How horses are reshaping healing in Mount Duneed

SIX horses in Mount Duneed are helping people reconnect with their bodies through Yoga Farm’s somatic equine-assisted energy healing.

Yin yoga and meditation instructor Anna Rimmer, who founded Yoga Farm, has combined a lifelong connection with horses and more recently training in equine therapy training with energy healer Steph Sanzaro to develop the program.

What began as Rimmer’s home has evolved into a dedicated healing space, where yoga, meditation, somatic work and energy healing are offered alongside the horses.

“It just began as yoga,” Rimmer said. “And then someone introduced me to equine therapy.”

“I went to a two-hour info session, and just thought, ‘This is me. This is where I am supposed to be’.”

Through their own herd instincts, the horses work to ground the space and lower any anxious or negative energy. (From left) Ellie and Eddie. Photo: Nyah Barnes.

A typical session begins with grounding, before clients are guided to notice where emotion is held in the body and how the horses respond.

“[The horses] will come up and sometimes they lie down around the client,” Rimmer said. “It’s like they support them.

“They don’t hear the words, but they just go to where the toxic energy is.” Rimmer said the approach supports a wide range of people, helping them better understand and express what they are feeling.

No two sessions are the same, with the approach shifting to suit the individual.

“People come with trauma or neurodiversity, or they come through NDIS or [are] victims of crime, or different physical or mental emotional challenges,” Rimmer said.

Often the horses will gently approach clients or lie down next to them, picking up intuitively on their needs. (From left) Astro, Eddie, Ellie, Darcy, Fanta, Misty. Photo: Nyah Barnes.

She said the horses draw on their herd and survival instincts to help regulate clients’ nervous systems.

“They make you more grounded and more regulated,” Rimmer said. “The horses, they just contain the space, and they settle the space.”

Rimmer said her motivation is deeply personal, shaped by watching her mother struggle with trauma and mental health.

She wants Yoga Farm to be a place where people can arrive without shame or judgement and feel supported.

Sanzaro’s path to energy healing followed a major health crisis after travelling to India in 2019 for yoga teacher training. On her return, she had to rethink how she approached movement and recovery.

Yoga farm began as a yoga and healing centre and still offers yoga, meditation, and more. Photo: Nyah Barnes.

“My body dealt with chronic fatigue for years, and I found that my yoga practice had to move from a physical practice to something that I had to visualise,” Sanzaro said.

“I also found Yin yoga,” she said. “That changed me; it changed my nervous system.”

That experience led her into Reiki and energy healing, which she now blends with Rimmer’s somatic, equine-assisted work.

The pair said their work complements, rather than replaces, Western medicine by supporting the body’s natural healing processes.

For more information, visit yogafarm.com.au