HILLIER, Ont. (02/24/18) — Liam Bonnell, 7, walks through a field of horses at the Heal With Horses ranch in Hillier, Ont. on Feb. 24, 2018. Liam was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disease (ASD). Heal With Horses offers him the possibility to interact with animals, and serves as a form of therapy, where the child has total control of where the horse he is riding goes and what the child does. Liam rides doubles with a second person and can get on or off whenever he wants. Liam goes to Heal With Horses once a week. His mother, Dana, said that this is his favorite day of the week and he always smiles at the end of his sessions. Photo by Andrej Ivanov
This image was taken at the Heal With Horses equine therapy ranch in Hillier, Ont. The original frame of this image was a bit crooked and included a part of Erin, one of the volunteers that accompanied him. I did not find that including Erin in the frame added anything to the frame, so I cropped her out. I followed Liam around while he was walking around the pasture where the horses were, and he did not really stop for any one particular horse.
He would go around saying hi to all the horses and move on to the next one. I did notice it the pattern but I wanted to capture an image of Liam with a horse that reflected what he was doing. The horse in the image is one that Liam did greet and moved on from, but then the horse got curious about and started walking towards me.
I kind of saw the opportunity to take a photo of Liam while not being on his horse. I did want to incorporate a horse in the photo, however, and I knew that I had to get on Liam’s height, so I kneeled a bit lower. I saw the horse approaching me and made sure to focus on Liam and made the photo.
This was shot as a part of a much larger body of images during that day. I spent the entire day at Heal With Horses, documenting the day there, and the different children that came for equine therapy. As Suzanne, the owner of Heal With Horses, explained to me, equine therapy involves having the person interacting with the horse. The horse has a calming presence, as it is a prey animal. Further to that, the animal also responds to the person’s mood and the person can then reflect on how they are feeling. The horse usually feels what the person is feeling before the person does, which is where the reflection portion can come in with certain patients. With others, such as Liam, it is a chance for him to have total control and to interact with the horse.
This initially started as an idea for a photo essay about the ranch, which is why the image is part of a much bigger body of that day. However, after I met Liam, I felt his story stood out more, and he stood out more as a character. Now, I am at the point of trying to build on that story further. When I started this, I started with the possibility that I may find other stories as I went along, and I feel that this is exactly what may be happening. To be continued.
