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Healing world of a ‘Horse Whisperer’

Posted on February 3, 2012

By ALAN ERSKINE

GROWING up on a fruit block on the NSW side of Sunraysia, Jodie Alderton admits she spent more time with the farm animals than she did with humans.

HORSE-SENSE: Four-year-old Tyson, blinded in a paddock accident and saved from the knackery, instills confidence in vision-impaired visitors to Jodie Alderton’s Healing Hooves program.

She would sit for hours in a world of her own, telling little girl stories to the chooks, and looking after pet lambs, piglets, rabbits, lizards, turtles, dogs and cats….and the horses that were her favourites.

Jodie found she had a natural bond with horses, even the family’s big racing trotters that let her ride bareback, and especially her own pet pony Toby, who trusted her to walk safely through the house while her brother and his mates were watching TV.

More and more, horses were Jodie’s escape from the real world… she says she developed something of a ‘Dr Doolittle’ language that they seemed to understand, and now she is using that life-long connection in a unique horse-based bonding program that is helping at-risk children and adults on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

Returning to Mildura briefly to visit family and friends during the Christmas-New Year holidays, Jodie, 44, says her Harmony Hooves, Healing Hearts program has enjoyed remarkable success, helping people overcome phobias, low self-esteem, depression, anger problems and a range of anti-social behaviour.

Jodie says Mildura will always be her first home…this was where, as a keen world traveller, she helped pioneer the Sunraysia backpacker industry, but she says her new role is even more challenging and rewarding, with success stories that would fill a book.

One of the most moving is the story of Tyson, the four-year-old horse that was blinded in a paddock accident, and was to be put down before being adopted by Jodie to play a daily role in her programs. So much so that Tyson is now a key link to Jodie’s work with autistic children, and is also being ridden by the blind and visually-impaired.

“Animals have a calming influence on our emotions, and horses are particularly sensitive,” Jodie says. “They are the mirrors of our life. When we are angry or sad, the horse reflects that emotion back to us. Using horses, we can instantly see and understand what is going on in a child’s secret world.”

Jodie has been studying Animal Therapy and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy with trainers from the USA and doing her Diploma in Community Services and Counselling for the past seven years, combining her programs with running a successful bed and breakfast business.

Taking on a challenge is nothing new to Jodie. She says she learnt to be a survivor and an entrepreneur at an early age, regularly trapping and selling rabbits house to house to the folks of Gol Gol and Buronga, and doing the same with Murray perch in the days when fish were plentiful.

She remembers collecting cans and bottles to sell to the re-cycler, melting down battery lead to make sinkers for sale, and her first ‘real’ job as a 13-year-old ‘check-out chick’ at Coles. When she left school at 16, Jodie got what she called “a dream job” at Hammerton’s Jewellers in 8th street.

She taught herself to cook (“it was either that or starve”,) and credits her grandfather Brian Read, now 77 and still in the building game, as having been one of the greatest influences on her life. She remembers, at 17, telling him she wanted to buy a house.

When he told her he would go guarantor if she could save $10,000 for the deposit, Jodie got her third job, at Jackie’s Corner Chinese restaurant, and within a year she had the deposit, a loan, and a house.

She worked the three jobs for another three years, saving another $10,000 to fulfill another dream, to travel the world. Renting her house to a friend in 1988, Jodie left Australia on an eight-year odyssey, backpacking around the world, working where she could to help ends meet. This included being a deck-hand on a prawn trawler, waitressing at weddings in India, selling hot dogs in the streets of Chicago, and running a backpacker hostel in Hollywood.

It was here that she developed a lasting affinity with backpackers, opened one of the first hostels in Mildura more than 20 years ago, and has up to six backpackers from various overseas countries helping out with ‘Harmony Hooves’ at any one time.

“This work is a dream come true,” she said. “I have turned it into a learning centre and adventure playground where people can venture on holidays with their beloved pets. It may be a dog, cat, bird or a horse…every member of every family is welcome here.”

Jodie works closely with the Healing Hooves Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation with a dual purpose, rescuing horses from the slaughter-house, and providing quality connections between horses and humans, supporting personal growth and educational opportunities for children and adults.

“My daily life is more play than work,” she says. “It is probably the most rewarding thing I have ever done.

“I recently assisted two young Mildura mums who have autistic children, and growing up 20 years ago with a cousin who had an autistic child, I could identify with their needs and dreams and help them.

“We’ve had inquiries from many parts of Australia, and maybe there are more people in the Sunraysia region who would benefit from these programs. Being from my home town they’ll certainly get a discounted deal!”

Jodie can be contacted through www.harmonynatureretreat.com.au or email de_jodster@hotmail.com.

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