Anna survived a traumatic brain injury. Now she helps children with equine therapy
A horse accident left Anna Baigent unable to work in the racing industry. Instead she found companionship with the horses.
After surviving a traumatic brain injury in 2014 whilst working in the racing industry, Anna Baigent found her “lifeline” in a horse.
“I couldn't explain what I was going through, but he didn't need me to,” the 32-year-old says. Even simple tasks like eating and remembering became a challenge.
What started as a personal recovery journey evolved into equine therapy centre AnnaRehab, based in rural Pūkorokoro / Miranda, Thames, which gives retired racehorses a second lease of life and is transforming the lives of local tamariki who feel they don’t quite fit in.
Maria Baigent, right, says she's been mad about horses most of her life, so it's only natural her daughters followed along.
Supplied / AnnaRehab
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Anna incurred the injury when a horse was shaking its head to itch its ear and hit her by accident as she stood nearby.
“It was a delayed concussion so I bled into my brain for about 12 hours, that’s what did it. It was that pressure from that long brain bleed.”
Her mother, Maria, says she watched Anna doodle in her notebook as she struggled to get back on her feet.
“We thought that when she was going through this really horrible period in our family history, there was this tiny, tiny little spark of affection for this one particular horse. So I thought this could be the ‘in’ for Anna's healing,” Maria told Nine to Noon.
“We very quietly blew on that little ember, and we basically changed our property around our house, where the horses are, dramatically to facilitate.
“We just quietly extended an extra fence and put in an extra feed stall or something or rather. But we’ve reached our limit, we're pretty sure.”
Equine therapy: Anna Baigent's rehabilitation journey
Maria, who herself has been mad about horses most of her life, wanted the centre to be scientifically backed so flew to Sydney for a week to become a trained facilitator in equine assisted learning.
Although when they set up the centre they felt like “the lone voice crying in the wilderness”, that’s not the case anymore, Maria says.
“The feedback is phenomenal. If I had 50 cents for every teacher or teacher aide I saw with their jaws on the floor looking at the arena, I could probably spend the winter in Hawai'i.
“There's a very big renaissance across the country connecting children with horses. It's very exciting for us to see it.”
For some families, AnnaRehab is a last resort for their children, Maria says.
“You wouldn't think a smile could bring a parent to tears, but I've had a parent saying, I have not seen my son smile like that in years. And we've done nothing. It's just been the horse.”
Anna says horses are “incredibly emotionally attuned” and non-judgmental which helps children open up.
“As a youngish woman, it's hard for me to approach a boy or a man and be like, ‘talk to me about your feelings’, because we're in New Zealand and we do have that masculine culture of, ‘no, I'm not going to talk to you, a woman in her 20s, about my feelings, don't be ridiculous’.
“They might be quite shut down and quite sceptical and sort of, 'oh, this isn't going to be any good, I'm not going to get anything out of this'. Two or three sessions in, they don't stop talking and they're telling me everything about their days and they're just chatterboxes and you see them light up and you see the kid in them again.”
Each horse has its own character and miraculously seems to pair up with the child that’s right for them, Maria says.
“It leaves an indelible mark on their hearts, on their souls. It's like it's just magic,” she says.
The horses sometimes get a bit jealous over who’s helping the kids.
“The horses have conveniently split themselves into two groups. Now, Thursday group will hang over the fence and complain like mad because Tuesday group's in the arena. And then vice versa,” Maria says.
“You would think after six or seven years of working in this kind of way, we'd be facing maybe some arena sow or maybe some, ‘nah, don't want to go today’. But we've never seen it. Never. They never not want to come in and work with the kids. It's just phenomenal.”
The programme - which focuses on practical skills like taking a horse’s pulse and temperature, grooming, bandaging legs, leading them through obstacles - is designed to be one-off but some students stick around for years, with some now helping run the place too, Anna says.
The horses ‘stoked for retirement’
Passing Shot and Honey
Passing Shot and Amnesty's child, who is called Honey, live together. “They're a very bonded pair and they are the quietest horses I'd say we have here,” Anna says. “They're really good with brand new kids who've never touched a horse before and might be absolutely bricking themselves. They are just really empathetic, really quiet.”
Supplied / AnnaRehab
Amnesty's child, Honey.
Supplied / AnnaRehab
Sexabeel
“He's good with our babies. He likes our smallest clients, just the tiniest children [and] he's in. Those are his favourite.”
Supplied / AnnaRehab
Seize the Moment
“He really has embraced the concept of retirement and does not want to do anything ever. So if we've got a kid that just wants to brush and talk quietly in a corner somewhere, he's the perfect horse for that because he's not going to go anywhere or do anything.”
Supplied / AnnaRehab
Dubai Shuffle
“If we've got a client that does want a bit of get up and go, Dubai Shuffle is still so willing to please. He does some low-level jumping, really sweet horse, but he actually does have a bit of momentum to him, which is nice because as I've said, the rest of them, they really like being retired. They're stoked for retirement.”
Supplied / AnnaRehab
Rocanto
“He's done wonders with our teenagers. He loves our teens and he's good to play with
“Again, he's not great if you want to get some speed out of him because he refuses to move, but you can do the carrot on a stick game with him and you can throw medicine balls all around him and flags and all sorts and he's quite keen just to have a play, which is nice.”
Supplied / AnnaRehab
Glorious Lad
“He is, again, incredibly gentle. So we'd bring him in for our nervous kids because he's very quiet.”
Supplied / AnnaRehab
Global Currency
Global was a racehorse who retired due to a tendon injury. But when he bounced back quickly, his trainer asked for him again. Anna agreed on condition her “baby” would return to her, and he eventually did when he retired again earlier this year.
“Because he’d been out with us before, for about a year, he just fit right back in. He was with kids the day he arrived and then the day after he arrived, I had my gateway students – all six high school students – and they were all over him.”
Supplied / AnnaRehab
