful.
“Finding their voice is a way that’s not rooted in anger, or fear, or resentment, or anything that’s unresolved, but in a place where they can really shine for who they were meant to be, who they feel they actually are,” said Pennacchio.
The two started as Equine-Assisted Learning (EAL) facilitators but soon realized something was missing.
“Tina and I talked about it, and she decided she would go back to school and do her degree in counselling psychology and become a psychotherapist and merge that with the EAL training and the trauma training so that we could do this work in a different way than EAL. More scientifically, but also more therapeutically,” said Marie.
Together they created Ara Equus, a clinical therapy grounded in psychodynamic theory, somatic therapy, polyvagal therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), humanistic approaches, and neurobiology.
They focus on communication and consent with their horses. When their clients come, they make sure their four horses, Gus, Thunder, Raffy, and Chuck, and their donkey, Joey, come over to the clients on their own.
“They feel the energy. The prey instinct means that they can read humans, and they read what you’re bringing in. Even if you fake it and you try to be nice, that’s not going to work for them. They want you to feel what you’re feeling, and then they’re more likely to connect with you,” said Marie.
Penacchio says horses and donkeys can notice things in people that we humans are blind to.
“The horses are noticing it in your physiology. They’re responding to you in terms of your heartbeat and your breath. They’re reading your body language in a way that’s far more attuned than what humans generally do,” said Penacchio.
“Being a practitioner, I look for those things, and I have learned to identify them just in regular life, but oftentimes I miss them because I’m not a horse.”
The two believe equine therapy can be a gateway to unlocking the best version of yourself. Even if you didn’t know you needed help, the horses and donkey will reach in and lend a hoof and shoulder to cry on.
For more information, go to araequus.com.
